To the Citizens of Russia

VI Lenin Exhibition at the State History Museum, Moscow

At the moment there’s a special exhibition attached to State History Museum, one which documents some of the life and work of VI Lenin. Although there’s only a fraction on display here of what used to be on show in the now closed Central Lenin Museum (which used to be housed in what is now the War of 1812 Museum) this exhibition is still worth the visit. Unfortunately, you have to pay the high admission price to enter the State Historical Museum – which, after the pre-historic exhibits is basically a glorification of Tsarism – to get to this exhibition, which is located on the third floor.

To get a better idea of what the Russian State did hold about Comrade Lenin have a look at the book, The Central Lenin Museum, produced in 1986.

What to look out for – amongst other things:

a porthole and sailor’s tally from the Cruiser Aurora;
the cap that (the clean shaven) Lenin wore when he was on an island in Finland before his return to Petrograd to lead the October Revolution;
the original poster of ‘Comrade Lenin cleanses the world of evil spirits’;
Lenin’s Rolls Royce – on the ground floor right where tickets are checked and possible to miss;
the painting of the Central Committee meeting which made the decision to go for everything and to make a Proletarian Revolution and not just a bourgeois change of guard – with a disinterested Trotsky skulking on the extreme right hand side;
the painting of the assassination attempt on Lenin’s life on 30th August 1918;
the gun that was used in the assassination attempt;
the light bulb whose filament is a profile of Lenin’s head;
Lenin’s death mask;
early Lenin badges;
early Soviet coinage and bank notes;
the first symbol of the Soviet Union – a hammer and a plough – before the adoption of the Hammer and Sickle;
the felt hat used by the first Red Army soldiers.

Duration of the Exhibition;

The Exhibition will be in the Historical Museum until 18 August 2025. It is located on the 3rd Floor, separate from the general displays and entrance is by way of the same ticket that gets you into the general museum.

Location;

Revolution Square

GPS;

55.75546 N

37.61771 E

How to get there;

Right in the historic centre of Moscow, at the opposite end of Red Square to the St Basil’s Cathedral, right behind the equestrian statue of Marshal Zhukov.