VI Lenin in Karakol – Kyrgyzstan

Posted on 29/06/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

VI Lenin in Karakol – Kyrgyzstan

The only remaining statue of VI Lenin in Karakol, a town on the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan, is one that stands facing the large, open square between the University building and the public park in the centre of the town.

Although Comrade Lenin looks down on the square where, in the Soviet past, there would have been various parades and celebrations, and was therefore placed in a ‘suitable’ location, the proportions make the statue look somewhat out of place.

The statue of VI Lenin is life size yet he has been placed on a very tall pillar making him look somewhat lost so high up. The fact that he is located at the end of an avenue across the road from the square further distances him from any events that would have taken place there – a square which itself stretches into the distance.

Further, the statue has suffered the ‘golden treatment’, having been given a coat of gold paint. As I see more of this treatment of Lenin statues I’m starting to wonder if this treatment is a sign of respect or just the reverse. I still haven’t been to decide which not having seen what the original was like, pre-1990 and the so-called ‘independence’ of Kyrgyzstan. That conclusion has been made more difficult due to the fact that (in the summer of 2025) statues of Lenin are being removed in Kyrgyzstan at an increasing rate.

Location;

On the corner of Gebze Street and Tynystanova Street.

GPS;

42.49161 N

78.40014 E

VI Lenin and friends in Family Park – Almaty – Kazakhstan

Posted on 28/06/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin – with friends

VI Lenin and friends in Family Park – Almaty – Kazakhstan

When the capitalist authorities of Almaty decided to relegate the monuments of Socialism to the sidelines they didn’t do as they did in Moscow – where a part of a park by the river was set aside for the Muzeon Art Park – or in Sofia – where the Museum of Socialist Art was established. No, the Kazakhs decided to use the space behind a popular cinema in the city’s biggest public park.

VI Lenin

This is one of the bigger remaining examples of Lenin statues. It bears some similarity with that which is in the small, narrow park behind the Semey Hotel in Semiplatinsk, to the north east of Almaty. There’s a similarity in size and also in the manner in which Vladimir Ilyich is presented. He is standing and is obviously in the course of giving a speech out in the open, in the winter – VI Lenin was renown for going to the workers and making his arguments at factory gates – as he is wearing a large overcoat over his suit. What is significantly different between the two statues is that in Almaty he has carelessly thrown his overcoat off his right shoulder and the edge of it is brushing against the ground. Also, this statue has been subjected to the ‘golden treatment’ and it is now this unnatural colour, not, I’m sure, as it was originally intended.

Maxim Gorky

There’s a very informal of the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky. He is depicted standing outside in the street; dressed in a suit and overcoat (which is open); with his right hand on his hip and his pork pie hat hanging down from his relaxed left arm. It’s as if he’s waiting to meet someone. Whilst waiting someone attacked him with silver paint.

Pavel Mikhailovich Vinogradov

Also in the group is someone of whom I had not heard before. Pavel Vinogradov was a Bolshevik before the outbreak of the First World War. He was eventually arrested for his revolutionary work and sent to the front but he survived that and after the revolution and civil war worked as a Commissar responsible for education in Tashkent. In March 1919 he was a delegate to the 8th Congress of the RCP(b). He later lived, and then died in Alma-Ata (the old name for Almaty) in 1932. His bust sits upon a stone plinth where information of his background is displayed.

Dmitry Andreyevich Furmanov

Furmanov was a writer, revolutionary and also took part in military campaigns in the Civil War. After the Revolution he worked in the propaganda department in the Yaroslavl District before heading off to take an active, fighting, part in the Civil War on the Turkestan Front. He died of meningitis in 1926. His most famous written work (which was translated into English in 1940) was a novel about Vasily Chapaev, a Red Army Commander in the Civil War. His image is depicted in the uniform as an officer in the Red Army with his ornate signature carved into the marble of the plinth.

Mikhail Frunze

Frunze was a revolutionary who rose to prominence in the struggle against the White reactionary (and imperialist supported) forces during the Russian Civil War, eventually becoming commander of the entire Eastern Front. He later was elected to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party and later to its Politburo. His influence in military matters was such that his name was given to the most respected Soviet Military Academy. He is depcited as if giving a speech at a podium, the marble plinth doubling as that podium. There’s a museum dedicated to Mikhail Frunze in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek.

Monument to the October Revolutionaries

This group sculpture was commissioned to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967 and was originally installed at the top end of the wide, tree-lined avenue that is Pushkin Street. (I don’t know when it was moved here.) It depicts revolutionaries of various ethnicities defending the Red Banner, demonstrating the multi-ethnic nature of the Socialist, October, Revolution.

Mikhail Kalinin

Facing VI Lenin, at the opposite end of the small avenue formed by young trees and wooden benches, stands a statue of Mikhail Kalinin. Kalinin was a long time Bolshevik, having been a Party member at the time of the 1905 Revolution. After the Revolution he became the first, titular Head of State, being Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, until his death in 1946.

There’s also a now empty platform but I have no idea what might have stood there.

How to get there;

The exit from Saryarka Metro station is right at the main entrance to the park. Go though the arch and keep to the right as you enter the park, passing the collection of military vehicles and the amusement park on your right. You’ll start to see the statues through the trees on your right hand side.

Location;

Located in a small spur of the northern edge of Family Park.

GPS;

43.227245 N

76.856266 E

VI Lenin – Naryn – Kyrgyzstan

Posted on 26/06/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin – Naryn, Kyrgyzstani

VI Lenin – Naryn – Kyrgyzstan

I don’t know if someone in this part of the world has come across a big load of gold and silver paint but this seems to be the favourite colour to paint many of the existing statues of VI Lenin that remain in Kyrgyzstan (as well as often in Kazakhstan and Russia).

One of the most recent to be ‘discovered’ sits inside the surrounding fence of the Zhastrar sports centre in the southern Kyrgyz town of Narayn. Presently the sports centre is closed – and looks like it has been for some time. By it’s location – right next to the town’s sports stadium – I would assume that during the Soviet period this would have been to town’s public sports centre. Since the early 1990’s investment in any repairs or modernisation probably dried up and the place became unusable. This is, unfortunately, a story that has been repeated across many post-Socialist countries and cities. Newer sporting developments might open up but these will be private and not available to the general population.

It was quite common for statues of VI Lenin to be placed outside such venues, as well as schools and other places of education, so its no real surprise that he stands in this location. However, when the building was fenced off from the public Vladimir Ilyich was caught up in the project and now it is no longer possible to get really close the ‘Founder of the USSR’ – as it says on the plaque on the plinth on which he stands.

Although having been covered in an inappropriate paint – and not carried out exceptionally well and not particularly with an expert brush – the statue looks in a reasonably good condition.

As is usual I have no details about the statue; date of inauguration; reason for being erected; or any information on the sculptor. (I’m beginning to realise they are generic and were just churned out of the factory but there must have been actual sculptors who made the original moulds. Who they were I have no clue.)