Soviet & Socialist Leaders

Stalin statues in Russia were largely removed in the late '50s and early '60s.  A few were consigned to a statue park where you can see fallen monuments of old Soviet leaders.  Lenin is a different story.  His statues can still be found all over Russia.  What's interesting is that in his will he made it clear that he did not want a mausoleum built after he died.  He also was against the cult of personality and gave instructions that Stalin should not succeed him.  Of course, we know what happened.  Oh, and lastly, statues associated with socialism, like Karl Marx, can still be found in Russia.  It's clear the Russians make a distinction between Stalin and his crimes and Lenin/socialism.

This monuments topic came up once in an e-mail someone sent me.  They asked about how today's Russians view Stalin and his murderous regime.  Later, in reading an article on CNN, I noticed in the comments section that an individual who was claiming to know lots about Russia and used his "knowledge" to browbeat other commenters, made a clear factual mistake.  He said that there are no Lenin statues in all of Russia anymore.  Obviously, having traveled there and seen things with my own eyes, it made me doubt the rest of this person's commentary.  If folks can get that sloppy with facts, just makes you wonder.  After reading the comment, I posted a reply to it.  It was the very first time I had posted a comment to a website news story.