A project to find and photograph Ukraine's toppled Lenin statues has gained new relevance as America tears down its own monuments to a divisive past. Photos by: Niels Ackermann / Lundi13.
Falling Down: The Last Lenins Of Ukraine
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A clipped Lenin monument in the Odesa region
In their project, Ackermann and Gobert used the voices of the Ukrainians they encountered while hunting for Lenin. Ackermann told RFE/RL: "It was important to show that there is not one opinion towards decommunization in Ukraine, there are 42 million."
![Detail of a fallen Lenin in Zaporizhzhya "You would have some people say, 'Lenin and his guys did horrible things to this country, so there is no reason to leave portraits of him in a [prominent] place.'" ](https://gdb.rferl.org/382F5D48-EC43-494B-B738-5834CD393C7A_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Detail of a fallen Lenin in Zaporizhzhya
"You would have some people say, 'Lenin and his guys did horrible things to this country, so there is no reason to leave portraits of him in a [prominent] place.'"
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The head of a Dnipro Lenin in the city museum
"Other people would say, 'We had this statue since I was a child, it was a reference point. Now they remove it and there's nothing put there instead. This shows us that there's no dream, no vision anymore.'"
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In Horbani, the mayor of the village hid a Lenin statue in the forest. Local youths built a table next to it and it became a popular hangout.