Skip to main content

Should Fremont's statue of Vladimir Lenin be taken down?

caption: The statue of Vladimir Lenin in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.
Enlarge Icon
The statue of Vladimir Lenin in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.
Flickr Photo/Martin Deutsch (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)/https://flic.kr/p/o6EKZs

Jeannie Yandel speaks with multiple people about the statue of Vladimir Lenin in the Fremont neighborhood.

First up is Yuliya Shadyrya, a math teacher who moved from Ukraine to America when she was 15. Shadyrya believes that the statue does not adequately reflect whom she sees as a dictator with a brutal legacy.

But Fremont Dock Company president Suzie Burke believes the statue reflects more of the neighborhood's eclectic nature and shouldn't be construed as a celebration of Lenin's life.

KUOW's Marcie Sillman also joins the discussion, as do some listeners, including one man whose opinion of the statue changed after he met someone who watched the statue taken down from its original spot in the former Yugoslavia.

Why you can trust KUOW