Statue of Lenin

The Statue of Lenin in Seattle is a 16 ft (5 m) bronze sculpture of Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, by Bulgarian sculptor Emil Venkov. It was completed and put on display in Communist Czechoslovakia in 1988, the year before the Velvet Revolution of 1989. In 1993 the statue was bought by an American who had found it lying in a scrapyard. He brought it home to the U.S. state of Washington, but died before he could carry out his plans for displaying the Soviet era memento. Since 1995 the statue has been held in trust waiting for a buyer, standing on temporary display for the last 24 years on a prominent street corner in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The statue has also sparked political controversy, with commentators discussing it in light of the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials.