Replace Lenin on a pedestal

Ukrainians got the opportunity to stand on a former pedestal of the monument to Lenin. And tell about your feelings

Andrei Turchenko was only seven or eight years old, when in the early 1990s his father led him to the Lenin monument, erected on Shevchenko Boulevard in Kyiv to tell about the Bolshevik leaders. As Turchenko recalls, his father experienced nostalgia for Soviet times. This week, Turchchenko again came to the boulevard, but with his own five -year -old son Alexander - to teach him his own lesson in history. And make a selfie where for 67 years there was a statue of Lenin.

Now it is gone - the monument was demolished by the participants of the Euromaidan in 2013. A staircase is assigned to an empty pedestal, and anyone can climb on him, stand in the place of Lenin and tell about their feelings. For Andrei and Alexander Turchchenko, photography became a symbol of the liberation of their homeland. "I told my son that the absence of Lenin means that Ukraine is now free," says Andrei.

The idea of an artistic live installation called "Mining in the Shadow" belongs to Mexican Cynthia Gutierres . Its goal, Synthia tells, "initiate a discussion and reflections on historical memory, a collapsed system, void, self -identification and occupied by space." The organizer was the Center for Cultural Initiatives "isolation", forced to move from Donetsk to Kyiv after fighting began in the Donbass in 2014. “Everced in the Shadow” - part of the large exposition project “Social Contract”, dedicated to public symbolism in Ukraine. The exhibition will operate in the Center "isolation" until August 24.

The statue of Lenin on Shevchenko Boulevard was demolished by Maidan activists and fragmented into pieces on December 8, 2013. For many Ukrainians, this event has become a symbol of the desire of Ukraine to pursue a policy independent of Moscow and its citizens to determine their fate by themselves. More than 1,200 statues and Lenin’s busts were demolished throughout the country - the process of getting rid of the monuments of the leader of the world proletariat in Ukraine was called the Leninopad . The desire for the decommunization of Ukraine, the liberation from the Soviet heritage includes not only the demolition of the monuments - several dozen cities, streets, and squares are renamed in the country. Symbols of the communist era are removed from the facades of buildings - such as crossed sickle and hammer.

But not everyone likes decommunization, especially in the east of Ukraine, where relations with Russia are traditionally strong. Pensioners who recall the Soviet Union with nostalgia say that the authorities are trying to erase the memory of their past. Other opponents of decommunization believe that it is impossible to change the names and appearance of cities without public discussion, and blame those who conduct it to use the same methods that they themselves ardently condemn.

Ekaterina Filyuk, who oversees the projects “Everced in the Shadow” and “Social Contract”, believes that the current live installation on Shevchenko Boulevard contributes to a dialogue on the topic of decommunization. The organizers of the Social Contract project received more than twenty proposals from around the world, but they chose the proposal of Gutierres, because, as Ekaterina Filyuk emphasizes, it was not about replacing Lenin with something or by someone, but to create a new platform that allows people to speak, evaluate their past, try to get rid of some aspects of this past.

Goodbye, Lenin

In general, the project "Mining in the Shadow" was met quite benevolent. One elderly woman recalled how she gave a pioneer promise in this place 60 years ago. “Well, the current action is a great opportunity for me to tell Lenin“ goodbye, ”she said.

There are those who believe that the installation spoils the aesthetic appearance of the Shevchenko Boulevard. Filyuk agrees that she does not look particularly attractive, but emphasizes that the main thing is not.

To demolish the monument to Lenin, it took an iron cable and several minutes. But the discussion about who or what can fill the empty pedestal lasts two years and far from the end. In February 2014, the Golden toilet was established for a short while - this was a reaction to the news that the residence of the President Viktor Yanukovych, who had fled from Ukraine, during which state corruption acquired a special scope, was discovered, a toilet of gold was discovered.

At the very beginning of July this year, shortly before the start of the current installation, a column appeared on the pedestal, crowned with the small statue of the Virgin Mary. But she was removed. The city authorities have not yet succeeded in choosing an option that would satisfy all the layers of Ukrainian society. But, as Ekaterina Filyuk believes, you should not rush with this. “An empty pedestal is also a very powerful symbol,” she is sure.

And Andrei Turchchenko, who came here with his son, offers to use the former pedestal of Lenin for temporary exhibitions: "Let them change while we are changing."