Osh authorities have dismantled a massive 75-foot statue of Vladimir Lenin, previously considered to be the tallest in Central Asia, as part of what officials characterize as regular city development.
The statue, initially built in 1975 under Kyrgyzstan’s Soviet past, was disassembled with the assistance of a crane, as depicted in photos shared on social media this weekend. While removing Lenin monuments has become more prevalent among ex-Soviet republics distancing themselves from Russia’s past dominance, Osh officials portrayed the action as not being political.
In a formal statement, Osh City Hall characterized the removal as a “common practice” aimed at improving the city’s architectural and visual elegance. They stated that the decision should not be politicized, adding that other relocations of Lenin monuments have even taken place within Russia, in St. Petersburg and Belgorod cities.
The Lenin statue will be supplanted by a national flagpole, a move reminiscent of a like change in the capital city of Bishkek, where a similar Lenin monument was moved.
While officials packaged the move as urban planning, the timing has generated wider interest. It follows only a week since Russia, a close friend of Kyrgyzstan, unveiled a disputed monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in one of Moscow’s most crowded metro stations, leading to debates about how former Soviet republics are redefining historical memory.
The dismantling is an emblematic change in the public space of Kyrgyzstan, an indication of a subtle but meaningful departure from Soviet inheritance in the wake of shifting political and cultural currents in the region. Although the fate of the statue beyond its removal is uncertain, city officials insist that the move sits well with attempts to modernize and make the cityscape more beautiful without being political.
