Vladimir Ilich Lenin hardly needs an introduction: founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder and first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state.

Arguably the century's most significant political leader, his statue adorned countless cities and towns of the former Soviet Union. Tovste was no exception.

For many years, a bust of Lenin graced a small park next to the Roman Catholic church. However with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tovste joined many other towns in shedding the vestiges of the past.

The statue was unceremoniously hoisted into a cart which took it to an unknown fate.