Statue of Lenin
Sixteen-foot bronze Lenin rescued from a scrapyard, now dressed for Pride and repainted red yearly.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Statue of Lenin in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood opens at a Slovak scrapyard in nineteen ninety-three, where a sixteen-foot bronze Lenin was minutes from the cutting torch. An English teacher from Issaquah mortgaged his own house to buy and ship it home, then died in a crash before he ever saw it stand. You'll hear how Fremont, a neighborhood that never worshipped the man it depicts, built its own odd rituals around the statue instead, from holiday lights to a Pride Week costume. Look for the traces of whoever visited most recently.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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