Large monument dedicated to anticommunist resistance to be erected in Bucharest

Wings/Aripi, a monument dedicated to anticommunist resistance made by Romanian artist Mihai Buculei, will be installed in Bucharest’s Free Press Square this fall. The monument’s wings weigh 130 tons, and have a height of 28 meters. The monument’s project started in 2003 through a government decision. According to Traian Radu Negrei, director of Bucharest’s Monuments and Tourism Heritage Administration, this project took so long due to financial reasons and complicated technical aspects, reports local Mediafax. The total budget for the monument amounts to RON 9 million (some EUR 2 million), plus VAT, said Traian Radu Negrei. Also, the monument’s transportation and installation required a budget of RON 4.2 million (under EUR 1 million), VAT included. The new monument will be installed in the same place where a statue of Russian Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was sitting during the communist period. Lenin's statue was removed in early 1990, after the fall of the communist regime in Romania. Several modernist works have been displayed in its place since them, some of them stirring controversies. Romania was under a communist regime between 1960s and 1989. Nicolae Ceausescu was a Romanian communist politician. He was Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the country’s second and last Communist leader. Ceausescu’s government was overthrown in the December 1989 revolution, and he and his wife were executed following a televised two-hour court session. More than 4 in 10 Romanians believe that life in Romania is worse now than in the communist era Communism vs. democracy: what would Romanians choose? Most Romanians believe former communist dictator Ceausescu was the best President Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com