Anna Kutkina (Helsinki): »Inheriting Lenin? Decommunization and Multivocality in post-Euromaidan Ukraine«

The toppling of the statue of Lenin in Kyiv on December 8 2013 was one of the culminating moments of the Euromaidan Revolution. Followed by hundreds of Lenin and other communist monuments being taken down by far-right extremists, politically active minority groups and state-coordinated officials, the potent purge of the communist symbols became known as the «Leninfall.» It laid the foundation for an extensive policy of decommunization, which led to removal of all Lenin statues, renaming of thousands of streets, and raising of questions on definition, modes and objectives of de-Sovietization.
What was (post)Euromaidan decommunization? Why? What does uncertainty of physical destiny of the statues, as well as controversial attitudes of the ordinary citizens and the state towards the Soviet insignia
tell us about formation, transmission and re-articulation of the historical figures and
narratives? If monuments are both discursively and physically contested spaces, what are the primary modes of articulation of cultural and socio-political multivocality? Finally, to what extent can the toppled (or preserved) statues be examined as a political domain for acquiring or adapting? As Ukraine seeks to fill in its empty pedestals, the cultural immortality of «Lenin heritage» is yet to be examined.