The facial feature was probably chipped off in 1991 during its transfer from its original home in front of Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theater to this sculpture park on the Crimean Embankment of the Moscow River. As the debate in the United States over Confederate and other historic monuments rages on, Russians have, for the time being, laid to rest their own debate about statues here in the Muzeon Sculpture Park. In 1994, the 11-ton bronze figure was moved to its current perch in the sculpture park. All are remembered, in statuary, in a Moscow park where a collection of former Soviet memorials draw tourists and scrambling kids out for a day of play. Meanwhile, in neighboring Ukraine, a nationwide “de-communization” program has removed 1,320 Lenin statues across the country.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 28, 2017 20:03 UTC