Soviet-era statues

Typically made in the style of Socialist Realism, they frequently depicted significant state and party leaders, such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.

Statues that represented Stalin's cult of personality were subsequently removed from most public spaces in the Soviet Union and its satellite states as part of a process of "De-Stalinization".

Since the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet-era statues and monuments have been removed from many public spaces being either destroyed, moved to less prominent locations, or in some cases sold to private collectors.

Soviet-era statues have become the subject of debate over the legacy of the Communist era in much of the former Eastern Bloc, and in some countries they have even been outlawed under Decommunization laws.

In 2015 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved laws that required the removal of all socialist symbolism in public places, with the exception of World War Two memorials.