Lenin Square – Stalingrad

Posted on 06/12/2024 by Michael

Lenin Square

Lenin Square – Stalingrad

Following the dissolution of the (Revisionist) Soviet Union at the end of 1991 many of the monuments to Socialist Heroes were removed. Some were ‘attacked’ and vandalised, some were later removed officially and put into some sort of storage. But this wasn’t the case everywhere. Often the names of streets were changed, but again, this wasn’t always the case. One of the cities where you can still find major monuments to the Socialist period and statues of Socialist leaders and heroes is the city of Stalingrad.

Running from the southern edge of the city centre, parallel to the River Volga, and going way past the Mamayev Kurgan and the Motherland Calls statue is Lenin Avenue. This arrives at Lenin Square which is opposite the House of Officers Cultural Centre and on the river side of the avenue. It is here you find a tall, stepped plinth, ending in a circular platform on which stands a twice life-size statue of VI Lenin.

The square is now called Lenin Square but whether that was the case before the statue was installed I have been, as yet, unable to find out. This statue was a relatively late addition, being inaugurated in 1960 on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of VI Lenin’s birth. It’s possible a not so impressive statue stood in that square before 1960.

VI Lenin Statue

Lenin Statue

Lenin is looking towards the city with his back to the River Volga. His right hand is outstretched and his left hand is clutching the lapel of his overcoat. Here we get the impression that Lenin is giving a speech out in the open, in the winter months. This is not an unusual stance for a statue of the first Bolshevik leader.

The statue itself looks in good condition however, the plinth itself is in need of some tender care and attention. Being in Stalingrad we have the extremes of weather which will take its toll on outside monuments and over time it seems water has gotten behind some of the marble slabs on the facade of the plinth and they are starting to come away from the concrete underneath. The Lenin installation has only one word at the base, on the front, which is the name of Lenin in Cyrillic (ЛЕНИН).

Sculptor;

Yevgeny Vucetich, who also created The Motherland Calls! at Mamayev Kurgan, the statue of ‘Iron Felix’ Dzerzhinsky, that used to stand in front of the Lubyanka Building in Central Moscow but which is now in Muzeon Art Park, as well as the statue ‘Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares’, which stands outside the United Nations Building in New York and a copy of which is immediately outside the entrance to the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

‘Pavlov’s House’ Memorial Arch and Wall

‘Pavlov’s House’ Mural

However, Lenin Square is quite a large space and it includes other elements of Socialist history and examples of Socialist art. Behind the statue of Lenin is a memorial arch which forms the rear of what is known in Stalingrad as ‘Pavlov’s House’. ‘Pavlov’s House’ became a symbol of the resistance of ordinary soldiers against the Nazi invasion where Sergeant Pavlov, with a small group of men, held out for 58 days. Being virtually surrounded by the invading fascists they survived by being supplied through tunnels constructed towards the river from where supplies arrived from across the Volga. This defiance became a symbol (and was promoted as such) of resistance to the Nazi fascist invasion.

As in all wars, in all countries, some form of resistance takes on an importance much greater than it might have been militarily. Almost certainly this small holdout against the invaders wasn’t the most important of the innumerable struggles in the city but it was indicative of the resistance of the Red Army and the people of Stalingrad to the invaders.

After the war most what remained of the building was demolished and a new apartment block constructed in its place. There’s now a small part, which faces towards the Stalingrad Panorama Museum, that remains as a monument to the affair. Again, at an unknown date to me, the memorial arch was constructed on the eastern edge of Lenin Square at the rear of the apartment complex.

The memorial arch is a collection of columns, surmounted by an entablature, in a concave formation which encompasses virtually the whole of the open space of Lenin Square. Exactly in the middle of the arrangement of columns, and directly behind the Lenin statue, is a wall that goes from ground level to the top of the columns.

On the top left of this wall there’s a huge, stylised depiction of the head of a Russian Red Army soldier, taking up more than a quarter of the available space. Next to this image, at the top right are the numbers and words (in Cyrillic);

58 ДНЕЙ В ОГНЕ

meaning;

58 days of fire (the time they were holding out against the invaders)

Underneath are images representing the story of the resistance in the building. On the left-hand side you have two soldiers, one kneeling and firing a very long-barrelled gun which is known as a PTRS 41 anti-tank rifle. This is something I never knew existed until I read the story about ‘Pavlov’s House’. It seems that from their vantage point on the top of the block of flats the Red Army soldiers were able to do quite serious damage to any tanks which tried to get close to the building. Even to this day battle tanks concentrate their armour on the surrounds of the vehicle leaving the turret as the weakest point. This Soviet made anti-tank rifle was very effective if it could be fired from a high point. The bullet would pierce the weak armour and then ricochet within the vehicle causing mayhem in the process.

Above this kneeling soldier is another who is about to swing a landmine down on the approaching tanks or Nazi soldiers. They didn’t have artillery as such so the mines were the most powerful armament they could use as a substitute. On the right-hand side there’s an image of four soldiers – two of them, who are standing one in front of the other, are firing heavy machine guns at the enemy. Behind them, lying on the ground, is an image of a wounded comrade. Standing, and dominating the whole of the group, is a soldier (in profile and facing to the right) holding a rifle by the barrel, vertically, in his right hand and his left arm outstretched in front of him towards the enemy. His mouth is open as he’s shouting for others to come and join the fight. This is a common representation in Socialist Realist art indicating moving forward and calling upon others to join the advance or the battle against the enemy. This can be seen, for example, in many of the Albanian lapidars.

Below the group of soldiers, at the bottom of the wall, there’s a list of the names of those soldiers who held out for the 58 days.

To the left of the wall, on the railings which constitute the majority of the lower part of the arch, there’s a large, cast iron wreath inside of which is the ceremonial five pointed star. In the centre of the star is the Hammer and Sickle – the symbol of the Soviet Union. Surrounding that are the words;

ОТЕУЕСТВЕННАЯ ВОИНА

meaning

Fatherland War

Emanating from both sides of the wreath are metal ribbons attached to the railings. So in place of a temporary wreath that would be placed at the memorial on significant dates we have one that is permanently in place.

Memorial to NKVD Soldiers

NKVD Memorial

In the square there’s also another, smaller memorial. This is to Lenin’s right and closer to the road and entrance to the Metro station. This is a small memorial garden, with decorated marble, which mark a mass grave and commemorates the soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division and the 10th Division of the NKVD (Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел), the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, who died in the battles for Stalingrad.

The inscription at the head of the memorial (which resembles a large individual grave you would find in a cemetery) reads;

ВЕЛИКИЕ ПОДВИГИ ВАШИ БЕССМЕРТНЫ

YOUR GREAT DEEDS ARE IMMORTAL

СЛАВА О ВАС ПЕРЕЖИВЕТ ВЕКА ПАМЯТЬ О ВАС НАВСЕГДА СОХРАНИТ РОДИНА

YOUR FAME WILL OUTLIVE THE AGES, YOUR MEMORY WILL BE PRESERVED FOREVER BY YOUR HOMELAND.

АВГУСТ 1942 – ЯНВАРЬ 1943

AUGUST 1942 – JANUARY 1943

I have been, unfortunately, unable to find out exactly why this specific memorial to those particular soldiers was created nor exactly when the memorial was installed.

Location;

Lenin Square (Ploshchad Lenina)

GPS;

48.7166934° N

44.5303396° E

DMS;

48°42′59.42″ N

44°31′49.29″ E

How to get there;

The entrance/exit of the Ploshchad Lenina Metro station is right at the square. Also any bus heading in the direction of Mamayev Kurgan, from the centre of town, passes by the square. The square is also on the way to the Stalingrad Panorama Museum, the Stalingrad Siege Museum.

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Statue of VI Lenin – Main Post Office – Stalingrad

Posted on 07/11/2024 by Michael

Stalingrad Post Office – 01

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Statue of VI Lenin – Main Post Office – Stalingrad

There are still many statues of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin throughout what used to be the Soviet Union. Perhaps they’ve disappeared from some of the principal squares but they are still to be found in many towns and cities if you look for them. It’s true that many have been taken down (possibly destroyed in some places) but many of them, I’m sure, have just been placed into some sort of storage – although if you have the money and the space you find versions of Lenin for sale on the internet auction sites. These tend to be mainly from those virulent anti-Communist parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union, such as the Ukraine.

Stalingrad Post Office – 02

One of those which is out of the way is in Stalingrad, standing inside the service hall of the city’s main Post Office building, just a short walk down from the main railway station.

Stalingrad Post Office – 03

I came across this one purely by chance after deciding to walk into the post office just to see what was there. As with many post offices throughout the world it would have been very busy in the past but now is relatively quiet.

Stalingrad Post Office – 04

Literally in the centre of the circular service hall is a standing, white stone statue of Comrade Lenin. He’s on quite a high plinth so he’s looking over the heads of all who visit the building. It’s a more than life-size statue of him and he’s dressed in a suit. His stance is of someone who is making a speech or giving a presentation with his right arm outstretched and in his hand he holds a scrunched-up bunch of papers, presumably the notes for the speech.

(Note; the Hammer and Sickle on the ventilation grill.)

Stalingrad Post Office – 05

This statue appears to be in a good condition and is kept clean, so it is still being treated with respect by the staff who work in the post office.

Stalingrad Post Office – 06

As with most of the statues produced during the Soviet period there is rarely any indication of the actual sculptor. Nor was I able to tell exactly of what it was made, whether it was of sculptured stone or, more likely, of plaster.

Related;

Lenin Square, Stalingrad

Location;

Stalingrad Main Post Office, Ulitsa Mira, 9

GPS;

48.709544º N

44.514978º E

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VI Lenin statue and assassination attempt memorial stone – Moscow

Posted on 02/10/2024 by Michael

Lenin – Ulitsa Pavlovskaya

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VI Lenin statue and assassination attempt memorial stone – Moscow

The Lenin Monument on Pavlovskaya Street (Памятник Ленину на Павловской улице) was installed in 1967 in Moscow in the park on Pavlovskaya Street in front of the Mikhelson Electromechanical Plant, a factory that was later named in honour of VI Lenin. It was after a visit to this factory on August 30, 1918, that Fanny Kaplan, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, fired three shots at him whilst he was about to get back into his car.

The background

That very same morning the Chairman of the Petrograd Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), Moisey Uritsky, was killed in Petrograd. Despite this fact no extra security was in place, neither on Lenin’s way to make his speech nor even at the factory itself. The Soviet state was less than a year old and there had already been two attempts on Lenin’s life so there was a bit of failing on behalf of the Party. They also were aware that foreign intelligence agencies, especially the forerunner of MI6, were plotting to overthrow the young Soviet government at a time when everything was in flux.

Two of the three bullets hit Lenin – so the gun was not fired by some random person who had a gripe against the Bolsheviks but someone who had been trained in the use of the actual gun (a Browning FN 1900) not someone who had decided, on a personal whim, to assassinate the country’s leader. The third bullet hit a woman who was speaking to Lenin at the time.

It was good that Lenin had a closeness to the workers that he didn’t want to be surrounded by security but the Bolsheviks should have been aware that something like this could be attempted. Whether anyone was ever held responsible for this security lapse is unknown.

Of the two bullets that hit their mark one caused a dangerous wound in the neck, under the jaw, resulting in blood entering his lung. The second bullet hit him on the arm. Further proof that Kaplan had been trained for this.

On investigation by the Cheka two British agents, Sidney Riley and RH Bruce Lockhart, were implicated but investigations by the British concluded that this was not the case, surprise, surprise. However, the combination of events, the characters involved, the ‘coincidence’ of the successful assassination of Uritisky in Petrograd the very same day means that there’s certainly strong circumstantial evidence of covert British involvement.

What has to be remembered is that the 1914 war was still ongoing, that August 1918 was (as it turned out) the last offensive of the German Army and the British and the French were desperate for Russia to re-join them in the war.

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last (up to today), the British have used assassination to try to achieve their aims.

Lenin wasn’t, at first, expected to live but he recovered quickly. He left Moscow for the countryside at Gorki to recuperate on September 25, returning to Moscow on October 14 and was next seen in public on the 22nd. Although Lenin seemed to recover completely from this attack there’s no knowing how these injuries might have contributed to his relatively early death less than six years later, at the age of 53.

Memorial stone to the assassination attempt on VI Lenin

Assassination memorial stone

In 1922 workers from the factory installed a memorial stone of red polished granite on the site of the assassination attempt.

On the front side are inscribed the words:

In Russian;

Первый камень монумента на месте покушения на вождя мирового пролетариата Владимира Ленина. 30 августа 1918 – 1 ноября 1922

In English;

The first stone monument on the site of an attempt on the life of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Lenin. August 30, 1918 – November 1, 1922

The inscription on the reverse side reads;

In Russian;

Пусть угнетенные всего мира знают, что в этот момент пуля капиталистической контрреволюции пыталась прервать жизнь и деятельность вождя мирового пролетариата Владимира Ильича Ленина

In English;

Let the oppressed of the whole world know that on this spot the bullet of the capitalist counter-revolution tried to interrupt the life and work of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Whether the stone that is presently in place is the original I don’t know. It looks in very good condition for something that’s been in situ for over a century, a century that included the Nazi attack on the city.

The statue

Lenin – Ulitsa Pavlovskaya – 01

On November 7, 1947 (the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution) in the square in front of the factory, close to the assassination memorial stone, a granite statue of VI Lenin was erected, the sculptor being SD Merkurov and the architect A Zhukov.

In 1967 that statue was moved to inside the factory and the present statue, the work of sculptor VB Topuridze and architect K.T. Topuridze was installed in its place.

‘The present monument to Lenin on Pavlovskaya Street was established on the initiative of the old Bolsheviks of the plant named after Vladimir Ilyich. The sculptor and architect worked on the monument directly in one of the workshops of the plant where they consulted veterans who had personally attended Lenin’s speeches. Workers of the plant named after Vladimir Ilyich made all forms for sculpture, which were then sent to the Leningrad plant ‘Monument Sculpture’ for bronze casting.’

This new statue was inaugurated on November 1, 1967, just before the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution.

The sculpture is five metres high and stands on a high granite pedestal. Lenin is shown standing upright dressed in a full length winter coat and is wearing a cap

Location;

In a small park at the junction of Ulitsa Pavlovskaya and Ulitsa Pavla Andreyeva.

GPS;

55.72087º N

37.62862º E

How to get there by public transport;

Serpukhovskaya Metro, on Line 9, south of the city centre. And then a 10 minute walk south along Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Ulitsa. The park in which the statue and the memorial stone are located is just after the first crossroad at Ulitsa Pavla Andreyeva, on the left.

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