Toppling of Lenin monument in Kyiv evokes mixed feelings

Leader of Communist Party faction Petro Symonenko called the demolition of the Lenin monument on Sunday not just act of vandalism, but evidence that the initiators of present protests want to stir up hatred and destroy Ukraine’s nationality by any means, including up to its territorial separation.

MP and deputy head of Regions Party faction Oleh Tsariov had the same opinion, saying that the incident was a shameful act of vandalism.

“European integrators today seem like swarms of barbarians, who burst into a civilized city and start to set their rules there. Fascists will do the same after bursting into a city – first of all they destroy the monument to Lenin. However Kyiv citizens regard the Communist ideology, this monument is still part of their life, part of their childhood, youth. They laid flowers at this monument during wedding ceremonies, their children and grandparents were accepted into the pioneers near this monument. This monument is an integral, recognized part of the common architectural look of the city,” he said.

Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov also condemned the toppling of the Lenin monument on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, saying that this was vandalism that had nothing in common with democracy.

However, the Svoboda Party saw the demolition of the Lenin monument in the Kyiv downtown as a symbol of the end of the Soviet occupation and a start o the decolonization of Ukraine.

“This is a way passed by all the eastern European countries and Western Ukraine at the beginning of 1990. It’s impossible to build developed legal state without shaking off the colonial yoke,” Svoboda’s press service quotes its member Yuriy Surotiuk as saying.

He said the monument to Lenin in the centre of Kyiv symbolized the humiliation of Ukrainians, and its demolition was a farewell to the totalitarian past.

International public figures also expressed support for the demolition.

For example, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Vladimir Lenin was one of the bloodiest tyrants of the 20th century and that he was happy about the demolition of a monument to him in Kyiv.

“Some may think this is not diplomatic, but Lenin was one of the bloodiest tyrants of the twentieth century and I’m pleased that there will be no statue [of Lenin] in another European capital,” he said in an interview with Polish television channel TVN24.

According to Sikorski, toppling of Lenin statue could symbolize the “de-Sovietization of Ukraine.”

At the same time, the Polish Foreign Minister warned against excessive euphoria over the destruction of the monument, which may prove costly in future.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said, in turn, he hopes that Soviet relics in people’s minds in Ukraine will disappear together with the Lenin statue toppled in Kyiv on Sunday evening.

“[It’s] important that together with the Lenin statue in Kyiv, all Soviet relics in people’s minds in Ukraine disappear – as happened in Vilnius once…,” Linkevicius wrote on his Twitter page.

Meanwhile, after the demolition of the monument, its parts have been put on sale on the Internet. Some parts are going for Hr 50 per kilogram.

As reported, a group of unidentified people on the evening of Sunday, December 8, pulled down the statue of Lenin from its pedestal in central Kyiv. The police have opened criminal proceedings under Part 1, Article 294 (riots) of the Criminal Code following to the demolition of the monument to Lenin on Besarabska Square in Kyiv.