Over the weekend, authorities in Kyrgyzstan’s second city, Osh, dismantled Central Asia’s tallest statue of Vladimir Lenin. Installed in 1975, the 75-foot statue’s removal, 34 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, came as a surprise to some – although over the years, other statues of Lenin across the region have come down or been moved to less prominent locations.
A geopolitical framing is tempting, although city officials stressed that the issue “should not be politicized.” In a statement, Osh authorities said the statue would be moved from its prominent location along Lenin Avenue into Meerim Park, directly behind where the statue once stood.
“This is a common practice aimed at improving the architectural and aesthetic appearance of cities,” the statement explained.
A flagpole is to replace the statue.
Iskhak Masaliev, who was elected to parliament with the Butun Kyrgyzstan (United Kyrgyzstan) faction, demanded an investigation. Local media referred to Masaliev as the leader of the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, though that party does not hold seats in parliament as such.
Masaliev is son of Absamat Masaliev, the last first secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Kyrgyzstan (1985-1991).
As reported by 24.kg, “Iskhak Masaliev accused officials of political short-sightedness, mankurtism, and the desire for commercial gain at the expense of the destruction of historical and cultural heritage.”
“Mankurtism” is an especially Central Asian reference sourced from Kyrgyz writer Chingyz Aitmatov’s novel “The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years,” to refer to mindless slaves who suffered torture that erased their memory of self and homeland.
In contemporary Central Asia, particularly Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, from which the legends Aitmatov drew on originate, the term has come to “refer to those who have forgotten their roots while seeking to adopt aspects of a foreign culture,” as Kazakh scholar Diana T. Kudaibergen explained in her latest book (albeit with a focus on Kazakhstan).
“Officials who declare the rule of law are demolishing an architectural monument that is subject to state protection,” Masaliev complained in his statement.
A statue of Lenin was erected in Bishkek’s main square, at the time named Lenin Square, in 1984 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic. It was only in 2003 that the statue was moved from what is now called Ala-Too Square to be replaced by a statue of Erkindik – Liberty, holding a tunduk aloft. That statue in turn was replaced by one of Kyrgyz epic hero Manas in 2011.
Bishkek’s Lenin (just over 10 meters tall) was moved to a different square on the other side of the State History Museum – from which Lenin could gesture grandly toward a Kyrgyz government building.
Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, a great many Lenin statues have come down, though in different waves according to local sentiments.
In 2014, amid the Euromaidan protests and the Russian annexation of Crimea, anti-Russian protesters tore down a Lenin statue in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The previous December, protestors had torn down Kyiv’s Lenin monument. In 2022, Finland took down its final Lenin statue and vandals in Lithuania, which had removed most Soviet monuments following independence in the 1990s, began targeting what was left.
Lenin statues – and streets and mountains – remain present across Central Asia. In a 2021 article for the Oxus Society on Central Asian Affairs, Aruzhan Meirkhanova mapped the remaining Lenin monuments in Kazakhstan. In reference to Kazakhstan, although the analysis fits Kyrgyzstan well, Merikhanova wrote: “By relocating Lenin monuments from their central locations to less visible areas, the authorities have deprived these art objects of their unique status while also carving out additional space for new monuments at minimal political cost.”
What motivated Osh to move its Lenin monument now is not clear.
Meanwhile, in May, Russian authorities erected a new monument to Joseph Stalin in the Moscow subway.