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# Lenin, I Am Your Father: Darth Vader Engulfs Ukrainian Communist Statue (and Brings Free Wifi)
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/lenin-i-am-your-father-darth-vader-engulfs-ukrainian-communist-statue-and-brings-free-wifi/
- Published: 2015-10-23T17:29:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:59:03.000Z
- Description: A city in Ukraine has gone over to the dark side.
- Author: Claire Voon
- Tags: In Brief, Soviet Union, Star Wars, Ukraine, Vladimir Lenin, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![The necessary shot (photo via @fastorius/Instagram)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/12142049_155144314836214_644077191_n.jpg)

The money shot (photo via @fastorius/Instagram)

A city in Ukraine has gone over to the dark side. A regal statue of Darth Vader has dethroned one of Vladimir Lenin in Yuzhne, a city just outside of Odessa, as local website Dumskaya first [reported](http://dumskaya.net/news/pervye-v-mire-pamyatnik-dartu-vejderu-otkroetsya-051649/?ref=hyperallergic.com) — probably the best response so far to the ban against communist symbols implemented by the country’s legislators [this April](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32267075?ref=hyperallergic.com).

In accordance with the decommunization law, the statue had been prepared for demolition, but workers at the factory where the former Soviet leader once stood [requested](https://meduza.io/en/lion/2015/10/22/shedding-its-communist-past-odessa-converts-lenin-statue-into-a-monument-to-darth-vader?ref=hyperallergic.com) a redesign rather than a removal. Tasked with transforming the former monument, local artist Alexander Milov — who also contributed a [metal cage sculpture ](http://burningman.org/event/brc/2015-art-installations/?ref=hyperallergic.com)to Burning Man this year — chose to give it a new, shiny, badass shell. According to Dumskaya, the bronze Lenin is still encased within, transformed into the Sith Lord via titanium alloy adhered to the original statue with special glue — kind of like a bizarre Matryoshka doll, or the medical procedure that transformed Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in *Revenge of the Syth* — “so that the grateful or not so grateful descendents could exhume him, if needed,” Milov [told](http://uatoday.tv/society/darth-vader-assumes-lenin-s-mantle-in-monumental-odesa-art-installation-518638.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) Ukraine Today. His head, however, was replaced with Darth’s helmet; within, a tool equipping the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet with a powerful force: a router, to beam out free wifi to all.

The transformation isn’t as surprising as one would think, however. This is, after all, Ukraine, where the so-called “Internet Party” last year [registered](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/10/27/the-real-loser-in-ukraines-election-darth-vader/?ref=hyperallergic.com) a representative dressed as the Jedi-turned-Sith Lord to run for prime minister (he lost).

![The Sith Lord in all his glory (photo via sentientsven/Instagram) (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/12139595_514053178776272_1729020239_n-copy.jpg)

The Sith Lord in all his glory (photo via @sentientsven/Instagram)