DONETSK, Ukraine -- Thousands of pro-Ukrainian demonstrators in the eastern city of Kharkiv toppled a massive monument to former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin on Sunday.
In a scene reminiscent of the Euromaidan Revolution last winter, protesters surrounded the massive statue at Kharkiv’s Freedom Square and cheered in support as a man with an angle grinder sawed off one of Lenin’s legs. Then the crowd wrenched the ex-head of state’s likeness to the ground with ropes.
Lenin has become a highly divisive figure in this former Soviet republic, where a six-month-long war that Kiev and the West say is backed by Russia has raged in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Goodbye #Lenin in #Kharkiv. But does this help resolve anything in #Ukraine? pic.twitter.com/eZx8LNO5Bi”— Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) September 28, 2014
Demonstrators earlier were threatened with five years in prison for attempting to tear down the monument, according to a post on the Interior Ministry’s website, which was later deleted.
Protesters in #Kharkiv are toppling Lenin. Police threaten perps w/ 5 yrs, but not stepping in http://t.co/EouEKc52D3 pic.twitter.com/HFwaJYPOYp— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) September 28, 2014
But just moments before Lenin fell, Kharkiv Regional Governor Ihor Baluta reportedly signed an order for the statue’s removal in what was likely a last-minute face-saving move.
BREAKING #Kharkiv region governor Ihor Baluta signs an order to dismantle the Lenin statue pic via @Gerashchenko7 pic.twitter.com/lfXhAAAxCz— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) September 28, 2014
Ukraine’s interior minister, who came out in support of the event, clarified in a post on Facebook that charges would not be sought against the protesters.
“Lenin? Let him fall,” the interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote. “As long as people aren’t hurt. As long as this bloody communist idol does not take more victims with it when it goes.”
Pro-Russian separatists defended the monument -- one of the largest of Lenin in the world -- in February after former Russian-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by anti-government protesters.
The incident is likely to outrage people in the predominately Russian-speaking war-torn east who believe Kiev has persecuted them instead of reaching out to them during the conflict, and who view Lenin as a hero.
It will also likely play into the hands of Russian propagandists, especially given the involvement of right-wing nationalist groups in the protest.
Donning face masks, a group of nationalists used a jackhammer to carve messages into the side of the monument: the phrase “Glory to Ukraine,” a slogan associated with the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army of World War II but adopted by pro-Ukrainian protesters during this year’s revolution, and the “wolfsangel,” a symbol used widely by the Nazis.
Oh look. The wolfsangel. RT @MaximEristavi: At Kharkiv's Lenin monument earlier today, via @HromadskeTV pic.twitter.com/Gjfff0Mrdp— Simon Kruse (@crusoes) September 28, 2014
Some 168 Lenin monuments have been destroyed in Ukraine since the first was felled in the capital of Kiev last December, according to the website LeninStatues.ru, which documents each case with photographs.
Kharkiv is doing what Moscow did in 1991 - destroying idols instead of building institutions. In 23 years it will be where Moscow is now.— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) September 28, 2014