The tower was the last remaining stronghold of the regime. It stood in the centre of the city, casting its shadow across the streets and buildings as a reminder of what had gone before. Portraits of the Great Leader had been set into the concrete slabs that made up the sides of the tower, his stern visage gazing down on the scurrying citizens. Party slogans reminded the faithful of their duty and castigated the backsliders. Of course, we could not allow such a symbol of authority to remain.
The Revolutionary Committee had debated what should be done with the building. If we kept it as the headquarters of our nation, then we would have been seen as just taking the place of the old guard. We considered opening it up to the citizens of our new nation - a People's Palace if you will. But it held too many memories, too many associations for its past to be ignored. Some had suggested that we turn it into a museum or Hall of Remembrance, preserving it to show people the excesses that had been carried out. But, if we had done this, some would have seen the tower as a rallying point.
No. In the end we decided that there was only one thing we could do: destroy it.
We set our engineers the task of planning the tower's demolition. They set about weakening its structure, removing floors and walls so that it would fall into itself. Then they created chambers within the structure, filling them with explosives. It took a year for the building to be readied for its final moments.
Citizens gathered from all over the country to see the fall of the tower. They lined the streets of the city, pressing against the barriers that had been erected to keep them a safe distance from the demolition site. At the appointed hour there was a series of explosions all around the tower, shrouding it in clouds of smoke and dust. A deep bass note shook the ground and, as the smoke cleared, the tower began to collapse. It fell into itself, becoming a heap of rubble and twisted metal. The crowd cheered then went home.
The next day, the workmen moved in to clear the site and begin building the monument to our revolution.
