Monday’s Red Corner post regarding a beheaded Lenin statue at a Vegas bar got me thinking about the other monumental remnants of the communist regime.
No one knows how many thousands of Lenin statues were erected during 70 years of communism, but there is one thing we know for certain; most have been toppled or otherwise destroyed since the fall of communism (and subsequently melted down for scrap metal).
There are still a small handful, however, which remain standing guard over the masses, perhaps bidding their time for a return to power. At least two have made it to the shores of America; the one at Red Square Bar in Vegas, and another standing in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The majority of Lenin statues still standing today, however, remain in the same location in which they were erected during communism. They survive because they were either too expensive to tear down, the local government couldn’t be bothered, or communist stalwarts protected them from destruction.
That’s good news for traveling history buffs. It means that these massive nuggets of a vanquished regime can still be experienced throughout the region. And, thanks to a couple of online listings of the remaining statues they are easy to find.
Stop by your nearest one today and slip back into a more unsettling time when harsh dictators made life miserable for so many people on this planet.
Oh, wait, that’s still happening today.