21:11 08.12.2013

Unidentified people topple Lenin statue in Kyiv at second attempt within one week

2 min read
Unidentified people topple Lenin statue in Kyiv at second attempt within one week

A group of unidentified people on Sunday evening tore down a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin from its pedestal in central Kyiv, the Kyiv police's press service told Interfax-Ukraine.

"A group of unidentified masked men surrounded the monument of Lenin, they lit flares and then tore the statue down," the source said.

The press service said that a flag of the Svoboda party was seen in the crowd when the monument was being vandalized.

Yet, the police said no one had been detained and investigators were working at the site of the incident.

A Hromadske TV correspondent cited a witness who claimed that a group of young people came up to the monument, put iron rope nooses round Lenin's neck, pulled them with arms and the statue fell.

Now the damaged statue is lying flat on the ground with its head split off.

As reported, a group of unidentified people tried to topple the statue of Lenin after a nationwide popular assembly last Sunday. Yet, they failed due to police officers who ringed the monument. The unidentified people limited to writing "Glory to the Nation" in white paint on the monument.

The monument located on Bessarabska Square downtown Kyiv was erected on December 5, 1946. The statue of Lenin was made of rare polished Karelian quartzite, which was used to build Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow, Russia. The statue was 3.45 meters high and mounted on a cylindrical pedestal, which was 6.8 meters high and 1.88 meters in diameter. The pedestal was made of polished black labradorite placed on a square granite podium.

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