Lenin, Monuments to (entry)

Categories / Architecture/Sculpture, Monuments
V.I. LENIN, MONUMENTS TO. After the death of V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) in 1924, the Soviet People's Commissariat issued a decree to immortalise the memory of the creator of the Soviet Government. The first monuments to Lenin were opened in August 1926 near the Nevsky Factory on Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue and near the factory Krasny Vyborzhets on Sverdlovskaya Embankment. Creating monuments and busts of Lenin became an official tradition; their opening was set for "Red Dates" on the Soviet calendar. The majority of monuments are typical and possess no particular artistic value. By the beginning of the 1990s, there were about 100 monuments to Lenin at factories, institutions, and on squares and streets throughout Leningrad and its suburbs. Among the most famous monuments are one near the Finland Railway Station, of Lenin on an Armoured Car (1926, sculptor S.A. Evseev, architects V.A. Shchuko, V.G. Gelfreich); near Smolny (1927, sculptor V.V. Kozlov), the model of which was repeated many times in various cities throughout the country; the memorial monument, Hut Near Razliv Lake (1928, architect A.I. Gegello); the Constructivist monument at 55 Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island (1930, sculptors Kozlov, A.V. Kryzhanovskaya); and the monument in the Neoclassical style near the Warsaw Railway Station (1949, sculptor N.V. Tomsky). For the 90th anniversary of the birth of Lenin, the Southern Sea-Side Park was laid in 1960, with a memorial plaque; for the 100th anniversary of his birth, a monument was erected in front of the House of Soviets on Moskovskaya Square (1970, sculptor M.K. Anikushin, architect V.A. Kamensky), which became the tallest monument in the city (16 metres). Steam Locomotive № 293, on which Lenin came back to Petrograd in October 1917, was permanently installed on the platform of the Finland Railway Station (a gift from the Finnish government). Even after 1991, most monuments to Lenin were kept in place.

References: Памятники и мемориальные доски В. И. Ленину в Ленинграде: Крат. справ. / Сост. Э. Н. Порецкина. Л., 1971; Калинин Б. Н., Юревич П. П. Памятники и мемориальные доски Ленинграда: Справ. 3-е изд., доп. и перераб. Л., 1979.

A. A. Alexeev. Anikushin Mikhail Konstantinovich
Evseev Sergey Alexandrovich
Gegello Alexander Ivanovich
Gelfreich Vladimir Georgievich
Kamensky Valentin Alexandrovich
Kozlov Gavriil Ignatievich
Kryzhanovskaya Anna Vladimirovna
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Shchuko Vladimir Alexeevich
Tomsky Nikolay Vasilievich
Bolshoy Ave of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 55
Moskovskaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Obukhovskoy Oborony Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Sverdlovskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Памятники и мемориальные доски В. И. Ленину в Ленинграде: Крат. справ. / Сост. Э. Н. Порецкина. Л., 1971 1926
1970