Tell a person who was born in this country in the Soviet era that they took part in satanic rituals, and they are likely to be very surprised. However, fans of symbolism and metaphors know that the pentagram, the red Kremlin star, is a sign of Satan. It was the cult of Prometheus, thrown from the Olympus by the gods that had as its parallel the biblical story of Lucifer’s fall from God’s grace. In general, neither the Soviet regime, which rejected the religion, nor the Nazi Germany, which also professed atheism, really departed from the principles of technologies used in promoting beliefs since the beginning of time. Moreover, totalitarian regimes have been actively using these technologies, actually turning their ideologies into dominant religions with a lot of suggested ideas and cults. Any psychologist will say that the need for the ritual is deep-rooted in all of us. That is why it is so important for the government to create idols or beacons that would work similarly to the hypnotist’s mirror focusing the patient’s attention. That is why mass gatherings involving spells, slogans, and short chants are not just a formality. They have deeper meaning, that of mass indoctrination.
Oleksandr SIRENKO, director of the Privat TV company, who was present during the demolition of the Lenin monument in Kharkiv on September 28, 2014 and saw it being erected in 1963:
“I was 8 in 1963, and I remember me and my brother sitting on a hill opposite the pedestal and seeing as they were erecting the structure. However, they failed to do it in daytime, and it was finally erected after nightfall. Before it appeared here, there was a different layout of the public garden, there was an empty place there. Of course, dismantling of the monument is an important event, the completion of a certain cycle of life, both my personal and this city’s. People are happy, many say their mood have become better. I think we have got rid of some heavy presence in Kharkiv. Many people said ‘Let us remove the idol,’ mostly youngsters who know about the life in the USSR only second-hand, but are well aware of the essence of events. Once upon a time I walked past the monument with my six-year-old niece, and I asked her: ‘Do you know who it is?’ She said: ‘I know! It is Vovka-morkovka’ [‘little Vladimir the Carrot,’ a common childish way to make fun of a playmate named Vladimir or Volodymyr. – Translator]. That is, the reverence for the man has long gone. We cannot be sure of consequences of our actions, and I do not know what the demolition of the Kharkiv Lenin monument will bring. But there are some objective processes, after all, and it could not stand here forever! Importantly, we have to consider now what to do with the pedestal, what to erect on this site, because it is a right point, a landmark architecturally.”
Interviewed by Olena SOKOLYNSKA, Kharkiv
