Lenin cost nothing: in Mykolaiv, Soviet monuments worth 200 thousand were transferred to communities

Mykolaiv City Council plans to transfer municipal property to the joint ownership of communities. The total cost of the transferred monuments exceeded 220 thousand hryvnias, with one monument costing nothing.

The decision was made at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council.

The Mykolaiv City Council considered a letter from the municipal enterprise Mykolaiv Parks on the transfer of municipal property from city ownership to the joint ownership of communities of villages, towns and cities in the region. This was done in accordance with the current legislation on the transfer of state and municipal property and local self-government.

The transfer concerns the following objects:

• dismantled bronze elements from the main stele of the Memorial Complex in honor of the 68th Olszanski paratroopers of 1944, 1965 and 1974 (monuments of history and monumental art of local importance), in the amount of 51 pieces, with a market value of UAH 29,041.60
• a monument to Lenin, in the amount of 1 piece, with a book value of UAH 0;
• dismantled components of the monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union V.O. Lyagin, in the amount of 29 pieces, with a market value of UAH 36,040;
• dismantled copper figures of the monument "Youth" of 1978 (sculptor Makushyn Y.A., architect Popova O.P.), in the amount of 2 pieces, with a market value of UAH 163,800.

The total market value of this property exceeds UAH 220 thousand. The purpose of the transfer is to ensure the efficient use of the property and promote coordination between the communities of Mykolaiv region.

At the end of January, in Mykolaiv, utility workers removed a memorial to the Leninist Komsomol that stood near the Yunist cinema. Komsomol members played an important role in the repressions during the Holodomor of 1932-1933: they participated in dekulakization, food rationing, and denunciations of peasants. Back in January 2022, the bas-relief of Lenin and the plaques that were part of the monument were removed.

Last December, employees of Mykolaiv Parks dismantled communist symbols in the Young Heroes Park, Admiralty Park, and Arkasivskyi Park. Decommunization in Ukraine aims to get rid of traces of communist ideology in society. This process began after the collapse of the USSR and was especially intensified during the "Leninist fall" during the Euromaidan.

Анна Бальчінос