The Lenin statue was presented as a gift to the City of Kotka in 1979. Image: Mikko Savolainen / Yle
After 1917 revolution in Russia, Lenin established a communist dictatorship which oversaw mass killings and political repression.
This is the last large monument of Lenin on the streets of Finland.
The statue, sculpted by Estonian artist Matti Varikin, was presented as a gift in 1979 by Kotka's twin city Tallinn.
The statue has been vandalised and damaged several times over the years, and had been the subject of an intense, years-long local debate even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
Proposals submitted to both the city and municipal councils argued that the statue should be moved to a local museum, as the monument insulted the memory of people who died as a result of Soviet war crimes.
The Kotka-based Kymenlaakso Museum had requested that the statue be kept in place, but that a plaque describing its history be added to the pedestal.
The museum had also proposed transferring the statue to the Lenin Museum in Tampere, but this offer was not accepted.
At a city council meeting on Monday evening, delegates voted 41-9 in favour of removing the Lenin statue.
Authorities in Turku also removed a statue of Lenin in April, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Similar to the monument in Kotka, the presence of the statue in Turku had sparked significant public debate since being given to the city by authorities Leningrad — now St.Petersburg — in 1977.
