‘Good bye, Lenin’: Last Lenin statue removed in Finland over Russian invasion of Ukraine

by

The removal of the Lenin statue was the latest in a series of removals of Soviet monuments in Finland.

Finland’s last Lenin statue was removed today from a city in the country’s southeast, where the removal of monuments linked to the USSR has multiplied since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Nordic country’s application to join NATO.

Dozens of people went to watch this event in the city of Kotka, some with champagne.

The bronze statue of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the last standing in Finland – a country bordering Russia – was lifted by a crane and then unloaded onto a truck, an AFP journalist reported.

A man, sitting alone on a bench, expressed his opposition to the removal of the statue, holding a flag of the former Soviet Union.

“Removing the statue of the founder of one of the world’s most brutal regimes, Soviet communism, from the streets is a great thing,” Matti Leukkonen, 77, who was in the crowd, told AFP.

The statue, which depicts Lenin in a contemplative pose with his hand on his cheek, “had become dear to some, or at least familiar,” said Kotka’s director of municipal services, Marko Hannonen. But many called for his removal “because it reflects a period of repression in Finnish history”.

Finland, after two bloody wars against the USSR during World War II, had accepted forced neutrality during the Cold War in exchange for assurances that it would not be invaded by Moscow again. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this policy went down in history as “Finlandization”.

The Lenin statue was donated to the city of Kotka in 1979 by the Estonian municipality of Tallinn, then in the sphere of influence of the USSR. It had been vandalized on several occasions, and Helsinki had apologized to Moscow when one of the statue’s arms was painted red, the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper said.

The removal of the Lenin statue was the latest in a series of removals of Soviet monuments in Finland. In April, the city of Turku (southwest) decided to remove a bust of Lenin from the central point because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In August, Helsinki removed a bronze statue titled “World Peace” donated by Moscow in 1990.

After decades of neutrality, Finland decided to apply for NATO membership in May as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The country’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, together with Sweden, still remains to be ratified by two NATO members: Hungary and Turkey.

RES-EMP

You May Also Like

Recommended for you