The statue had been located in the southern coastal city of Kotka, Yle reports, and was in fact gifted by the then-Soviet controlled Tallinn City Government, in 1979, Yle says (link in Finnish).

The statue's sculptor was Matti Varik.

The development comes following a wave of such statue removals in Finland, never a part of the Soviet Union but due to geo-political considerations a country which had had to foster cordial relations with its neighbor to the east.

Kotka's authorities had decided the statue had to go back in June.

An addition to the statue from Polish sculptor Krzysztof Bednarski from 1995, by which time the iron curtain had fallen and Poland was no longer under the Communist yoke, added a comedic element to the statue of the Soviet mass murderer.

Entitled "Lenin's missing arm", the installation had as its name suggests made up for the lack of a left hand on the Soviet original (see photo below).

This "arm" has also gone into storage, while the Kymenlaakso Museum is to decide on the statue's future, Yle reports.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, successor nation to the Soviet Union, has prompted not only statue removal in Finland, but also that country's application to join NATO, currently being processed.

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