Moscow Activists Mark Lenin’s Birthday With Calls to Take Down Statue

April 22, 2019

Anti-Communist activists have made a visual call to take down Moscow's largest surviving statue of Lenin on the Soviet leader’s 149th birthday.

Several republics of the former Soviet Union have dismantled and replaced Lenin statues since the USSR collapsed in 1991. Russian politicians have continued to debate whether to bury Lenin’s body or preserve it in its mausoleum on Red Square.

“Subject to dismantlement as part of decommunization,” read the banner placed on the statue’s base on Monday.

The banner was taken down 10 minutes after it was installed, the Dozhd TV news channel reported.

Last year, a fight erupted between members of one of Russia’s communist parties and local municipal politicians over proposals to move his statue on Kaluzhskaya Ploshchad.

Conservative lawmaker Natalia Poklonskaya joined several high-profile figures in calling for Lenin’s body to be buried, describing it as “a relic that’s pulling us behind” on Monday.

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