Central Asia's tallest Lenin statue taken down

BBC ^ | 06/08/2025 | Danny Aeberhard , Ian Aikman

[BenLurkin]

Kyrgyzstan has taken down a huge statue of the revolutionary Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which was thought to be the tallest in Central Asia.

First erected when Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union, the 23m-tall monument towered over the city of Osh for 50 years before it was quietly removed this week.

Photos emerged on Saturday showing the communist revolutionary - who features prominently in Soviet iconography - lying on his back on the ground, having been lowered by crane.

A statement from City Hall in Osh - the landlocked nation's second-largest city after the capital, Bishkek - said the figure would be relocated as part of "common practice" aimed at improving the "architectural and aesthetic appearance" of the city.

The statue will be replaced by a flagpole, as was the case when a different Lenin statue was relocated in Bishek, according to local media.

Kyrgyzstan gained its independence 34 years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed.

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TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: abouttime; asia; centralasia; dannyaeberhard; goodriddance; ianaikman; kyrgyzstan; lenin; osh; sovietunion; statues; ussr; vladimirlenin

[marktwain]

Good news. The cult of Marxist-Leninism take another blow.

[Leaning Right]

Yet the statue of Lenin in Seattle remains.

[ZOOKER]

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.[d] Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

— Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias", 1819 edition

[Leaning Right]

For the curious, here’s some info about the Lenin statue in Seattle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Lenin_(Seattle)

You’ll have to copy and paste the link. You can’t click it directly because for some reason Wikipedia always drops the final parentheses.

[DIRTYSECRET]

**Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union, the 23m-tall monument towered over the city of Osh for 50 years before it was quietly removed this week.**

Interesting. That could only mean that it was put up in ‘75 before the Afghanistan fiasco starting in ‘’79. The Soviets must of been at their height and had the muslim regions under control. How independent are they now?

[Bookshelf]

Send it to Seattle where it will be welcomed.

[Salman]

For the curious, here’s some info about the Lenin statue in Seattle.

An irony of history? The very last public statue of Lenin will be in the United States. Or the former United States.

[larrytown]

[DIRTYSECRET]

**Send it to Seattle where it will be welcomed.**

No. Put it in Times Square next to the fat black chick.

[nwrep]

American cities are hellholes.

[DeplorableTrumpSupporter]

Gift it to Harvard!

[fidelis]

I always think of this poem on such occasions. Those who are high and mighty in their own time, often are eventually relegated to the dust bin of history. Of course history will remember Lenin and some of the effects of what the did in his lifetime will live on for some time, but soon he’ll be just another historical note on the page.

[aquila48]

Erasing history.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Yeah but the statue of Stephen Foster, who wrote “Beautiful Dreamer,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” plus lots of other classics, was removed from its place of honor at the University of Pittsburgh, near Foster’s place of birth, Lawrenceville, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

[MeganC]

“Erasing history.”

Like smallpox communism also needs to be exterminated.

[Sirius Lee]

In a way I agree. However a giant titanium cartoony dick and bawls should be welded to salons forehead and a proper monument to his victims be erected next to it.

[aquila48]

Yeah, just like slavery and Jim Crow.

[tumblindice]

“Pull my finger.”

[sauropod]

Bkmk