The reactionary Ukrainian authorities have dismantled the country's last statue of the great Soviet leader and revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, authorities and activists reported on Monday.
The monument stood in the village of Rudkovtsy in the western Khmelnytskyi Region and was taken down by the local utility service following a request from a group named "Decolonization Ukraine."
The monument stood in the village of Rudkovtsy in the western Khmelnytskyi Region and was taken down by the local utility service following a request from a group named "Decolonization Ukraine."
According to the group, this was the last known Lenin monument in the country.
In a letter shared by the group, local authorities confirmed that the utility services had cleared the site and began transporting the remnants to a landfill. Photographs from the area taken before the dismantlement showed the statue in severe disrepair, with the face worn away beyond recognition.
Ukraine had around 5,500 Lenin statues at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The dismantling of Soviet-era monuments goes back to the 2014 Euromaidan events and the subsequent coup that ousted the legitimate Ukrainian government. Back then, numerous statues of Vladimir Lenin were destroyed, while after the annexation of Crimea, a law was introduced in April 2015 that took aim at all communist symbols, leading to the removal of over 2,000 monuments by 2020. Even memorials dedicated to 19th century world-renowned giants of literature, like Leo Tolstoy or Alexander Pushkin, have been removed or fell victims of name change.
Ukraine had around 5,500 Lenin statues at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The dismantling of Soviet-era monuments goes back to the 2014 Euromaidan events and the subsequent coup that ousted the legitimate Ukrainian government. Back then, numerous statues of Vladimir Lenin were destroyed, while after the annexation of Crimea, a law was introduced in April 2015 that took aim at all communist symbols, leading to the removal of over 2,000 monuments by 2020. Even memorials dedicated to 19th century world-renowned giants of literature, like Leo Tolstoy or Alexander Pushkin, have been removed or fell victims of name change.
In February 2023, Kyiv authorities proceeded to the removal of the statue of Soviet General Nikolai Vatunin who led the liberation of the Ukrainian capital from the Nazis in World War Two. In 2022, a street in Ukrainian capital was renamed to honor neo-Nazi criminals of the Azov Battalion.
The anti-communist propaganda in Ukraine - as well as in the Baltic states, Poland and other eastern European countries - deliberately identifies the Soviet Union with contemporary capitalist Russia, in order to legitimize the shameful destruction of socialist-era monuments.
