Four forgotten Ilyichs. For the leader's birthday
For us the hero has become conditional,
We love those who wear black masks,
And he is with snotty kids
In winter, I went for a drive on a sled.
And he didn't wear that hair
That pour success on languid women.
He has a bald head like a tray,
He looked more modest than the most modest.
Shy, simple and sweet
He's like a sphinx in front of me.
I do not understand by what force
Has he managed to shake the globe?
But he shook ...
Sergei Yesenin
We love those who wear black masks,
And he is with snotty kids
In winter, I went for a drive on a sled.
And he didn't wear that hair
That pour success on languid women.
He has a bald head like a tray,
He looked more modest than the most modest.
Shy, simple and sweet
He's like a sphinx in front of me.
I do not understand by what force
Has he managed to shake the globe?
But he shook ...
Sergei Yesenin
Memory check
By and large, the country, with the exception of the already few stalwart Leninists, did not seem to notice the centenary of the leader’s death. Nothing can be done, but the next anniversary of the birth of Lenin, as the founder of our state, with all the changes in it, helps to remember a lot.
And among other things - about monuments to Ilyich. In Russia today, even after mass demolition, it is simply impossible to count them, and in the capital there are quite a few preserved, although fewer than temples.
There are also monumental ones in Moscow, like those from the great sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich on Oktyabrskaya Square or at VDNKh and near the stadium in Luzhniki, which once proudly bore the name of the leader. But more are much more modest, often downright banal.
A lot of monuments remain on the territory of Moscow factories, research institutes and various institutions, and they are generally well preserved. But today we are talking about only four monuments, one of which is not even in Moscow, although it is connected with it, like few others, but about this in conclusion.
All four monuments that will be discussed are now either completely forgotten, or someone would really like to forget them.
So, let's start small.
In the courtyard on Palikha
A hundred years ago, a street with a distinctly Moscow name was an area of active construction, including a workers’ town of several large factories at once. Its buildings were erected up to Sushchevsky Val and Minaevsky Market in parallel with simultaneous landscaping.
Back then, schools, clinics, kindergartens, public gardens and mandatory clubs and libraries grew up along with residential areas. A bust of Ilyich was erected in front of the local club in the late twenties, and in the neighboring courtyard, which faced the street, a monument to Joseph Stalin was erected - the “cult of personality” was taking its first steps.
Under Khrushchev, the not-so-impressive monument to the second of the leaders was replaced with plaster athletes, which generally crumbled very quickly, giving way to a trivial flower garden.
A little further from the city center, on the little-known Minaevsky Passage, a bust of Sergei Kirov was erected.
As you know, in the Stalinist Central Committee “Mironych” was responsible for industry. In the form of a bust, Kirov, like Lenin, has survived to this day in quite decent form, although the club was demolished long ago, and the area has long been completely unworking.
It’s interesting that Lenin and Palikha managed to appear in films.
It was next to him that “Pops” was filmed, almost mediocre, but with claims to cult status. Someone from the Moscow City Duma is now looking after the old monuments, and they say that Lenin and Kirov are one of the most popular gathering places for nostalgic communist subbotniks.
Leader on wheels
Just don’t think anything bad, Lenin, who stood for many years on the territory of the Oktyabrskaya Railway depot, can actually ride on real carriage wheels. And it’s a pity that several years ago this absolutely extraordinary monument was sent for restoration; there are fears that it will be forever.
However, the hope is still alive that by the centenary, not of Lenin, but of the monument to him, the extraordinary creation of the professional sculptor I. Mendelevich and ordinary workers will return to its rightful place. If only because it is absolutely a unique work of art.
There is one more reason to believe in the happy fate of the monument - it was created with the money of workers and was one of the very first monuments to the leader of the world proletariat, not only in Moscow. Well, the fact that it is the only one on wheels is an artifact that is the envy of the best galleries in the world.
They decided to erect the monument in the depot first for the anniversary of Lenin’s death, but ultimately for the eighth anniversary of the October Revolution. Workers at the depot were busy making an unusual pedestal, which, with the help of a special lever, was supposed to rotate, allowing movement in any direction, during non-working hours.
The original design of the pedestal was brought to life by the head of the 5th traction section, mechanic Yakovlev. The monument itself, due to a lack of time and funds, was borrowed from the lobby of the Leningradsky station, where a more grandiose sculpture was being prepared for installation.
For many years, the monument stood in a free-access zone directly in front of the depot, but then various reconstructions pushed it back so that only excursions were allowed to enter. Most of them were from China - the Maoists do not forget the leader of the world revolution today.
Lenin is the head!
The next “forgotten” monument for me is the work of Yevgeny Vuchetich, whose brilliant artistic career was not hindered even by the fact that his father, a Serbian officer, served with Denikin and Wrangel. Vuchetich’s works are so famous that it is simply indecent to name them here.
But here is one - almost as impressive as the Stalingrad “Motherland”, to this day it remains in a not very decent place. Again, don’t think anything bad - this is nothing more than the courtyard of the sculptor’s former dacha on Timiryazevskaya Street in Moscow.
However, today there is no museum there, the territory has been cut down in favor of the cadet corps, and the monument to Lenin itself - a huge head, is bashfully covered from the back of the head with a corrugated iron shield. Apparently, so as not to irritate the current powers that be, sitting in the prefectural building.
Previously, here on Timiryazevskaya there were, of course, the district committee and the district executive committee, and from a passing trolleybus you could almost immediately see Lenin’s colossal bald head. Once, somewhere in the 90s, the leader almost collapsed - the channels floated, and it was necessary to install brick and block retaining walls.
To somehow otherwise cope with the disgraced creation of a long-deceased sculptor in non-Soviet Russia is too expensive and troublesome. Moreover, suddenly the same Chinese will want to buy it in order to install it somewhere in Tiananmen Square.
The fate of the monument was indeed difficult - it was supposed to stand somewhere on the Volga-Don Canal instead of Stalin. But many in artistic circles believe that in the courtyard of the former dacha is not the monument itself, but the author’s model of the future monument.
There is still talk that the “head”, which did not make it to the Volga-Don, was planned to be transferred to Ulan-Ude, where for the 100th anniversary of the leader they did not want to place a too ordinary-sized figure in the center of the city. However, the Buryats received a completely different Leninist head, and further we will talk about it.
But the Buryats are lucky
The monument to Lenin in the capital of the Buryat autonomy, of course, can hardly be called forgotten - it is too noticeable. Many in the republic, emphasizing national traditions, would very much like to forget him, or better yet replace him, almost with Buddha, but Lenin is standing in Ulan-Ude, and it seems he will continue to stand.
The chief architect of workshop No. 1 of the Buryatgrazhdanproekt Institute, Viktor Ivanovich Kulesh, spoke many years ago about the sculpture, also like Vuchetich’s, in the form of a head, which is very rare in a monumental version.
“I think we, Ulan-Ude residents, are extremely lucky. After all, this is one of the best works of sculptors father and son Georgy and Yuri Nerod. For this work they received the title of State Prize laureates. It was exhibited in Montreal, and Parisians saw it.”
Two sculptors with the “leader’s head” received international recognition at the EXPO 67 world exhibitions in Montreal and a year later in Paris. And that same monument safely took its place in Ilyich’s hometown - Ulyanovsk.
Many believe that it was the work of Evgeniy Viktorovich Vuchetich from his dacha that should have gone to Ulan-Ude. However, it is unlikely that provincial Buryatia, autonomous, but then not even a republic, could have offered the great master as much as the Ministry of Culture should have given him.
But Neroda’s father and son turned out to be more accommodating, especially after their “head” in the form of serial busts was distributed throughout the USSR and people’s democracies. In just over a year they made a new “leader’s head” inexpensively. So the slightly edited “Ulyanovsk” Ilyich ended up beyond Lake Baikal - on the Square of Soviets in Ulan-Ude.
Information