How nice to see a tribute to a devil toppled. The people of the Ukraine know the bitter fruits of Lenin’s Socialist revolution. They lived through the darkness, terror, murder, subjugation and poverty of Communist rule.
Sadly, there are still Lenin admirers and supporters that harbor the fantasy that Lenin’s aims and even his means were somehow righteous.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lenin, in spite of all his lofty rhetoric, was nothing less than a brutal totalitarian dictator.
Immediately after obtaining power in 1917 Lenin assumed dictatorial control of the government, created his secret police, abolished all media that opposed him and his party, and established his statist propaganda machinery. [ref]
Lenin was only getting started. These despotic deeds were soon followed by the start of the Red Terror: the systematic imprisonment and execution of 1000s of “enemies of the people”. By late 1921 over 70,000 people were dying in forced labor camps. [ref, ref]
Lenin’s barbaric methods were spelled out in a letter he wrote to the Politburo: “We must… put down all resistance with such brutality that they will not forget it for several decades… The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and reactionary bourgeoisie we succeed in executing… the better.” [ref]
Lenin’s devilish disciples faithfully carried out his atrocious orders. Between 1918 and 1922 as many as a million people were murdered by Lenin’s regime, and millions more were to die under the brutal reign of Lenin’s student and successor, Joseph Stalin. [ref]
Yes, Kiev’s statue of Lenin is toppled. The despicable monument to a reprehensible despot is destroyed. I hope and pray that all reverence and regard for this evil man and the sick Socialist system he championed will also be toppled and destroyed, and that the God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be enshrined in their place.