SEATTLE—Right-wing media personality Jack Posobiec and a small band of protesters say anti-fascists are a “Marxist terrorist group” and point to a statue of Vladimir Lenin here as proof.
Posobiec told reporters that the statue “represents an idol of the alt left” and wants it torn down along with the Con federate statues being demolished after the white supremacist melee and murder in Charlottesville. Joining him were were about five people holding signs that said “Lenin is Hitler” and “my family in Venezuela hate this guy.”
“All of these people which have been targeted by alt left hate—this statue represents them, this statue represents their murder. This is a Russian. This is not an American citizen. This idol of evil must be torn down.”
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He’s wrong though. The Lenin statue was brought to the United States by an American veteran teaching in Slovakia. It was erected there in 1988, only to be toppled in the revolution a year later. The veteran found the sculpture lying face-down and mortgaged his house to bring it to the United States.
Far from honoring communism, the Lenin statue is a monument to kitsch. It stands in a small square next to a panini and falafel shop, as well as the Dumpling Tzar restaurant. While some Seattleites are conflicted about it, they’ve largely embraced it, even dressing it up in a tutu for Pride and sometimes clown makeup.
This Lenin is less “bread and peace” and more De Liberta Quirkas, Fremont’s motto meaning, “freedom to be peculiar.”
One thing that separates the Lenin statue from the one of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville is that it’s private property. Jessica Vets, the director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, told The Stranger that the statue is privately owned, stands on privately owned land, and is not maintained by the city or by Fremont. Prosobiec, asked about whether the statue has any place in Seattle, or the United States in general, says yes: a museum. He could easily have his wish—Lenin is Lenin is currently for sale by the family that owns it.
The current asking price is $250,000.
