Ukrainian artist Aleksander Milov was behind the creation of the new Vader statue, using the old statue as a basis, and merely replacing the head with Vader’s helmet and transforming Lenin’s coattails into Vader’s cape. Even to this day, a quarter century after the fall of the USSR, there are reminders everywhere of Lenin and the communist living Ukrainian citizens were forced to live under.
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Located on the premises of a factory in the Black Sea port city, the Lenin statue was slated to be taken down alongside many other remnants of the Communist past. The law spelled the end for hundreds of statues of Lenin across the country, but as Odessa’s newly transformed monument no longer depicts the Bolshevik leader, it will now be spared.
Vader is running for Mayor of Odessa…a city with a well-known fascination for the Star War villain.
But the Dark Lord of the Sith is a rather more popular figure in Ukraine, where Western culture is being embraced and the Soviet past erased from history – a transition that outrages Russian Federation.
One fan dressed as Vader tried to join last year’s presidential race but couldn’t register when he wouldn’t reveal his real name and identity papers.
The Darth Vader statue is sure to make his visitors feel the force, since it will also provide free internet.
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A granite statue of Lenin in the heart of Kiev was famously toppled by enthusiastic protesters during the three-month revolution that ultimately ousted a Moscow-backed leadership in February 2014.
