His gleaming pate and goatee may have lacked the charisma of revolutionary poster boy Che Guevara, but that didn't stop Lenin's familiar featuresfrom dominating the Soviet streetscape. Even in modern-day Moscow, the man - recently placed sixth in a poll of the nation's historical greats - gets to keep a sharp eye on proceedings. To mark the 85th anniversary of Vladimir Ilyich's death on January 21, 1924, we bring you the city's loveliest Lenin's in marble, mosaic and bronze.
Is it real?
No Lenin tour would be complete without visiting the Mausoleum on Red Square. And despite the fall of the USSR, long queues that snake along the Kremlin Wall are frequent sites. Rumors persist that the display case houses more wax than embalmed body, and stone-faced guards suggest there's little time to carry out independent research. Plans to relocate the body - something Lenin himself is thought to have favored - have quietly disappeared as the post-Soviet turmoil has quietened.
The writing on the wall
Like the library where it stops, the Moscow Metro no longer bears Lenin's name. But his beardy visage is on display at many stations. But the most colorful display is surely at Kievskaya, where his portrait dominates the circle line hall. Amid the declarations of eternal friendship and unity between Ukraine and Russia, the leader offers a paternal smile to the hordes of scurrying commuters. Lenin buffs may also find a bust to the famous Bolshevik inside the entrance to the Teatralnaya station atop a large pedestal.
How the other half live
A hero of the class struggle would never end his days in a country estate redolent of the aristocractic privilege he so despised, would he? Well, visit Gorki Leninskie and judge for yourself. After surviving an assassin and a series of strokes, he moved to this mansion in the south of Moscow - under protest, until he was assured it had a direct phone line to the Kremlin. In 1949, it became a major museum - the Leninskaya station is a decaying monument to a half-forgotten pilgrimage in honor of a discredited regime, while today the neo-classical house owes as much to its previous owner Zinaida Morozova as it does to Lenin himself. Lovers of revolutionary history will get more joy from the attached museum of political history, which retains a strong slant towards the dramas of 1917 and our man's leading role.
The one that got away
The shiny domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour could have been the shiny dome of Vladimir Ilyich himself, but for an accident of geology. The riverside site was earmarked for the flagship Palace of the Soviets, to be crowned with a gargantuan 100m statue of the man himself. Artists impressions suggest a King Kong-like figure poised to swat passing aircraft from atop a beefed-up MGU. Sadly, too much water meant the soil couldn't support such an ambitious plan and the site eventually became a swimming pool instead. The cathedral, destroyed in 1936, was rebuilt in the 1990s.
The last hurrah
In 1985, just before the collapse heard around the world, Moscow built its last statue of Lenin at Oktyabrskaya Ploschad.
Designed by Lev Kerbel to symbolize the multi-national nature of the 1917 revolution, it has become a popular starting point for Communist marches. But it's not the only one of its type to survive: at VDNKh Lenin still agitates the masses, while a cartoon mouse takes the Mickey out of his ideals. Finally, outside the Luzhniki stadium he watches thousands of Spartak fans file past to cheer on the Reds. N
FACT BOX
- Lenin died at 18.50 on January 21, 1924 at his estate at Gorki Leninskie
- More 900,000 people came to see his body as it lay in state in the Collonaded Hall at Dom Soyuzov
- Leonid Krasin and Alexander Bogdanov planned to cryonically freeze his body so he could be revived in the future. Although suitable equipment was imported, in the end he was embalmed and placed in his Mausoleum on January 27, 1924.
- Lenin was voted the sixth most important Russian historical figure in a 2008 poll. Winston Churchill, who won a similar poll in his native Britain, once said of Lenin:
"The Russian people's greatest misfortune was his birth ... their next was his death."
By Andy Potts
