VI Lenin in Tiraspol – Pridnestrovie

Posted on 10/11/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin at Transnistrian Government Building, Tiraspol

VI Lenin in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie

There are two extant images of VI Lenin in Tiraspol, the capital city of Pridnestrovie (Transnistria).

At the Transnistria Parliament Building

The first Soviet leader just seems to emerge from the tall, red, granite column on which he stands. His coat resembling the workers red flag, caught by the wind streaming out behind him.

This statue is modelled on a statue, by the same artist – Nikolai Tomsky – which used to stand in what was Leninplatz in East Berlin. The original statue was erected in 1970 but the one in Tiraspol wasn’t inaugurated until 1987. The one in Berlin was on a lower plinth and had a large panel behind VI Lenin so there wasn’t the same impression of him almost flying. The one in the German location was removed in 1992.

The list of the artists involved in the project are attached to a small plaque at the back of the statues plinth.

Nikolai Tomsky was also involved in the bas reliefs that decorate the ceiling of the Novokuznetskaya Metro station in Moscow. He also created the bust over the grave of JV Stalin which was installed when the body of the second Soviet leader was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum in October 1961.

Location;

In front of the building of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria Parliament) at 25th October Street 45

GPS;

46.83632 N

29.60651 E

VI Lenin at Tiraspol City Hall

At the Tiraspol City Hall

Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal of available information about this monument to VI Lenin. As far as I can learn the sculptor was G. Solominov but, so far, I have been unable to find any more information about him. There’s also no information of the year it was installed. I would guess the 1980s – as this seemed to be a time when there was a major impetus to install statues of the first Soviet leader as the revisionist leaders of that time – just before the collapse of the Soviet Union – were panicking and trying to establish their legitimacy.

It’s quite a unique representation of VI Lenin. It’s only a larger than life sized bust but he is depicted as wearing an overcoat with a huge collar – something I’ve never seen in photographs of him during his life time.

Location;

In front of the Tiraspol City Hall at 25th October Street, 101

GPS;

48.83701 N

29.62812 E

VI Lenin, Karl Marx and Georgi Dimitrov – Chișinău, Moldova

Posted on 09/11/2025 by Michael

Karl Marx, VI Lenin and Georgi Dimitrov in Chisinau, Moldova

VI Lenin, Karl Marx and Georgi Dimitrov – Chișinău, Moldova

The new location of the Lenin statue is much more pleasant than its original location in the centre of town (in front of the Government building, I understand), having to endure the noise and pollution from the traffic. Now he stands in the park beside quite a large lake, used for boating, to the west of the city centre. However, in his new location Vladimir Iliych isn’t alone. On his right hand side is a large bust of Georgi Dimitrov (the Bulgarian Communist leader, defiant defendant against the Nazis over the accusation of being involved in the Reichstag fire of February 27th 1933 and General Secretary of the Communist International) and on his left Karl Marx (the founder, with Frederick Engels, of the revolutionary theory of the working class).

In translation this location is described as an ‘honour board’ or ‘hall of fame’ neither of which seem appropriate but I have been unable to come up with an alternative that sounds correct in English.

I have no idea where the the busts of Dimitrov and Marx came from but the whole group has been treated with respect and not having been dumped here as some afterthought. A formal, marble back drop, together with honorific laurel scrolls, had been created for the new location demonstrating that consideration and expense had been involved in the relocation.

Although the plinth on which VI Lenin stands bears his name there’s no indication of who his two companions are. Why that’s the case remains a mystery to me. I also don’t understand why the lettering is in Cyrillic and not also in Romanian.

Apart from a slight mark on Vladimir Ilyich’s groin, there’s no damage, as far as I can see, to any of the three statues. And the area is generally clean and shows signs of regular maintenance.

If you visit Comrades Lenin, Marx and Dimitrov be sure to have a look at the bas reliefs on either side of the main entrance to the building beside the ensemble. This is now an events venue – but which must have had a more official, governmental purpose in the past.

Location;

Strada Ghioceilor 1, Chișinău,

By the Moldexpo International Exhibitions Centre and at the edge of the Valea Morilor Lake

GPS:

47.01623 N

28.80492 E

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.