VI Lenin in ‘Lenin Park’ – Almaty – Kazakhstan

Posted on 12/06/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin in ‘Lenin Park’ – Almaty

VI Lenin in ‘Lenin Park’, Almaty, Kazakhstan

This statue of VI Lenin, in very good condition (apart from having been painted in gold paint) sits in the centre of a small park which bears his name. I don’t think it is the official name for the park, which, as far as I can see on the maps has no name at all. However, this was how the area was referred to by the local gardeners in a bigger, nearby park, when I was searching for the statue with incomplete information.

This is an interesting statue of VI Lenin. He is seated and leaning forward slightly. In his left hand is a notebook and in his right, which is resting on the back of the chair, he is holding a pen. Comrade Lenin was renown for making notes at the very last minute before he was to give a speech so this is what could be represented here. Perhaps he has asked questions of others, seeking clarification of the facts before he includes them in his presentation. So here we have a statue with a bit of life, a bit of movement.

The statue looked in good condition – apart from (as I’ve already said) being painted in gold paint. I’m sure that wouldn’t have been its original colour but this is not the only example where the Kazakhs have painted a Lenin statue gold. It’s the same for the large, standing statue that can be found in ‘Family Park’, also in Altamy.

The plinth on which the statue stands could do with a little bit of maintenance and the grass on either side is wearing a bit thin but apart from that the location is clean and well maintained – as are many of the parks and green spaces in the city.

As is, unfortunately, often the case I have no more information about the statue, who the sculptor was or when it was installed etc.

Location;

On the corner of Seifullin Avenue and Sholokov Street, on the road to Almaty 1 Railway Station.

How to get there;

There are many buses and trolley-buses that leave the centre of the city heading to the Altamy 1 Railway Station. Many of those run along Seifullin Avenue and the nearest bus stop is only a couple of minutes walk from the park. Examples, bus 18, 30, trolleybus 7.

GPS;

43.335695 N

76.945433 E

VI Lenin in Stalingrad (Volgograd)

VI Lenin in Moscow

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VI Lenin statue – Dekabrskaya Vosstanya Park, Moscow

Posted on 01/10/2024 by Michael

VI Lenin statue – Dekabrskaya Vosstanya Park

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VI Lenin statue – Dekabrskaya Vosstanya Park, Moscow

A very relaxed statue of VI Lenin.

Location;

At the far end of Dekabrskaya Vosstanya Park from the Ulitsa 1905 Goda Metro station.

GPS;

55.759523º N

37.558902º E

Sculptors;

B.I.Dyuzhev

Yu.I.Goltsev

Year;

1963

How to get there by public transport;

Take the metro to Ulitsa 1905 Goda station (on Line 7). On leaving the station at its main entrance, pass the Monument to the Heroes of the 1905-1907 Revolution and cross the road into Dekabrskaya Vosstanya Park. Walk the length of the park and Comrade Lenin is seated in the centre of a small seating area close to the bottom end of the park.

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Monument to VI Lenin on Tverskaya Square

Posted on 24/07/2024 by Michael

Lenin – Tverskaya Square – Ludvig14

More on the USSR

Monument to VI Lenin on Tverskaya Square

Monument to Lenin on Tverskaya Square (Russian: Памятник Ленину на Тверской площади) is a sculpture of V.I. Lenin located at the back of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History building in Moscow. Established in 1940. The authors of the monument were sculptor Sergey Dmitriyevich Merkurov and architect I. A. Frantsuz. The monument has the status of an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

The sculpture of V.I. Lenin is made of red granite. It is installed on a pedestal made of blocks of dark gray granite. Lenin is depicted seated and tilted forward. It seems that he listens carefully to his interlocutor. With his left hand, Lenin leaned on his knee, with a notebook in it. The right hand with a pencil – behind the back of the chair. According to art historian N. D. Sobolevsky, ‘the plastic expression of the sculptural image is in perfect harmony with the psychologically vivid image of Ilyich’. [Perhaps due to a poor translation but I have no idea what that means.]

The location of the monument was not chosen randomly. Lenin repeatedly spoke at the Tverskaya (then Soviet) Square from the balcony of the Moscow City Council building (now Moscow City Hall), which is reminiscent of a memorial plaque. The monument was installed in front of the building of the Lenin Institute under the Central Committee of the CPSU (B).

Before the installation of the monument, the sculpture of Lenin was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in 1939 in New York City.

Text above from Wikipedia.

VI Lenin – Tverskaya Square

When this statue was initially installed the area was very different from what it is now.

In 1940 anyone going into the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute by the main entrance would have passed this statue. At some time in the next 30 years or so the main entrance to the Institute was changed to the other side of the building so the statue then became the focal point of the public square that was between the Institute and Tverskaya Street, across which is the Moscow City Council building. (There are interesting bas reliefs, one of them of Lenin, on the street level wall on either side of the main entrance of the Council building facing Tverskaya Square.)

However, part of this square has now been taken over by what seems a cross between a restaurant and a garden centre – with the installation of some imperial statue close to the main road. Although ‘officially’ not part of this ‘development’ it seems that the owners have also taken over the small part of the square that was immediately in front of Lenin’s statue. This area has been fenced off in a semi-permanent manner as a storage area for plants and garden material and so denying public access to the garden itself and the statue.

This was the first such ‘privatisation’ of a public space I encountered in Moscow as, in general, public spaces of Soviet times still remain in the public domain – not as in Albania, for example, where there was a free for all in grabbing as much of the public space as possible.

This meant that the photos in the slide show were taken either over or through the fence – not the most ideal of conditions for recording the sculpture. Hopefully what has been recorded gives an idea of the art work.