Kate from Kharkiv: Today marks the 10th anniversary of Kharkiv citizens toppling the enormous Lenin statue, the largest symbol of communism and Soviet occupation in our city, with ropes and disc grinders, because that's how much we hated it.
Kate from Kharkiv: The shoes remained for a while after, but we made them Ukrainian
Anastasiya Paraskevova: Toppling this fuck was probably the best feeling I ever experienced, unironically. It took so many hours but was so very worth it. That was, by the way, the biggest statue to Lenin. And city authorities were saying that dropping it would break the ground and damage the metro beneath. We, of course, didn't buy it. The metro was made to survive bombings we thought (which is now very much a shelter against Russian bombings). But when he finally fell, he was empty inside. As huge and seemingly imposing as it was, collective effort and the stubborness of a bunch of Ukrainians was enough to take it down, despite the high ups telling us it's too massive and toppling it would be dangerous. Unsubstantiated fears, just as the statue itself was a bit of a paper tiger. The only reason it stood there was the lack of will to finally take it down before that moment. Take that as a metaphor for something else, because it is.
