The ''Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv'' was a statue dedicated to

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

, the founder of the Soviet Union in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

, the capital of Ukraine. The larger than life-size (3.45 meters 1.32 feet Lenin monument was built by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

sculptor

Sergey Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov (russian: Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров, – 8 June 1952) was a prominent Soviet sculptor-monumentalist of Greek-Armenian descent. He was a People's Artist of the USSR, an academic at the ...

from the same red Karelian stone as

Lenin's Mausoleum Lenin's Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum) ( rus, links=no, Мавзолей Ленина, r=Mavzoley Lenina, p=məvzɐˈlʲej ˈlʲenʲɪnə), also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, i ...

. It was displayed at the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purc ...

and erected on Kyiv's main

Khreshchatyk Street Khreshchatyk ( uk, Хрещатик, ) is the main street of Kyiv, Ukraine. The street has a length of . It stretches from the European Square (northeast) through the Maidan and to Bessarabska Square (southwest) where the Besarabsky Market i ...

(at the intersection of Shevchenko Boulevard, opposite the

Bessarabsky Market The Besarabsky Market ( uk, Бесарабський ринок, ''Besarabs'kyi rynok''), also referred to as the Besarabka ( uk, Бесарабка), is an indoor market located in the center of Kyiv on the Bessarabska Square at the southwest ...

) on 5 December 1946. The statue was toppled from its pedestal and crushed by protesters on 8 December 2013, as part of the

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhno ...

events, when many other Soviet statues were toppled. The plinth remains in place, and has become at times a site of political artwork, and arguments. Since 2016 various sculptures or installations have been exhibitioned in front of the plinth.A new sculpture was erected on the site of the monument to Lenin in Kyiv

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...

. 30 October 2019In the center of Kyiv installed a new sculpture, Ukrainians are not thrilled: "Shackles of power united by a layer"
ZNAJ.UA. 30 October 2019 Since 2015 (all) monuments connected with communist themes and/or persons are illegal in Ukraine.

Post-Soviet period

According to the decree of the former

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. As an informal leader of th ...

, this monument of the Soviet Union and the associated Communist period should have been removed after Ukraine gained independence.Про заходи у зв'язку з 75-ми роковинами Голодомору 1932 – 1933 років в Україні
decree of the President of Ukraine № 250/2007 Nevertheless, due to the resistance of the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

, whose members were elected to

Verhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

, the last Kyiv monument to Lenin was left standing. Since the fall of Soviet rule, the monument survived numerous

vandalizing Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...

attempts which led to both increased

policing The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

of the area and frequent vigilance by Communist activists.

Demolition

On 1 December 2013 a group of masked men attempted to topple the statue during the surge of the

protests. Police immediately reacted by deploying a small Berkut

riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organize ...

unit which was attacked, overwhelmed and forced to flee. Euromaidan leaders immediately denounced both the monument attempt and the clash with police as an action of unaffiliated "provocateurs". Subsequently, on 8 December 2013, several Ukrainian individuals subsequently claimed to be affiliated with the Svoboda political party toppled the statue, as Kyiv police silently looked on. The statue then broke from impact with the ground. After the fall of the Lenin statue the crowd began to sing the

national anthem of Ukraine "" ( uk, Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля, , lit=The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished), also known by its official title of "State Anthem of Ukraine" (, ') or by its shortened form "" (, ), is the ...

. Later, pieces of the monument were picked up by protesters as

souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

Response

The removal or destruction of Lenin monuments and statues gained particular momentum after the destruction of the Kyiv Lenin statue. Under the motto "Ленінопад" (

Leninopad The demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine started during the fall of the Soviet Union and continued to a small extent throughout the 1990s, mostly in some western Ukrainian towns, though by 2013 most Lenin statues in Ukraine remain ...

, translated into English as "Leninfall"), activists pulled down a dozen communist monuments in the Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, and elsewhere, or damaged them during the course of the EuroMaidan protests into spring of 2014. In other cities and towns, monuments were removed by organised heavy equipment and transported to scrapyards or dumps.

Political response

A member of the Ukrainian parliament from the party UDAR, Valeriy Karpuntsov, announced that Ukrainian police had started arrests of people present in the area during the fall of the last monument to Lenin in Kyiv. The governor of

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast ( uk, Харківська́ о́бласть, translit=Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna ( uk, Ха́рківщина), is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luh ...

Mykhailo Dobkin Mykhailo Markovych Dobkinrussian: Михаил Маркович Добкин, translit=Mikhail Markovich Dobkin (born 26 January 1970) is a Ukrainian politician, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast, former mayor of Kharkiv,

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

on 8 December 2013 about starting a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...

campaign to restore the monument: "Tomorrow I will open the account for restoration of the monument to Lenin in Kyiv… Everybody, who hates Hutsuls for their stupidity, join". He stated that he would allocate the sum of ₴100,000 for the restoration of the monument.

Public opinion

Most residents of Kyiv (69%) had a negative attitude to the removal of Lenin's monument during the mass protest actions, while 13% had a positive attitude and 15% remained indifferent.

Notable figures

*Singer

Ruslana Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko ( uk, Руслана Степанівна Лижичко, ''Ruslana Lyzhychko''; born 24 May 1973), known mononymously as Ruslana, is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holdi ...

(one of the leading figures of the protests) was critical of the event, saying, "We do not need any barbaric actions. We condemn acts of vandalism, savagery, violence and anything that can divide and split Ukraine ..doubling monuments and calls for aggression is nothing but a movement in the opposite direction of European integration and humane society."

Later use of the site

On 15 May 2015,

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...

signed a bill into law that started a six-month period for the removal of all communist themed monuments in Ukraine.Poroshenko signed the laws about decomunization

. 15 May 2015Poroshenko signs laws on denouncing Communist, Nazi regimes

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company publishes i ...

. 15 May 20Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

(14 April 2015) Although the statue has been removed, the monument's plinth has remained in place. This plinth has become at times a site of political artwork, and arguments. Since 2016 various sculptures or installations have been exhibitioned in front of the plinth.

Gallery

References

External links

Full Video of Protesters In Kyiv Toppling, Decapitating Lenin StatueUkraine Protest: Tearing Down Lenin's Statue in Kyiv – New York TimesBBC , Ukraine commits statue-cideMap of Lenin statues decapitated or totally fallen during the Leninopad in Ukraine
{{Coord, 50.4425, N, 30.5194, E, source:wikidata, display=title Euromaidan 2013 in Ukraine Demolished buildings and structures in Kyiv History of Kyiv Monuments and memorials in Kyiv Statues in Ukraine Destroyed sculptures 1946 sculptures Monuments and memorials to Vladimir Lenin Russians in Ukraine Sculptures in the Soviet Union Buildings and structures demolished in 2013 Vandalized works of art Decommunization in Ukraine Outdoor sculptures in Ukraine 1946 establishments in Ukraine 2013 disestablishments in Ukraine Sculptures of men in Ukraine Lenin, Vladimir in Kiev Statues removed in 2013