In pictures: Ukraine removes communist-era symbols

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Monument being dismantledImage source, Maxim Scherbina
Image caption,

This was Ukraine's largest remaining statue of Lenin before being taken down in March 2016

Ukraine has been trying to break free from its communist past, and the campaign is changing the face of whole cities.

Zaporizhya is typical of eastern Ukraine in that it was full of communist monuments and street names. But new laws say they must be removed because they symbolise the country's repressive past.

The campaign has triggered controversy, with critics saying that it is a crude assault on Ukraine's past.

Image source, Maxim Scherbina
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The first to go was a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the much-feared Soviet secret police. Ironically, the monument was located in Zaporizhya's Freedom Square

Image source, Edward Andriushchenko / zp.depo.ua
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A statue of Stalin associate Sergey Kirov was also taken down in March

Image source, Edward Andriushchenko / zp.depo.ua
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This monument had been around since 1968, when it was put up to mark the 50th anniversary of the Young Communist League, Komsomol

Image source, Vitaly Shevchenko
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Behind it, a slogan used to declare that the communist government had "millions of eaglets" at its service. But now the lettering has been unceremoniously removed and is lying on the ground

Image source, Alexey Tolmachov / zphoto.zp.ua
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The biggest controversy arose over the removal of this monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin near a hydroelectric dam

Image source, Oleksandr Stashevsky / Getty Images
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Earlier, activists put a huge traditional Ukrainian shirt on the statue, but its days were numbered

Image source, Edward Andriushchenko / zp.depo.ua
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The enormous statue took three days to take down. An ultra-strong, diamond-reinforced cable snapped in the process

Image source, 061.ua
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Lenin's name was also removed from the dam that the statue was pointing to

Image source, Vitaly Shevchenko
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The monuments formed a key part of urban planning in the USSR, and their removal has left gaping holes in the city's appearance

Image source, Yuri Tatarenko
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No one knows what will replace them

Image source, Yuri Tatarenko
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Soviet symbols remain an integral part of architecture in Zaporizhya, and removing all of them would be all but impossible

Image source, Google
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This is what Zaporizhya's map used to look like. All these names are gone now

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