UPDATE: Replacing One Icon With Another

UPDATE 10-21-2014 : The mural of Taras is progressing nicely!

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A few days ago citizens of Kharkiv, Ukraine made the news by tearing down their famous Vladimir Lenin statue in the city's Freedom Square. The statue was located two blocks from where we lived in Kharkiv and I wrote about the statue a couple times, here and here. It was one of Kharkiv's main tourist attractions and served as an historical oddity that reminded you Russia was about 50 kilometers away and that the Soviet past wasn't that long ago.

But with one icon gone, Kharkiv may have a new and better one to replace it. It turns out that on the side of one of the high rises a portrait of poet Taras Shevchenko. I've written about Shevchenko many, many times..;too many to highlight individually. The building's portrait would be undoubtedly the largest Shevchenko painting and I can't wait to see what it looks like completed.

One Less Lenin Statue

Ever since Ukrainian President Viktor Yankukovich's decision to not sign trade agreements with the European Union, most of Ukraine has been in a state of continual political protest. I say most of Ukraine because the city that Laura and I lived in, Kharkiv, has not had many protests at all and the famous Freedom Square [which I've written about many, many times] near where we lived has been blocked off so potential protesters can't get to it to hold their rallies. That's what happens when you are just 40 kilometers from the Russian border. [This blog has some photos of the barricades around Freedom Square.]

The largest rallies have been taking place in Kiev in Independence Square.  Whenever Laura and I would stay in Kiev we would try to find an apartment or hostel around the Square [which I also wrote about many, many times] so we would have been in the thick of it.  Here is an amazing video of the protest taken by someone who climbed up the huge Christmas tree that is in the Square [the embedded video sometimes does not work but you can always see it here]:



In a surprising turn, last night the Lenin statue in Kiev was destroyed by protesters.  The statue itself was the focus of one of m favorite winter photos from our year abroad.  To me it looks like Lenin is smuggling some snowballs or as one of my friends said, he might be holding a snow white kitten.  I'm glad I got to see it before it was gone for good.

Here a photo of the statue on the ground that may come to symbolize the protests in Kiev:

My Last Lenin

While walking around Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula we came up the last large statue of Lenin I would see during my time in Ukraine.   

Where is Lenin pointing?  Towards the Black Sea, of course.

Sevastopol is home to both Ukrainian and Russian naval bases and during Soviet times the city was closed to all non-residents.

Here's a view of Lenin's back side that I don't usually take.

While the Lenin statue is nice, it is the level of detail on the four crouching men surrounding Lenin that I'm really impressed with.  

Thinking about the Lenin statues that I saw during my trip I wasn't too sure when I would see something like it again.  I imagine it will be several years until I'm back in a place where Communism is still [kind of] celebrated.  And then I remember that I've lived in a place in America that has its own Lenin statue.  In Seattle, [technically, Fremont] there is a very prominent Lenin statue that many people [I assume] just sort of role their eyes at when they pass by...but when I'm in Seattle next time and see it I wonder if I will view it the same way.

Visiting Yalta

After spending many, many months just 30 km from the Russian border it was with some excitement that we got to travel to the southern most part of Ukraine on the Crimean peninsula.  The highlight of that trip was spending a few days in Yalta on the banks of the Black Sea.  

It was also a chance to see my first Ukrainian palm tree.

Like Kharkiv, Yalta also has a very prominent Lenin statue.  It was placed near the main marina and today it looks onto a McDonald's restaurant open 24 hours a day.

A view of Yalta from the marina.

We visited at the end of March and so most of the boats hadn't been put in the water yet.

We were out and about pretty early that morning and so we got to see many fisherman practicing their craft.

From another angle.

Although there was a little garbage floating in the water near the shore this was by far the cleanest water we'd seen in Ukraine.

A lonely lighthouse on the Black Sea.

We also took a "three hour tour" on this ship along the coast which was currently the only way to view one of Yalta's famous sites, the Swallow's Nest.

It is currently closed for renovations and so you aren't able to drive there for a visit.  Believe it or not it the building has been an Italian Restaurant since 1975.

The Black Sea from our boat tour.

The other key site in Yalta is Livadia Palace which is a former summer home of tsar Nicholas II.

It was also the site of the Yalta Conference between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at which discussions were held about how to re-organize Europe after Germany's defeat.

Apparently this dog did not read the sign telling him to keep off the grass.  

And here is the famous courtyard...

...at which this famous photo was taken.  You can just barely make out the arches behind the men.

About half of the palace is devoted to a the Yalta Conference while the other half is devoted to Nicholas II and his family who stayed at the palace for a few summers.  Here is the view of the Black Sea from one of their rooms.

Yalta was by far the most tourist-centric place in Ukraine [Lviv would be a close second] and it was a wonderful change of pace.  Laura and I often joke that in 20 years when we come back to see what has changed in Ukraine we will certainly need to come back to Yalta one more time.

Random CCCP Sightings

I usually react in disgust seeing someone wear CCCP related t-shirts in America...feel free to wear your Karl Marx shirt to make your political statement about communism but no one should promote the horrors the USSR [CCCP in Cyrillic] did to the Russian, Ukrainian, and all the people of the Eastern bloc.  Nevertheless, in my travels I can't help but stop and look whenever a great big Lenin statue comes into view or when we find a monument honoring the Communist history of the city or region.   

This Lenin statue is located in Zhytomyr which is also home to my favorite Ukrainian museum and future blog post topic, Korolyov Cosmonaut Museum.  

We came upon this mini Lenin in a restaurant in Zhytomyr as well. 

This Lenin stares at you while you get off the subway in Kiev. You're not supposed to take photos in the subway but sometimes I like to live dangerously.

I can't remember exactly where I snapped this CCCP emblem.

This hammer and sickle was at a soldier war memorial in Lychakiv Cemetary in Lviv.

Winter In Ukraine

My favorite winter photo from Ukraine.

A Lovely Day

Kharkiv is about parallel with Winnepeg, Canada so it is getting dark earlier than I'm used to...but before the sun went down at about 4pm it was very lovely day.  

Lenin

At one end of Freedom Square in Kharkiv you'll find a large statue of Lenin.  I haven't seen all of Kharkiv but I doubt there are few more striking and memorable sites in the city.   Freedom Square has a long history, first as Dzerzhinsky Square [Felix Dzerzhinsky was the founder of the Bolshevik secret police] and it was finally named Freedom Square after Ukrainian independence in 1991.   On the opposite end of the square from Lenin political groups regularly rally around lunch time each day waving flags which is a nice reminder of political freedom each time we walk by.