One of the first things we were told when we arrived in Mariupol was that “Lenin has gone” and Lenin’s Square is now “ The Square of Fallen Lenin”. Indeed, this was a wind of change for many towns: more than 500 statues of “vozhd” (a Russian word for a leader, a person in supreme authority) were dismantled during the last year all over Ukraine.
“Where did the statue go?” — asked one of AU residents. “Dunno,‘’ — replied Kostya Batozsky — “It was a bronze statue, probably it was sold as scrap. Ain’t it symbolic: capitalism has won in the end.”
