VI Lenin badge picture gallery

Posted on 31/08/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin

VI Lenin badge picture gallery

I don’t really know when the wearing of badges with the image of VI Lenin started to become common place in the Soviet Union.

Images of the first Bolshevik leader were used soon after his death, especially in photo-montages, for example, promoting the scheme of the ‘Electrification of the whole country’. The Soviets had long understood that in a (at that time but quickly diminishing as literacy campaigns took root) predominantly peasant country with high levels of illiteracy that the visual image – especially in the form of cheap to produce posters – were an effective weapon to get over the government’s message. This was later stepped up during the 1930s with the programmes of collectivisation of agriculture and the industrialisation of the country in the Five Year Plans.

Yes, this was propaganda – but which society before or since hasn’t used all the methods to hand to get across their message?

Also, in the 1920s images of Vladimir Ilyich would have been common in state and public buildings. (This happens in the present day in the USA where there’s always an image of the present President in public buildings down to and including post offices – so not a uniquely Soviet phenomenon.) However, I don’t know to what extent this practice would have developed in private houses.

(In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea you will find the image of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in virtually every home – normally the two of them side by side. However, I have never seen an example where the image of the present leader (Kim Jong Un) is on display in either a public or private forum. It is almost virtually impossible for foreigners to acquire a badge similar to those which every citizen wears in public.)

Returning to the Soviet Union I have not come across any badges with the image of Soviet leaders (and here I’m talking principally about VI Lenin, JV Stalin and FE Dzerzhinsky – the only three I have seen personally depicted on a badge – I’m ignoring here the traitorous Gorbachev and the vodka sodden idiot Yeltsin) prior to the 1970s. If there have been personal badges earlier they tended to be of a Red Star or a Hammer and Sickle – and from the early days the Hammer and Plough. But nothing of the leadership.

1970 saw the hundredth anniversary of the birth of VI Lenin – and many of the badges produced made direct reference to that anniversary. My assumption is that in an effort to boost their credibility (and to piggy-back on the admiration the people of the Soviet Union had for the first Bolshevik leader) the then Revisionist leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union instigated the wearing of a small badge with Lenin’s image. It must be remembered that this was only a few years after the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China which included the wearing of a badge with the image of Chairman Mao.

Whenever the mass production of these badges started – and for whatever reason – there may be many readers who haven’t had the opportunity to see examples of these images of VI Lenin. Hence, the slide show below to rectify that omission.

Also included are a few examples of badges with the image of JV Stalin. These have been produced in very recent years and, to the best of my knowledge, none were ever produced in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

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Monument to the Militia of the Proletarsky district – Moscow

Posted on 27/08/2025 by Michael

Monument to the Militia of Proletarsky district

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Monument to the Militia of the Proletarsky district – Moscow

Turning right just a few minutes walk from the street entrance to the Avtozavodskaya Metro station (the one that has some of the most impressive mosaics at platform level in the whole of the Moscow Metro system) is another impressive piece of art work from the Socialist period. This is the Monument to the Militia of the Proletarsky district which stands in the square at the beginning of the wide Avtozavodskaya Avenue.

It was inaugurated on 6 May 1980 and is dedicated to the inhabitants of the Proletarsky district of Moscow who died on all fronts during the Great Patriotic War.

The team that created the monument were; sculptors Fedor Dmitrievitch Fiveysky and Nina Grigorievna Skrynnikova; architect PPI Studenikin; engineer B Dubovoy.

The principal theme of the monument is the unity of the battle front and the home front.

We are presented by a symbolic banner of victory with a central flag pole and the banner fluttering in the wind. Towards the base of the mast are the numbers – in relief – 1941 and 1945 (the duration of the Great Patriotic War) with a small, polished, copper star between the two numbers. On the side facing towards the Metro station, considered to be the front of the monument, on the right, is a group of the armed, civilian militia marching towards the conflict. On the left are uniformed Red Army soldiers, gesturing and looking in different directions. All the individuals are male – there’s no female presence on the sculpture.

At the rear the emphasis is on the home front. Notice the apartment buildings, in the centre on the left hand side, which are surrounded by anti-aircraft guns. Barrage balloons are in the sky and at the back smoke is billowing out of factory chimneys. Rows of trucks are coming off the production line, destined for the front, and shells, ammunition and weapons are also shown as products of the factories. On the extreme left, on the edge, can be made out anti-tank defences which also constitute the monument at the point on the outskirts of Moscow where the Nazi attack was halted. (This is on the way to the present Sheremetyevo airport.)

High up, above the inscription, is a large Star, indicating this is a Socialist Moscow that is fighting and being defended by the Red Army and its people.

The inscription reads, in Russian;

Подвиг пролетариев, павших за свободу и независимость Родины, навсегда останется в памяти народа. Вечная слава героям

which translates as;

The exploit of the proletarians who have fallen for the freedom and independence of the homeland will forever remain in the memory of the people. Eternal glory to the heroes.

At the base of the mast, at the back, are the names of the sculptural/architectural team of the creators of the monument.

The sculpture is 15 metres high and the design is of copper sheeting forged on a steel framework. The whole structure rests on a stepped, polished, red granite base.

During the May 9th holiday this monument is the site of various celebratory events by both civilian and military organisations – the aftermath of one such which can be seen in some of the photographs.

(If you were to turn left from the entrance of Avtozavodskaya Metro station, go to the next junction and cross the road you will find yourself next to ‘VI Lenin amongst the fir trees’ at Avtozavodskaya Street, 23.)

Location;

Avtozavodskaya Square.

GPS;

55.70753 N

37.65856 E

How to get there;

Just a short walk from the entrance of Avtozavodskaya Metro station, on Line 2.

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Obelisk of Glory – Aktobe – Kazakhstan

Posted on 21/08/2025 by Michael

Obelisk of Glory – Aktobe – 01

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Obelisk of Glory – Aktobe – Kazakhstan

Of all the post-Soviet countries in Western Asia Kazakhstan appears to be the one that still maintains a real connection to the Soviet past. This is reflected in the maintenance – and even existence – of those public statues and monuments that celebrated and commemorated Soviet achievements. Statues of VI Lenin might have been removed from certain locations but other monuments that remain are still treated with an element of respect. This respect reaches its peak, if you like, when it comes to commemoration of the Great Patriotic War.

One such monument is the Obelisk of Glory in Aktobe. This was inaugurated in August 1970 in honour of the people from the region who died for their homeland during the Great Patriotic War (what the ‘West’ calls the Second World War). The monument is now located in the central part of the new city of Aktobe on Aliya Moldagulova Avenue.

Obelisk of Glory – Aktobe – original location

However, this is not its original location. It once stood in front of the House of the Soviets on Oktyabrsky Boulevard (now renamed Abai Avenue) but was moved to its present location in 1984 when a statue of VI Lenin (since removed) was erected on its site.

Major changes were made to the monument – not to the principal column but the surrounds – in its present location but I’m not exactly sure when. From the information I’ve been able to gather it was more likely in 2015 in preparation for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism. Something like 160 tons of granite, from the Kurdai deposit in the Almaty region, were brought to Aktobe to construct the wall and the curbs in the area you can see now.

The principal element of the monument is a tall, 18 metre, obelisk into which is incorporated an image of a Red Armyman. He is depicted wearing an overcoat that was more appropriate to the Civil War/War Intervention in the immediate years following the October Revolution as many of important battles against foreign supported reaction took place in western Asia. On a monument that is ostensibly to commemorate the war of 1941 to 1945 the inclusion of an anachronistic element such as the overcoat could be to draw a parallel between the two conflicts – both of which were existential to the Soviet Union.

He wears a Budenovka hat with the clear outline of a star and his right hand is raised high above his head in which he holds a sword; his left hand is clenched into a fist. (This is very reminiscent of the soldier on the top of the pillar at the Monument to the Fallen of the NKVD in Stalingrad.) There’s an Eternal Flame burning to the right of the monument. This is unusual as in many locations, were there’s evidence of the presence of an Eternal Flame, the fire has long been allowed to go out. It is reported that the torch for the lighting of this flame came from the Field of Mars in Leningrad – I assume in 1970 when the monument was in its original location.

The architect was T. Dzhanibekov and the sculptor N. Sobolev. However, I’m not sure how much involvement either of them had in the remodelling that took place since its original inauguration.

Obelisk of Glory – Aktobe – 02

The monument is the centre of commemorations annually on May 9th (Victory Day in the Soviet Union and has become more important in recent years in the Russian Federation) and, as in many locations in the post-Soviet Union where the fire still burns at an Eternal Flame, brides and bridegrooms visit the monument on their wedding day.

The modern monument to Aliya Moldagulova is along the same avenue, about a kilometre to the south west, and the museum in her honour is across the road, on the left, just before the memorial complex