Ukraine topples its biggest remaining Lenin statue
A
monument of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin — wearing with a
Ukrainian traditional shirt — stands in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, Oct. 4,
2014. Reuters
It
took two days and a giant crane, but Ukraine on Thursday finally
managed to lift its biggest remaining statue of Soviet founder Lenin off
its pedestal and consign it to the dustbins of history.
The 20-meter-tall (65-foot-tall) bronze and granite
monument fell victim to a Ukrainian ban on Soviet symbols that was
imposed in May 2015 as part of the Russian neighbor's drive toward
closer relations with the European Union.
The Lenin who suffered his ignoble fate in the
southeastern city of Zaporizhia weighed 40 tons and was one of about
2,500 similar statues scattered across the country since its Soviet
days.
Most of those have since been toppled, with Ukraine's tallest Lenin in the city of Kharkiv
falling in September 2014, seven months after the ouster the
pro-Russian leadership in Kiev and the country's tilt toward the West.
The Zaporizhia Lenin's removal was livestreamed by major websites when the operation began.
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