Finland's last Lenin statue sparks heated debate

A bigger-than-life bust of Lenin sits in a tucked-away park within the southeastern metropolis of Kotka — however since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the monument is abruptly on the centre of nationwide debate.

The sculpture was obtained as a present in 1979 from Kotka’s Estonian twin metropolis Tallinn, which was on the time a part of the Soviet Union. Since then, the statue has been the goal of vandals and protesters.

At the onset of the Winter War in 1939, Kotka was one of many first areas bombed by the Soviet Union. The metropolis’s Lenin bust sits close to a constructing the place civillians had been bombed by Soviet planes. The municipality has already obtained requests to take away the statue and put it right into a regional museum, quite than destroying it outright.

Kotka sociology professor Juhani Pekkola has wished the Lenin statue faraway from town centre for a while.

“The bombing of civilians is a war crime. A monument like this is in the wrong place. Instead of the aggressor, we should remember the people from Kotka that died in the bombing, the heroes of the war, the children of the war, and the war orphans,” Pekkola informed Yle.

Two-thirds of respondents in an internet survey by native newspaper Kymen Sanomat mentioned they want to take away the Lenin statue from the park.

Finland has an advanced historical past with the founding father of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. Lenin hung out in Finland throughout the flip of the century and was the Soviet chief who signed the paperwork granting Finland independence in 1917.

That historical past was distinguished throughout the Cold War, when Moscow had a robust affect over Finnish society and Lenin was promoted as a buddy of Finland regardless of his function in Russia’s wars and the Red Terror across the basis of the Soviet Union.

In 1946 the primary Lenin Museum exterior the Soviet Union was opened in Tampere, the place it’s nonetheless operates in the present day. Besides Lenin busts, the Soviets additionally gifted different statues in communities throughout the nation as a way of spreading affect inside Finland.

However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s Lenin statues have come beneath higher scrutiny. Critics have argued that the sculptures insult those that died by the hands of the Soviet Union, whereas proponents have argued the items are tied into the historical past of Finland itself and must be thought-about artworks.

In mid-April, Turku determined to take away its personal Lenin statue from the downtown because of the controversy surrounding it. Turku obtained it as a present in 1977 from town then bearing the identify of the revolutionary, Leningrad — or, modern-day St Petersburg.

Russian and propaganda researcher Reeta Kangas, from the University of Turku, has thought-about these statues to be historic monuments. As an artwork historian, she want to save monuments that will occupy an uncomfortable place within the public conscience. Kangas mentioned she thinks the monument can tackle a brand new which means by means of open dialogue.

“You can talk about things and not just cart statues off to one of the art museum’s warehouses to collect dust. It is difficult to see the monument actually glorifying Lenin anymore, but it has remained a document of the past,” Kangas defined.

Kangas questioned the rationale behind Turku’s choice to take away town’s Lenin statue. In her view there’s a political cause behind it — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I don’t understand the logic. After all, there is a statue of Alexander I in Turku, and no one responded to that statue, even though it symbolises the same great power that Putin has,” Kangas identified.

The director of Tampere’s Lenin Museum, Kalle Kallio, additionally sees no connection between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Lenin statues. The Lenin Museum is the one surviving museum devoted to the revolutionary exterior Russia and is in a former staff’ corridor the place Vladimir Lenin and eventual longtime Soviet chief Josef Stalin first met in 1905.

Kallio agreed with Kangas, citing an inconsistency within the removing of statues

“Helsinki’s Senate Square has a statue of Czar Alexander II. In our history, he is the ‘good czar’ who allowed the use of the Finnish language and during which time the markka [Finland’s then-currency] came. If we do not accept Lenin, then why do we accept Alexander II?” Kallio requested.

The Kotka Municipal Council continues to be deliberating over what to do with the statue.

Some council members are against its removing.

Councillor Leena Griinari (Green) mentioned she want to see the statue of Lenin stay at its present location however thought-about an explanatory signal obligatory. Griinari mentioned she sees the statue as a murals by sculptor Matti Varik, the Estonian artist that was commissioned to create it in 1979.

“Here is the irony of the artist that Lenin only has one hand, and it isn’t his left. One can wonder whether it is a certain kind of subtle statement or not,” Griinari contemplated.

In 1995, a sculpture of Lenin’s lacking arm was unveiled close to the statue as a part of an artwork exhibition.

“I think this whole thing is full of symbolism. Of course, it is worth preserving it on the basis of art history, but also on historical grounds,” defined Griinari.

The removing of the statue raises the query of forgetting or altering historical past. Kallio from the Lenin Museum treats these statues as merely statues, and he doesn’t assume that the notion of the previous is altered whether or not a statue is indoors or outdoor.

He referred to the statue controversy within the United States, the place there was a need to take away monuments that glorify the legacy of the Confederacy. Supporters of segregation constructed the bulk (siirryt toiseen palveluun) of those statues within the United States as a response to the civil rights motion all through the 1900s.

“If the people of Kotka decide that Lenin’s place is no longer outside, then it would be possible to remove the statue. But you have to be consistent. There may be other things that could no longer be on display anymore if we painted these issues so broadly,” reminded Kallio.