Poroshenko: Nearly 1,500 monuments to Lenin were demolished in Ukraine
Ukraine’s de-communization program ensured the destruction of 1,500 monuments to Vladimir Lenin, stated President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on his official website on the Memorial Day for victims of political repression.
Poroshenko noted that at the end of 2013, Ukraine "looked like a textbook illustration of the history of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union]" and the cities, towns and villages of the country were "studded with idols of Lenin and his comrades" while the members of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) were not recognized as "fighters for independence of Ukraine."
However, as noted by the Head of state, "the Revolution of Dignity" or the events in Kyiv in the winter of 2013-2014 "secured powerful public support for all the actions of the new Ukrainian authorities in the humanitarian policy and the policy of Ukrainian memory." Therefore, in accordance with the law on de-communization, adopted in May 2015, 52,000 streets and squares throughout Ukraine were renamed. "Almost one and a half thousand monuments to Lenin have been toppled," Poroshenko stressed.
Ukraine had about 5,500 monuments to Lenin in 1991. By 2013, 3,200 sculptures, monuments and busts to the Head of the Soviet state were destroyed. Following the events of Euromaidan in the winter of 2013, citizens initiated a spontaneous demolition of the remaining monuments to Lenin in the major population centers including Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, in an event that came to be known as "Leninfall."
At the time of the adoption of the law "On the Condemnation of the Communist and National-Socialist Totalitarian Regimes" in May 2015, the initiative was taken to dismantle another 778 monuments to Lenin. From 2015 onwards, this process has been governed by law. A year later, at the end of the summer of 2016, the Ukrainian authorities reported the demolition of another 1,200 monuments to Lenin.