Kharkiv says good bye to largest Lenin statue in Ukraine

On September 28, the largest Lenin monument in Ukraine located in Kharkiv, the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial Eastern Ukrainian city, saw its last day as a group of patriotic youth continued to celebrate a pro-Ukrainian rally at Europe’s largest square, ploscha Svobody, by toppling the Lenin monument that had been standing there since 1963. Nationalists inscribed “Glory to Ukraine” on the pedestal with a rotary hammer. While the rally was taking place, Kharkiv governor Ihor Baluta signed an order to dismantle the Lenin statue. It was toppled close to 10:30 PM on September 28.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WGKJW7V3fo

The statue marks number 390 in wikipedia’s list of “Raining Lenins,” starting from November 2013. The dismantling of Kyiv’s Lenin statue on December 8, 2013, sparked a wave of massive Lenin demolitions in Central Ukraine, which received a second breath after the announcements of the first deaths of Maidan protesters in Kyiv. In toppling the statues, protesters state that they “remove symbols of totalitarianism from their settlements and open the way to a renewed Ukraine.” The police, for their part, do not open criminal proceedings on the fact of hooliganism.

leninmap — Map of toppled Lenin statues since November 2013, as of September 28. http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ленінопад

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