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WATCH OUT PUTIN

ODESSA, UKRAINE – Just in time for the release of the latest “Star Wars” blockbuster, Ukrainians have transformed a statue of Lenin into one of Darth Vader, an oddly prominent figure in local politics.

Soviet founder Lenin — long despised by most in nonseparatist parts of Ukraine — fell victim to a law adopted in April that ordered the removal of all symbols and insignia reminding the country of its communist past.

Darth Vader is also cast as the tragic embodiment of evil in the George Lucas movies — a light saber-wielding villain dressed all in black who is in conflict with the light side of the Force.

But the Sith Lord is rather more popular in Ukraine, where Western culture is being embraced and the Soviet past erased from history — a transition that outrages Russia.

One incarnation of the masked villain tried to enter last year’s presidential race but was denied registration only after he refused to disclose his real name and identity papers.

Later that year, Darth Vaders ran as candidates for the mayors of Kiev and Odessa, the historic Black Sea port where the new statue was formally unveiled Friday.

“Star Wars” characters such as the hairy wookie giant Chewbacca, Jedi Master Yoda and the courageous Princess Amidala also tried their luck in November’s parliamentary poll in full costume, all without success.

Most of these offbeat candidates represent the tiny Pirate Party of Ukraine — one of more than 40 groups that have sprung up worldwide in defense of Internet freedoms and limits on copyright laws.

This Sunday, another Darth Vader will run for Odessa mayor again as the crisis-torn east European country holds local elections across Kiev-controlled lands.

“After the de-communization law was adopted earlier this year, we had to decide what to do with the monument (of Lenin),” Oleksandr Milov, the new statue’s sculptor, said.

“Honestly, I did not like the idea of destroying it, so we decided on a more flexible solution.”

New elements were added to the original plaster statue without causing it any harm.

“The idea was obvious since the Darth Vader movement has been at the center of Ukrainians’ attention in recent years,” Milov said.

There are plans to install a Wi-Fi router in the statue’s head so he can “communicate with the other Siths,” he added.

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.

Symbols of Ukraine’s Soviet past are also slowly disappearing across other parts of the country, although they are becoming more prominent in the pro-Russian separatist southeast.

The rebels’ de facto capital Donetsk is now peppered with posters of Stalin, the bloodthirsty dictator who successfully sidelined his rivals in a vicious 1920s battle to take over Lenin’s reins.

“Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens” will hit U.S. movie screens in December, with advance ticket sales smashing records and three trailers spawning hysteria on the Internet.

Imagine if all statues were turned into Vader.

 

[Nibel]

This is not what Luke lost his arm for

 

[Chariot]

There are plans to install a Wi-Fi router in the statue’s head so he can “communicate with the other Siths,” he added.

Amazing.

 

[Ban Puncher]

MUST. CRUSH. PREQUELS.

 

[King Tubby]

Still one of my favorite gags

 

[DoctorFling]

Kylo Ren confirmed Ukrainian.

 

[eFKac]

Haha this is fantastic :-D

 

[Amalthea]

They would be throwing some major shade if they turned a Putin statue into Kylo Ren, too bad they most likely have none.

 

[Dennis]

That Disney viral money.

 

[NateDog]

Please let the Wi-Fi router happen, that sounds brilliant.

 

[teruterubozu]

America wins

 

[Currygan]

Kylo Ren confirmed Ukrainian.

 

[Condom]

I hate the removal and banning of communist symbols in countries like Ukraine. Guess it falls in line with the kind of governments they elect though.

 

[sn00zer]

I hate the removal and banning of communist symbols in countries like Ukraine. Guess it falls in line with the kind of governments they elect though.

Go to museums there.....communism killed a lot of people in smaller countries

 

[Currygan]

I hate the removal and banning of communist symbols in countries like Ukraine. Guess it falls in line with the kind of governments they elect though.

not that I'm necessarily disagreeing with you, but why would you say that?

 

[Chariot]

I hate the removal and banning of communist symbols in countries like Ukraine. Guess it falls in line with the kind of governments they elect though.

You should look into WHY there are so many ethnics russians in Crimea, opposed to the people who lived there before the Sowjet Union came along.

Furthermore look into other countries. When I visited Latvia, people were very friendly when they heard I came from Germany and the museums I visited were heavily into the fact that latvians were treated rather good under the nazis, especially compared to what the russians did to them later. Hell, they even had a marsh for the veterans of the former latvian SS division. It's fascinating.

 

[Condom]

Go to museums there.....communism killed a lot of people in smaller countries

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

replacing Communism for Corporatism.

 

[Chariot]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

Do you know what the sowjets did to Latvia? They deported large numbers of latvians to Siberia and settled the ethnic russians there. It's not fair and right, but after visiting the country I can understand the bitterness Latvia has against russian occupation.

 

[Anedar]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

You do know that Holodomor killed somewhere between 2.4 and 7.5 million ukrainians, right?

 

[Jonnax]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

They were quite argubly worse. A lot of Eastern European countries have no love for Russia because of the USSR.

Millions were killed.

From:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_regimes

Some historians attempt to make separate estimates for different periods of the Soviet history, with casualties for the Stalinist period varying from 8 to 61 million.[57][58][59] Several scholars, among them Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore, former Politburo member Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev and the director of Yale's "Annals of Communism" series Jonathan Brent, put the death toll at about 20 million.[60][61][62][63][64][65][66] Robert Conquest, in the latest revision (2007) of his book The Great Terror, estimates that while exact numbers will never be certain, the communist leaders of the USSR were responsible for no fewer than 15 million deaths.[67]

 

[Nev]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

You need to read more history. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but Marx's communism didn't ever exist and will probably never do. Actual, applied communism has always been an aberration. Not on the level of nazism because that's like the highest level imaginable, but it's up there.

 

[andythinkpad]

Putin would actual send 20 more tanks to Eastern Ukraine for this.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

Long I have disagreed with your political opinions and I think I finally know the root cause

 

[Chariot]

They were quite argubly worse. A lot of Eastern European countries have no love for Russia because of the USSR.

Millions were killed.

Yeah. Germany was scary because it had a disgustingly efficient killing industry. But the Soviet Union had more time, more manpower and more people to kill in their area of influence. And they did.

 

[Oersted]

You should look into WHY there are so many ethnics russians in Crimea, opposed to the people who lived there before the Sowjet Union came along.

Furthermore look into other countries. When I visited Latvia, people were very friendly when they heard I came from Germany and the museums I visited were heavily into the fact that latvians were treated rather good under the nazis, especially compared to what the russians did to them later. Hell, they even had a marsh for the veterans of the former latvian SS division. It's fascinating.

They also didn't mind the massmurder of jews. Fascinating, isn't it?

Spoiler

In case this wasn't obvious, this was sarcasm.

 

[Real Hero]

What? Didn't more people die under communist Russia?

I don't understand this at all.

Well it's hard to argue the ideology of communism is evil like that of Nazism. I think he meant that rather than defending so called communist regimes and the horrible shit done by the USSR

 

[Chariot]

They also didn't mind the massmurder of jews. Fascinating, isn't it?

Spoiler

In case this wasn't obvious, this was sarcasm.

No, no. You're right. That should absolutely be said. There was little to no resistance of Latvia when the Nazis asked them to give them all their jews.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

Soviet communism was at the same level as Nazism.

 

[michaelius]

I hate the removal and banning of communist symbols in countries like Ukraine. Guess it falls in line with the kind of governments they elect though.

Yeah how dare they remove symbols of traitors and murderers.

Maybe they should also put monument of Stalin to praise him for great hunger in Ukraine.

 

[Dictator93]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

"War communism" and stalinism were fucking brutal as well. Less focus on biological eliminationism, but eliminationism all the same.

I would not equate them in terms of ideology, but I would say the methods and results speak for themselves. FOrced famines, purges, mass executions. The numbers are surprisingly similar.

 

[Chariot]

"War communism" and stalinism were fucking brutal as well. Less focus on biological eliminationism, but eliminationism all the same.

I would not equate them in terms of ideology, but I would say the methods and results speak for themselves. FOrced famines, purges, mass executions. The numbers are surprisingly similar.

The raw numbers are much worse thanks to greater size and time.

 

[Currygan]

Like I don't know that, putting communism on the same level as Nazisism though is crazy. It's just part of the hate against everything Russian just like how Russian ethics get a hard time in countries like Latvia.

Communism is a great philosophy that has been raped and perverted in unimaginable ways by those in charge. Marx wouldn't be proud, that's for sure, but even he probably knew it just couldn't work in the real world

 

[Real Hero]

Well yeah, communism in theory is much different than how communism has been practiced. What is the point of mentioning that communism in theory is so much better than nazism when it has never been practiced that way, and certainly not by Russia though?

I dunno why he said it, obviously if he's trying to defend Stalinism he is very wrong to do so. But I hope he was just trying to state that he thinks communism has valuable ideas and Nazism doesnt rather defend one of histories most brutal regimes. You would hope anyway

 

[Nabbis]

That's actually pretty funny. Though i do not agree with destruction of historically relevant things. Ukraine might be pissed off right now, but no one will give a shit in 100-200 years and would be intrigued to see such statues.

 

[Real Hero]

Communism is a great philosophy that has been raped and perverted in unimaginable ways by those in charge. Marx wouldn't be proud, that's for sure, but even he probably knew it just couldn't work in the real world

He probably believed it was inevitable in places like England and Germamy but horribly stupid in attempting it a place like Russia at the time they did and in the condition they did.

 

[michaelius]

"War communism" and stalinism were fucking brutal as well. Less focus on biological eliminationism, but eliminationism all the same.

I would not equate them in terms of ideology, but I would say the methods and results speak for themselves. FOrced famines, purges, mass executions. The numbers are surprisingly similar.

Only difference was that Nazis targeted ethical groups and some minorities and murdered mostly them while communists specialized in targeted mass terror where they murdered everyone who opposed their system or simply belonged to wrong social class.

After "Liberating" Poland communists tried to arest every member of our underground resistance for the crime of fightning against Germany and responding to order from our goverment who resided in London (the legal one) instead of marionette fake goverment created in Moscow. And tens of thousands were then tortured and sentenced to death by Soviets then.

The only reason people think communists are better Nazis is sugar coated image of Soviet Union created by left winged media in Western Europe after war.

 

[Dictator93]

The raw numbers are much worse thanks to greater size and time.

Agreed.

Communism is a great philosophy that has been raped and perverted in unimaginable ways by those in charge. Marx wouldn't be proud, that's for sure,

Agreed.

 

[Condom]

Long I have disagreed with your political opinions and I think I finally know the root cause

???

Anyway you guys conflict me being against banning of communist symbols with endorsing the Stalinist regimes. I know of the things done to eastern Europe however, that doesn't mean that in this day and age ethnic Russians need to suffer from the kind of mockery that they do now.

It's hard to discuss this without getting heated debates because brining this up makes you sounds like fucking Putin while it really is a legitimate issue. The Soviet oppression caused a call for nationalism after the fall of the Union and that wasn't always a positive thing.

 

[Ushay]

Man, Star Wars is going viral big time. This movie will make bank for Disney.

Spoiler

Not that there was any doubt.