We were discussing how young Ukrainians feel about the Soviet era, and my wife—who’s from Rubizhne in Donbas—showed me a photo with an intriguing story. Back in 2009, a 20-year-old rescue diver from her hometown blew up Lenin’s ass, and the incident made headlines everywhere.
Curious, I dug up some old news articles from that time.
On the night of April 3rd, the young man rode his bike to the Lenin monument. He inserted a homemade explosive device into the statue’s ass, secured it with plasticine, lit the fuse, and sped away.
He had crafted the explosive himself using a brass tube and an explosive mix taken from a World War II mine he’d found in a forest a year earlier. His training as a rescue diver likely helped him safely handle and repurpose the old mine.
The next day, local communists noticed the damage to Lenin’s statue. They organized an urgent gathering, exclaiming, “Lenin’s birthday is in two weeks, and his ass is blown up! We can’t celebrate his birthday like this!”
The story quickly spread from local newspapers to television.
Our 20-year-old hero was amazed by the impact of his actions. After all, he had:
* Blown up Lenin’s ass
* Disrupted the communists’ gathering for their leader’s birthday
* Made it onto TV
But here’s the twist: he started bragging about it feat everywhere, and was eventually caught.
This was the first Lenin statue taken down in Donbas, and it was a bold move even then. In the same year, on July 30th in Kyiv, Ukrainian activists broke Lenin’s nose and knocked off his arm. In 2013, those activists were jailed for two years.
The 2009 incident in Rubizhne didn’t have a public political motive, so I hope they didn’t imprison the diver.
I tried to find out what eventually happened to him, but Rubizhne is now destroyed and occupied by Russia.Â
By the way, Lenin’s statue was never restored. According to some, the funds raised for repairs were stolen by the communists themselves, and the statue was dismantled and hidden away.
5 Comments
We were discussing how young Ukrainians feel about the Soviet era, and my wife—who’s from Rubizhne in Donbas—showed me a photo with an intriguing story. Back in 2009, a 20-year-old rescue diver from her hometown blew up Lenin’s ass, and the incident made headlines everywhere.
Curious, I dug up some old news articles from that time.
On the night of April 3rd, the young man rode his bike to the Lenin monument. He inserted a homemade explosive device into the statue’s ass, secured it with plasticine, lit the fuse, and sped away.
He had crafted the explosive himself using a brass tube and an explosive mix taken from a World War II mine he’d found in a forest a year earlier. His training as a rescue diver likely helped him safely handle and repurpose the old mine.
The next day, local communists noticed the damage to Lenin’s statue. They organized an urgent gathering, exclaiming, “Lenin’s birthday is in two weeks, and his ass is blown up! We can’t celebrate his birthday like this!”
The story quickly spread from local newspapers to television.
Our 20-year-old hero was amazed by the impact of his actions. After all, he had:
* Blown up Lenin’s ass
* Disrupted the communists’ gathering for their leader’s birthday
* Made it onto TV
But here’s the twist: he started bragging about it feat everywhere, and was eventually caught.
This was the first Lenin statue taken down in Donbas, and it was a bold move even then. In the same year, on July 30th in Kyiv, Ukrainian activists broke Lenin’s nose and knocked off his arm. In 2013, those activists were jailed for two years.
The 2009 incident in Rubizhne didn’t have a public political motive, so I hope they didn’t imprison the diver.
I tried to find out what eventually happened to him, but Rubizhne is now destroyed and occupied by Russia.Â
By the way, Lenin’s statue was never restored. According to some, the funds raised for repairs were stolen by the communists themselves, and the statue was dismantled and hidden away.
For more stories about life during the war in Ukraine, you can check out [Max Pass – YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@max_pass/featured)
Champion !
Anatomically correct.
Didn’t know they had Taco Bell in the Soviet Union lol
Tore him a new one.