Follow the Red "Grand Chief"

In Soviet Union, the statues and monuments of the revolutionary and the first political leader of the Russian SFSR Vladimir Ulyanov(better known by the nom de plume Vladimir Lenin) were installed in every city. Ukraine was not the exclusion with its couple thousands of Lenins. But there was a deep difference between its Western – with Lenins only in cities – part and Eastern, where every tiny town and village had its own Lenin.

  • Beheaded monument of Vladimir Lenin is seen in front of the office building of St. Elias Machinery Plant at Donetsk region.
  • A statue of Vladimir Lenin is seen as a pigeon flies by. Zaporizhzhya.
  • People pass by a Soviet coat-of-arms statue in the eastern town of Krasnoarmiysk.
  • Lenin monument is seen in front of the city council in Izum, Kharkiv region.
  • Krasnoarmiysk is the only town at Donbass which hadn't had Lenin monument until 2012. Now it has only basement after the monument was downed in the middle of 2014
  • a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the eastern town of Artemivsk.
  • A tomb where the statue of Vladimir Lenin used to be in Berdiansk, Donbas.
  • Monument for the chief of the Soviet secret police Felix Dzerzhynski at Donbass
  • Lenin monument is seen in front of the city council in Selidove, Donbas region.
  • Monument for soviet worker at Donbass
  • People pass by a statue of Vladimir Lenin painted a Ukrainian national flag yellow-blue color in the eastern town of Velyka Novoselivka, Donbas.
  • Lenin monument in Zaporizhia was the biggest in Ukraine. It was demolished after 29 hours of dismantling on March 17, 2016.
  • Soviet coat-of-arms statue in the eastern town of Krasnoarmiysk.
  • Soviet era symbols. One of the most fancy USSR cars GAZ-21 "Volga" passes the bridge through the Dnipro river built after WWII
  • A statue of Vladimir Lenin painted a Ukrainian national flag yellow-blue color in the eastern town of Velyka Novoselivka, Donbas.
  • People pass by a tomb where the statue of Vladimir Lenin used to be in Berdiansk, Donbas.
  • Lenin monument is seen in front of the city council in Izum, Kharkiv region.
  • A lamp-post with a red star on its basement is seen in front of the little factory in the eastern Ukraine.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western Ukraine “lost” its “Grand Chiefs”. It were the real Fests for locals in every city to torn the monument down. They gathered in huge mobs, they tied the monument with ropes, and pulled it down with trucks, tractors and own hands. With music, dancing and applauses. Within 1991-1992 all the Lenins disappeared at the West. 

The second wave of demolitions during mass protests in the winter of 2013-2014. also touched upon the Central, Northern, Southern and partly Eastern Ukraine.

But it’s all not about Eastern Ukraine. In fact – far Ukrainian East. In this region, as it has happened to former Soviet Russia and Belarus, many USSR era monuments remain, and some new ones have been erected. Soviet era monument became ideological guideline.

There are still more than 150 Vladimir Lenin monuments remains.

Historically people has used to live under the hard totalitarian pressure there. Birth – school – college – nearest coal mine/smeltery – death. This is the average life line. And they cannot lose their last “Grand Chief”.