This comrade has gone from “red” to blue and yellow.
A famed Lower East Side statue of the former revolutionary and Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which is now on top of an apartment building at 178 Norfolk St., has been illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
The 18-foot copper statue stood for years on a rental building called Red Square at 250 Houston St. The communist leader’s likeness faced south toward Wall Street with his arm extended.
Michael Rosen, the developer behind Red Square, said in a 2016 interview that he saw the statue as “an homage to the history of the Lower East Side, which had been a hotbed of political thought.”
He arranged the transfer of Lenin in 2016 to a nearby apartment building when Red Square was sold.
It’s unclear who is now shining the lights on Lenin.
Rosen, who lives in Vietnam, said he didn’t know.
“But kudos to the person to shine a light on this tragedy,” he said.
Lenin became the first head of the Soviet state in 1917.