The last major statue of Vladimir Lenin still standing in Germany has been granted a reprieve. Local authorities in the northern city of Schwerin, formerly part of communist East Germany, said they have decided against removing the four-meter bronze likeness of the communist revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union.
They agreed, however, to add a plaque to the statue that will explain Lenin's often brutal political legacy and also point out that on the maternal side his family had strong links to the local region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The decision followed a divisive, two-year debate as to whether the statue should suffer the same fate as one that long towered over a square in communist East Berlin.
That statue of Lenin was toppled after the fall of the communist regime in 1989 in a memorable operation of which footage was included in the 2003 international hit film Good Bye Lenin!
The debate in Schwerin was instigated by a member of the municipal council whose father was deported to the Soviet Union and shot in the 1950s for opposing communism.
Christoph Priesemann, from the liberal opposition Free Democratic Party, described Lenin as the "worst tyrant of the 20th century" and demanded that the statute be demolished.
But others, including members of the political successor to the communist party that once ruled East Germany, countered that this would amount to "tearing up a page of German history."
（AFP）
依然立在德國的最後一尊大型列寧雕像，已暫時逃過被拆除的危機。屬於前東德共產政權一部份的北部史威林市相關當局說，他們已決議，不拆除四公尺高的這位共產革命家暨蘇聯創建者的青銅雕像。
但他們同意在雕像上加一個牌匾，說明他創立的殘酷政體的遺害，以及他的母系家族和當地梅克倫堡-西波美拉尼亞地區的深厚淵源。
這個決定歷經兩年的辯論後才達成，分裂的雙方激辯這座雕像是否應和共產東柏林某廣場中歷史悠久且高聳的列寧像一樣，遭受被拆除的命運。
那座列寧雕像於一九八九年東德共產政權垮台後，在一場令人難忘的行動中被推倒，這段影片也在二ＯＯ三年的國際熱門電影《再見列寧》中重現。
引發這場辯論的是史威林市議會的一位議員，他的父親被放逐到蘇聯，且在一九五Ｏ年代因為反對共產主義被槍殺。
克里斯多夫．普利斯曼屬於德國追求自由主義的反對黨─自由民主黨，他形容列寧是「二十世紀最殘暴的暴君」，並提出拆除列寧雕像的要求。
但其他市議員，包括前身是東德共產黨的政黨成員，都認為拆除這尊雕像等於是「撕毀一頁德國歷史」。
（法新社／翻譯：袁星塵）
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