Statue of Lenin in Kharkiv

The Statue of Lenin in Kharkiv was a sculpture monument to Vladimir Lenin, located in the Freedom Square, Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was the largest monument to Lenin in Ukraine. The monument ID was 63-101-0682.

It was toppled and destroyed on September 28, 2014. Ukrainian media reported that police had begun an investigation into "vandalism". In April 2015 a Kharkiv Court ruled that the destruction of the monument had not been illegal since on September 28, 2014 then Governor of Kharkiv Oblast Ihor Baluta had decreed that the monument should be removed. In (this) court case the Kharkiv city council had tried to recognize this decree by Baluta as illegal.

In November 2015 Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes officially admitted that because of Ukrainian decommunization laws the statue of Lenin could not be rebuilt. According to him in the near future architects, artists and the city council would decide how to give Freedom Square an "European appearance". Radio Free Europe reported that Kernes would be pushing for the building of a "modern fountain", which once was located at the same spot as the toppled Lenin statue.

The pedestal and foundation of the statue were dismantled/removed in April 2016. In August 2016 pavers were laid on the site where the statue of Lenin stood. On 8 August 2016 Kharkiv First Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov stated "In the place where there was a monument to Lenin, there will be nothing." But after an open competition it was decided on 3 February 2017 that Freedom Square will get a new 86 meters high monument. At its top an angel with an Orthodox cross watching over four figures who somehow resonate with the history of Slobozhanshchina (Anacharsis, Igor Svyatoslavich, Semen Hulak-Artemovsky and Mykhaylo Petrenko).