Political Statues

The Rise and Fall of Political Statues

“Monumental statues of socialist martyrs and the ideological fathers of communism marked many GDR [German Democratic Republic] cityscapes as unequivocally socialist.  Such monuments were carefully designed to occupy symbolic and ritual space at the heart of urban centres, and were intended to serve as the location of political demonstrations and ceremonies – yet in reality became little more than empty ritual symbols.  …they adopted a new symbolic potency, standing not only as historic documents, but also as potent sites of memory.”  (brackets added) (Saunders)

Throughout history, statues have been designed and erected as a means of stating many different things such as self-promotion, a shrine in memory of others, a symbol of ideology or religion, and even idolatry.  As we read in Metaphors We Live By, there is great power in the words we use.  The erection of a statue implies the orientation of “up”.  Some of the metaphors that were used in the book in relation to “up” can also infer meaning to statues.  “I have control over her”, “I am at the top of the situation”, “He’s in the high command”, “His power rose”, “He ranks above me in strength”, “He’s at the height of his power”.  (Lakoff 15)  The symbol of erecting also denotes superiority, control, power, and dominance.   While not all statues were constructed for that purpose, I feel that it exemplifies political statues.  In an effort for self-promotion the subject or political figure represented wants people to remember the power and strength he/she possesses because that gives reason to maintain leadership and control.  Likewise, others can erect statues of their leaders as a means of expressing their recognition of the strength, command, and leadership that is held.

We have seen, in our own lifetime, the fall of a dictator.  Saddam Hussein, who had statues erected in his behalf throughout Iraq, as a reminder to the people of his leadership and power, lost control of his regime in the recent past.  As part of his fall, in 2003 we were all able to watch the toppling of a statue he had erected of himself.(Fahmy)  As the American soldiers helped a group of Iraqis pull down the statue the message was sent to the world that Saddam Hussein was no longer recognized as a leader and that his power had fallen in the eyes of the Iraqi people who were there that day.

I found the story of Vladimir Ilich Lenin to be particularly interesting because from 1917, when he began his leadership, up to and even perhaps beyond 1970 at the commemoration of his centenary of birth, statues were continuing to be erected.  When Lenin died in January of 1924, the people of  Russia demonstrated devastation and great loss.  They revered their leader, loved him, admired him, and even idolized him as a god-like man.  Because they could not bear to let him go and face the end of his leadership, they had his body preserved so that it could be on display for the people to see.  Suddenly, images of Lenin were everywhere.  Murals of him were painted on building walls, busts of his head were placed throughout the country, and statues were erected to honor this great man. (Smith)  In short, he was immortalized, larger than life, like the statues themselves.  The statues and monuments of Lenin became gathering places for the people of Russia where they could come to celebrate and also mourn a man so beloved in their eyes.  “As Rudy Koshar remarks, ‘Objectively considered, such historical sites are mere constructions of stone, wood, brick, concrete, and steel.  Their meanings derive from public action.’  Monuments in the GDR thus became the locus of ritual acts, such as the laying of wreaths, annual processions and commemorative ceremonies.” (Saunders)  The statues themselves didn’t have as much of an impact in comparison to the people who would actually gather at these sites to worship and honor. 

For over 60 years after his death Lenin was held in high regard by the people of Russia and surrounding countries who also “benefited” from his rule.  However, in 1989 documents written by Lenin were discovered and began to make their way to the press.  These writings of Lenin exposed a man very different from the man the people had always perceived and believed him to be.    They were shocked at “documents showing that Lenin’s goodness was a myth…and convinced many that Lenin, in fact, was ‘the true father of the Bolshevik concentration camps, the executions, the mass terror, and the ‘organ’ which stood above the state.’ “(Smith)  At this discovery, the people regarded their leader not as “a deified cult leader” but instead as an “antichrist”.  Smith continues, “his shrines became unwelcome reminders of the Soviet people’s misplaced devotion.  Accordingly, monuments and memorials of Lenin began to fall like dominoes.”  The greatness, power, leadership, and love that the people had felt for Lenin fell as the true nature of this man was revealed – from hero to villain. As the book Metaphors We Live By so appropriately states in metaphor, “He fell from power”.  (Lakoff  15) 

As time went on and the realization of Lenin’s leadership began to settle over the people of Russia, “Lenin’s public monuments began to disappear.  In August 1991 the gigantic statue of Lenin in Kiev’s Central Square came down, and in June 1992 the ten-story high bronze statue of Lenin in  Tashkent was toppled during the night.”  (Smith)  The most interesting to me was the statue of Lenin that stood in the courtyard of the Kremlin.  In October of 1994, at the claim that the statue was going to be under repair for a time, a large wooden fence was built around the statue.  With no sign that renovation or work had been done on the statue, the fence remained in place after three months had passed.  “After much prodding, and a sizable donation to a Kremlin guard, [Smith] learned that the statue had been taken to Lenin’s former estate at Leninskii-Gorki…  The fence, the guard explained, was simply a device to ease the transition and to prevent public outcry.  It would remain until it became a familiar fixture.  When it eventually came down people would care that the eyesore fence, not the statue, was gone.”  (Smith)  The fall of the statues of Lenin reflected the fall of Lenin and his leadership.  “Formerly the god of the entire communist world, by the 1990s Lenin had become merely a ‘historical figure’ in his nation’s saga.”  (Smith)  The fencing of the Kremlin statue seems symbolic to me.  After Lenin’s death, the people of Russia had, in stages, continued to become more enamored by him.  They had used him as a means to compare other leadership styles and methods.  They progressively continued to idealize Lenin.  Likewise, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as he reached the peak and began to decline in the minds of the people, Lenin began to be replaced by other ideology, in stages.  People began to look at how evil he might have been and gradually began to embrace that their hero had become a villain. 

Lenin, like many other political figures who we have seen fall, went from being immortalized in the eyes of those he ruled, with statues and monuments erected as a symbol of the large and powerful man that he was, to being destroyed and falling in the minds of those who had once revered him .   

In conclusion, it is not just the falling of stones, rocks, bricks, marble, and other natural elements which symbolize a political leader as no longer being above others; it is the falling of the man himself.  When their power has fallen and is no longer considered to be reverenced or admired, that is when they are no longer worthy to be a leader.  Lenin and Hussein were just men, like everyone else, unworthy of being set up high above the rest to look down upon us.  After their fall they were equal -if even that.

Works Cited

Fahmy, Shahira. “They Took It Down”: Exploring Determinants of Visual Reporting in the Toppling of the

Saddam Statue in National and International Newspapers.  Mass Communication & Society

(2007): 143-170.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,

1980.

Saunders, Anna. “The Ghosts of Lenin, Thalmann and Marx in the post-socialist cityscape.” German Life

and Letters 63:4 (2010): 441-57.

Smith, Trevor J. “The Collapse of the Lenin Personality Cult in Soviet Russia”. Historian; Winter 98 Vol 60

Issue 2. (1998): 325-45.