Soon you won’t be able to remember the Sixties even if you were there.

Deputies of the city council of Lutsk, Ukraine, have decided to remelt its Lenin monument into church bells, the council press-service reports.

Since he was dismantled in 1991, Lenin has been stored by the local council. But now he will be transferred to Novovolynsk Foundry for smelting. Apparently, ‘Bells from Lenin’ will go to Holy Spirit Cathedral and Ascension Church, the parishes of which have already submitted the required applications.

The funny part is, of course, that religion, ‘the opium of the people’, should become the beneficiary of bolshevism. Or is this what they call ‘divine retribution’ ?

This particular Lenin monument in Lutsk was erected amid cheering, flag-waving pioneers, in honour of the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution. At the time, the newspaper, ‘The Young Guard’ wrote: ‘The 6th of October 1967 is very close to the hearts of everyone, since this monument has beautified this tree-lined, forever young Lutsk. This date will be written in golden letters in the annals of our great Motherland’.

Well, never say forever. Last November, another four villages lost their Lenins and now ‘only’ fifty remain in Zhytomyr region. The local mayor reckons this will give Ukrainians the opportunity to ‘cleanse themselves spiritually’.

Certainly the hills can be alive with the sound of church bells, even if they might be considered bells from hell.

1966 Pioneer picture from drugoi’s live journal