Smashing Statues of Lenin in Ukraine Will Breed Anger, Not Reconciliation

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Justinian A. Jampol

Protestors in Ukraine smashing statue of Lenin. Courtesy of NBC News.

As Ukraine’s president fled Kiev and protesters roamed his mansion and took over the capital, old statues of Vladimir Lenin were toppled and dragged through the streets in several Ukrainian cities. As the Soviet Union crumbled in the late 1980s and early 1990s, images of Lenin were defaced and graffiti artists mocked the Communist Party. Subverting icons of authority to demonstrate the state’s lack of control over its own symbols has often been very effective. Likewise, mocking the seriousness of those symbols to undermine the visual threats that many regimes rely on to maintain order has long been a useful tool for protesters. But the destruction or removal of symbols as a means of national reconciliation, building consensus, or cultivating a new collective memory is rarely successful. [link]