Turning the pages back... September 8, 1991 (09/03/06)

Turning the pages back...

September 8, 1991

As we celebrate 15 years of Ukraine's independence, we are reminded of the Soviet-era monuments that have been destroyed since Ukraine gained its independence. Most notably, the front page of The Weekly 15 years ago carried an article on the scheduled dismantling of the 1,000-ton statue of Lenin in Kyiv's city center.

On Thursday, September 5, Oleksander Mosiyuk, acting mayor of Kyiv, announced that the project to dismantle the statue of Lenin would begin on Monday, September 9. The decision came when the Kyiv City Council voted on August 26 to remove that statue from October Revolution Square, which was renamed Independence Square.

The City Council talked of using explosives on the monument, but being that the foundation of the monument was built into the metro station below it, an alternative plan was devised.

Built in 1980, the 1,000-ton monument was made of 15 blocks divided by 15 rods and was taken apart block-by-block, over a period of several months. The monument's head alone weighed 15 tons.

Mayor Mosiyuk also announced the renaming of six streets in Kyiv including Kirov Street, where the Parliament building is located, which was renamed Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street, after the first president of Ukraine in 1918.

In other Ukrainian cities it was much the same. In Pidvolchynsk, the statue of Lenin came down on August 25, and the next day the statue of Lenin came down in Monastyrsk. In Kremenets there was a meeting demanding that the city and regional committees dismantle the Lenin monuments. Crowds in Khmelnytsky also demanded that Lenin monuments be demolished. In Rivne a meeting of the City Council was called to decide the question of dismantling Lenin, but not all of the Communist members of the council were present, thus a quorum was lacking. Nevertheless, more than 80 deputies voted to demolish it.

Source: "1,000-ton Lenin to be dismantled," by Chrystyna N. Lapychak, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 8, 1991, Vol. LIX, No. 36.

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