13 Russian Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin ’ s statue in the Ukraine ( Figure 1 ). It was a movement
catalysed on the 8 th December in Kiev , when a group toppled the statue erected in the city ’ s main street , Khreshchatyk . The magnitude of the issue was highlighted in the statistics showing how many monuments of Lenin were left in Ukraine by 2014 . It was estimated there were originally 5,500 monuments of Lenin in 1991 ; by December 2013 there were 2,178 , and by the following year , around 100 statues fewer . Attacking the semiotics in the country was a way of reflecting civilian anger against the establishment . It was certainly effective as ‘ previous attempts to clear the square with force [ only ] increased the protest mood , [ and saw ] police withdr [ aw ] from the city centre ’ 6 . The Ukrainian activists wished to disassociate their nation from the Lenin statues , the iconography of the Soviet Union , and the meanings attached to them . Their pro-Europe protest was a direct response to the circulated rumours that the incumbent Russian and Ukrainian presidents ’ Vladimir Putin and the Viktor Yanukovych respectively had met to discuss the Ukraine joining the ‘ Russian Customs Union ’ 7 . As historian Victorian Bonnell discusses post-revolution Russia , the similarities to the unrest in Ukraine in 2013 seemed uncanny 8 , especially when she stated that by , ‘‘ creating new symbols , rituals , [ and ] visual imagery … The aim was nothing less than ‘ the redefinition of all social-values , designed to liberate , but also create a new mystique ’’( Hosbawm , 1983 , cited in , Bonnell , 1997 , pp . 1-2 .) 9 . This implies that it was what others interpreted the statue ’ s meaning to be , which triggered such anti-establishment attitude from the offset , but also in the physicality of the image of the statue falling . It illuminated a new national order . The still images of the event created an ironic paradox , for the original premise was to utilise the ‘ Lenin symbol ’ with regards to ‘ liberating the people ’. Although the people were indeed liberated , it was at the expense of the visual image of Lenin being destroyed . The photograph , however , was able to ‘ communicate … [ and ] able to reinforce [ and …] transgress … social convention ( visual codes of … architecture , objects … etc ) … employed in the ‘ lived world ’ ( Lister and Wells , 2001 , cited in Andén-Papadopoulos , 2008 , p . 6 ). Such semiotic readings substantiate the hypothesis stated earlier that images assumed substantial importance in directly communicating , and allowing for an analysis of what was
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8
Freud Sigmund , The uncanny . ( London : Penguin , 2003 ), p . 11
9
Victoria Bonnell . Iconography of Power : Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin . ( Berkeley : University of California Press , 2007 ), pp . 1-2 .