SEATTLE — Some people think the statue of Vladimir Lenin which stands in the heart of Fremont is fun, ironic, and part of the quirky charm of the neighborhood. Others see it as a sinister symbol of totalitarian repression.
Either way, Vlad has captured plenty of attention since he first showed up in somebody's backyard in Issaquah back in 1993.
That somebody was Lewis Carpenter. You may be surprised to learn he was not a fan of communism or Lenin.
Carpenter had been traveling through Slovakia after the fall of the Soviet Union when he discovered the discarded statue, which was about to be melted down and turned into park benches. Horrified, he decided he would buy the seven-ton man.
"I just didn't want to see it destroyed," Carpenter said. "You should be able to separate art and history, and you want to not forget. Just because you destroy them doesn't mean that it didn't happen."
In fact, the sculptor, Emil Venkov, had been forced to make the piece by the communist regime, and he actually included some subversive touches. Most depictions of Lenin were designed to soften the dictator's image, often including flowers or children. This piece shows an angry man in an aggressive posture, depicting a stern and violent autocrat.
Bringing the piece to Western Washington created a number of headaches for Carpenter, from government red tape to anonymous death threats, but he was eventually permitted to purchase the statue for $13,000. He incurred at least twice that expense having it disassembled and shipped.
"I don't drink a lot of beer. I don't have a lot of fancy things," Carpenter said. "If I want to buy a statue, I'll buy a statue."
Having the statue in his backyard brought some scandalized reactions.
"Yes, I've had a few idiots call me up and say that this had something to do with communism," Carpenter said. "I don't know anything about Lenin. It's a piece of art. It's a piece of art that was going to be destroyed. It's a piece of art that, like so many pieces of art, that have been destroyed in the past because people change philosophies. They change their politics and they get rid of the old images."
Carpenter died in a car crash not long after our interview. His family put the piece up for sale and arranged for it to be kept on private property in Fremont until a new owner could be found. That was nearly 30 years ago.
The sculpture has occasionally been dressed in silly clothes, sometimes defaced, and even rigged with a loud horn along with a sign reading "pull my finger." Lenin appears to hold no authority over the people of Seattle.
“I look at the red paint that someone's added to his hand, posters on his backside. I've seen him in a tutu. I don't think he's respected here. I think he's ridiculed,” Carpenter's former wife Fran Dodson told KING 5 News in 2017.
Dodson said her husband would have liked the reaction.
“I think he could also enjoy the value of how it’s making people think."
To watch the full version of our story from 1993, visit KING 5 Evening on YouTube.