The Treatment of Soviet Relics Betrays Modern Sentiments

Editor's Note: This analysis was written by Eurasia analyst Eugene Chausovsky.

The recent topplings of Lenin statues by anti-Russia demonstrators in Kharkiv and elsewhere in Ukraine are only the latest examples of a trend that has spread across the former Soviet arena. The presence of Lenin statues — and likewise the circumstances of their removal — illuminates the status of relations between former Soviet states and Russia, from the end of the Cold War to the present.