Soviet Open Air Museum of Petru Costin – near Chișinău – Moldova

Posted on 15/11/2025 by Michael

Soviet Open Air Museum of Petru Costin

Soviet Open Air Museum of Petru Costin – near Chișinău – Moldova

This is the outside companion piece to the Petru Costin Gallery in Ialoveni. It is home to those artefacts (including a small plane and a couple of helicopters) that were either designed to be placed in the open air or are too big to be inside the gallery.

There’s a description of many of the items – so you can know who is actually represented and also at times an indication of where they came from, when and why they were removed. However, there’s no information on how they ended up in a field on the side of a valley in central Moldova.

There’s only one image of JV Stalin and that has been heavily vandalised. This initial attack would have taken place in the early 1960s (I would imagine) but it remained otherwise intact for the next 30 years during the period of Revisionist control of the first worker’s state. Where? It’s not known.

Not surprisingly there are many statues/busts of VI Lenin but amongst the collection there are also one or two surprises. There’s a head and shoulders of both a young and an older Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife. There’s a bust of Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space, who I would have thought would have survived the collapse of the Soviet Union as he represented a Russian as well as a Soviet achievement. Also, not a surprise, is the presence of a number of images of FE Dzerzhinsky (‘Iron Felix’), the first head of the Cheka.

YM Sverdlov, barely lived for two years after the October Revolution as he succumbed to the ‘Spanish’ flu pandemic in 1919 (a matter that rarely gets mentioned in histories of the Revolution but which must have had an impact on both sides in the Civil War/War of Intervention. There are a couple of busts of SM Kirov, the leader of the Bolsheviks in Leningrad who was assassinated in 1934. Military leaders are also represented, including VI Chapayev and MV Frunze, who both played a crucial role in the war to protect the Revolution during the Civil War against the White, reactionary forces.

There’s a couple of busts of Karl Marx but Frederick Engels isn’t represented. There are also a couple of statues of MI Kalinin, the Soviet President for just under 20 years – one of which doesn’t quite look right. The large, headless red torso is almost certainly that of JV Stalin – it has his classic stance. The whole statue must have been immense but there’s no more information about where it might have stood. It’s only speculation (based only on its size) that it might be what remains of the statue that stood at the entrance to the Volga-Don Canal, a little south of Stalingrad, which was replaced by a statue of VI Lenin.

There were also some statues – and pieces of statues – which wouldn’t have been controversial but had just, presumably, become ‘unloved’, or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This statue park is similar to the Park of the Fallen/Muzeon Art Park in Moscow, the Museum of Socialist Art – Sofia and Memento Park close to Budapest.

Location;

2J94+54 Scoreni

That doesn’t look like an address but if you put it into a map search it will get you there.

How to get there;

This is a very unfriendly public transport location. The museum is about 5 km north-west of the town of Suruceni and the museum itself is along a dirt road just under a kilometre from the main road. It goes downhill (steeply) which means it comes up hill even more steeply. Consider the option of talking to Natalia at the Petru Costin Gallery in Ialoveni. It might turn out a bit more expensive but it will get you there much easier.

GPS;

47.01796 N

28.60530 E

Petru Costin Gallery – Ialoveni – Moldova

Posted on 15/11/2025 by Michael

Petru Costin Gallery – Ialoveni

Petru Costin Gallery – Ialoveni – Moldova

This gallery in a small town just on the edge of Chișinău (full official name Galeria colecțiilor Petru Costin a consiliului raional Ialoveni) is a strange place.

Housed in what was a school for special needs children before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 this four story ‘museum’ is certainly unique. Petru Costin was a Romanian Customs Official and hoarder. He collected anything and everything from Moldova during the Socialist period – together with some earlier religious works.

It’s not really curated in the sense you would expect in a ‘normal’ museum which makes visiting some of the rooms overwhelming. There’s little in the way of description of most of the articles and missing dates on some items makes if difficult to recognise any development in the technology, for example, in the electrical equipment rooms.

Although there are items related to the decoration and propaganda produced in the Soviet Union, for example, many hundreds of enamel badges in one of the first floor rooms – but surprisingly no badges of VI Lenin (unless I missed them in the general chaos) – those especially interested in such material have to wait until you are taken to the very last room on the ground floor.

This would have originally have been the school’s assembly hall and is the largest single room in the building. It’s packed with statues, busts, paintings, banners, pendants and general ‘memorabilia’ from the Soviet era. Although there has been some element of organisation of the material there is so much, and so little space, that the curator just seems to have eventually given up.

That’s a shame. We know that all museums have much more material than they have on public display (I read recently an article where the V and A Museum in London is trying to make more of its collection ‘in storage’ available to the general public) but the decision in this gallery is to make everything available on show – even if it means it’s difficult to properly see and appreciate what’s there. I suppose the only solution would be more space – but that would provide its own problems.

Most museums have so much to see that you end up missing some of the most interesting items – not seeing the wood for the trees. And that’s even more the case here.

I didn’t even make a start on counting the images of VI Lenin, both in statuary and in other forms. JV Stalin makes a number of appearances followed, in number, by images of FE Dzerzhinsky, I understand both Lenin and Stalin and I can appreciate the role ‘Iron Felix’ played in the early defence of the Revolution but I have never been able to work out exactly why (amongst some of the other important Bolshevik leaders of the 1920s and 30s) he seemed to be so respected by so many of the Soviet population – even into the Revisionist period.

The slide show below aims to pick out some detail from the chaos – perhaps a second visit might be warranted to discover what I might have missed the first time.

Location;

Strada Stefan cel Mare 4, Ialoveni

Telephone;

373 (0)69294556

GPS;

46.95136 N

28.78376 E

How to get there;

Trolleybus No 36 (destination Ialoveni) heading south-east down Boulevard Stefan cel Mare in Chișinău will take you within a few minutes walk of the gallery. Get off just before the roundabout at the bottom of the very long hill. Be careful if you return to Chișinău on the no. 36. The second half of the return route is completely different from the outward and you end up close to the Triumphal Arch by the back way.

Cost is 10 leu (6 leu for Chișinău and 4 leu for Ialoveni).

The matrushka No. 35, from the Central Bus Station, will also take you there.

Website – in Romanian only;

A companion piece to the internal gallery (and well worth the effort of visiting) is the Petru Costin Open Air Museum (see the separate page on this blog for what is on display there) but this is not easy if you are dependent on public transport. One of the best options is to talk to (the English speaking) Natalia at the Gallery. She can arrange for one of the local volunteers (or a local taxi driver) to take you there, wait whilst you walk around the site and bring you back to Ialoveni. Cost around 400 leu/€20.

Tsaritsyn and the War of Intervention – 1918-1922

Posted on 05/08/2025 by Michael

The Defence of Red Tsaritsyn

Tsaritsyn and the War of Intervention – 1918-1922

The area around what was then the town of Tsaritsyn (now Stalingrad – sometimes erroneously referred to as ‘Volgograd’) was a major battle area during the war perpetrated against the nascent Workers’ State by the combined forces of the capitalist and imperialist countries. At times called the Civil War it was more a War of (Foreign) Intervention in support of the reactionary and monarchist ‘White’ forces. After four years of trying to destroy each other the members of the ‘opposing’ armies (during what came to be known as the First World War) fourteen imperialist powers found common ground when it came to the attempt to destroy the first Socialist state in the world.

These attempts were eventually defeated and by 1922 the country that was soon to call itself the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics had eradicated these forces from the territory of the workers’ Republic. However, this was not the final battle as the country had to contend with internal enemies (fought against during the 1930s) and then had to contend with the next imperialist effort to destroy Socialism in the form of the German Nazi invasion in 1941. At that time the city of Stalingrad again showed itself as prepared to sacrifice anything to defeat the invader.

JV Stalin was one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party who was sent to this part of the front and his involvement can be read about in Stalin and the Armed Forces of the USSR, by KE Voroshilov.

There are three locations in modern Stalingrad where the tumultuous events of 1918-1919 are commemorated.

Monument to the Heroes of the Defence of Red Tsaritsyn

The first is the Monument to the Heroes of the Defence of Red Tsaritsyn located on Metallurgov Square in the Krasnooktyabrsky district. The sculpture was installed in 1961 on a pedestal lined with polished dark gray, granite slabs. The monument is dedicated to the heroes of the War of Intervention, including the workers of the local factories who took an active part in the defence of Tsaritsyn against the White Guards in 1918-1919.

The sculpture is made up of six figures. In the centre, standing, is what appears to be an officer. He has his right arm outstretched to his side, angled slightly behind him, with an open palm. This gesture normally signifies a call for others, unseen, to come and join the fight. Strangely, he is wearing a long sword, the scabbard of which he is grasping in his left hand.

To his left are two figures that have a connection, both emotionally and physically. The first is an older woman and she is probably the mother of the other figure, a young male. He looks somewhat nervous but his mother is trying to calm him with her hand on his right shoulder, saying that this is what he must do to protect her and the city of his birth. He is not in uniform so represents the young factory workers who joined the fight when the city was under siege. They are further united in that both of them have a hand gripping a rifle which has its butt on the ground.

Going around to the back of the sculpture the next figure is a male in a naval uniform. He has a rifle slung over his right shoulder which he is in the process of making it ready for use as his gaze is into the distance with the impression it is from there that the enemy is approaching.

Next to him is a soldier in the uniform of the newly formed Red Army. He is looking in the same direction as the sailor and his right hand is on the trigger mechanism of a Maxim machine gun.

The final figure of the group is the only one who is not standing. This is a worker (in civilian clothing) and his head is bandaged signifying he has been wounded. However, his left hand rests on body of the machine gun and he is holding his rifle in his right. He might be wounded but he is still prepared to take part in the fight.

The plaque on the front of the plinth reads (in Russian);

героям обороны Красного Царицына Вечная слава

meaning

Eternal Glory to the heroes of the Defence of Red Tsaritsyn

The plaque on the back threatens criminal charges against anyone who causes damage to the monument but this appears to have been installed soon after the monument was inaugurated as it makes reference to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Location;

Prospekt Metallurgov, 1А

GPS;

48.76612 N

44.56121 E

How to get there:

Nearest Metro/tram station is Zavod Krasny Oktyabr and it’s a few minutes walk, going out of town, on the opposite side of the road to the tram line.

Mass Grave of Sailors of the Volga Military Flotilla and Factory Workers

The second monument is close to the group sculpture above, being only a few hundred metres closer to the Metro stop and in the park area that separates the housing from the major road leading north out of the city. This is the Mass Grave of Sailors of the Volga Military Flotilla and Factory Workers.

The monument for this grave consists of a single individual – a sailor from the recently formed Socialist navy based in Tsaritsyn. He is sitting on the ground, his body twisted slightly to his right as he props himself up with his right forearm and has his left hand on the ground to give him further support. As is the individual in the main group sculpture he appears to be wounded but the fact that he still has his right hand on his rifle shows his willingness to fight on – however debilitated he might be.

He is wearing his sailors cap, with the ribbon hanging down which tells us he’s a sailor but, for a reason I don’t understand, he is shirtless

The inscription, on the plinth of the statue, reads in Russian;

Здесь похоронены моряки и рабочие, побшие в боях за Царицын в сентябре 1919 г[ода]

which translates as;

Sailors and workers who died in the battles for Tsaritsyn in September 1919 are buried here

Location;

Prospekt Imeni V.I. Lenina

GPS;

48.76355 N

44.56966 E

How to get there;

Almost directly across the road from the Zavod Krasny Oktyabr metro/tram stop.

Memorial History Museum

The Hammer and the Plough

The third location dedicated to the battle for Red Tsaritsyn during the War of Intervention is the what is now known as the Memorial History Museum. I say ‘dedicated to the battle for Red Tsaritsyn’ but that, now, isn’t strictly true. The museum, located in an early 20th century estate house, was originally opened in 1937 as the Museum of the Defence of Tsaritsyn and was dedicated to JV Stalin – due to his role in the battles here in 1918 and 1919.

However, at some unknown time in the past it was decided that the museum should also recognise the White forces that fought against the young Bolshevik, Socialist state. At one time there was a statue of JV Stalin in front of the main entrance to the building but that’s long gone and now there’s even a large, stone Orthodox Cross by the entrance.

Museum of the Defence of Tsaritsyn

Inside there’s been a half-hearted attempt to represent the White (reactionary and monarchist forces supported by the European imperialist countries) in a ‘BBC inspired’ ‘give both sides of the story’ manner. This makes the whole concept of the museum somewhat ludicrous. No one in Stalingrad would ever contemplate presenting the invading Nazis in a favourable light in the Battle of Stalingrad Panoramic Museum, just a kilometre or two up the road, but the reactionary authorities got away with it in this museum.

The museum, nonetheless, is still worth a visit if not for;

the mock up of an armoured train – something I hadn’t seen before;
the horse drawn carriage with a Maxim machine gun mounted at the back;
some impressive, original banners;
a collection of posters from the period; and
an example of a small badge with an image of the Hammer and Plough. I assume this was what was considered before the Hammer and Sickle was adopted (but, so far, I haven’t been able to find out anything more about how the now famous symbol of the Soviet Union was eventually accepted as being representative of the country’s construction of Socialism.)