The monument stands. People shrink as they approach it on stairs that remind me of those on a Mayan pyramid. Over the years millions of people have been sacrificed in the name of the ideology on which this was built, but no matter how large a thing or an idea humans create, it all can be turned to dust. As a matter of fact in 2003 it was decided to replace this with a grand Orthodox cathedral, but due to opposition the location was changed. Some evidence from the painful past in the form of communist monuments should remain as a reminder. In Santayana's famous words: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."