visitor looks at the Soviet-era painting and a statue of Vladimir
Lenin in the newly opened exhibition timed to the 140th anniversary
of Lenin's birthday
Posted on 04/24/2010 2:00:10 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Moth-eaten socks and other clothes once worn by Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, have gone on exhibit in Ukraine's capital for the first time since the former Soviet republic became independent almost two decades ago.
visitor looks at the Soviet-era painting and a statue of Vladimir
Lenin in the newly opened exhibition timed to the 140th anniversary
of Lenin's birthday
The exhibition, timed to coincide with the 140th anniversary of Lenin's birth on Thursday, was made possible under the country's new Russia-friendly president.
In Soviet times, dozens of museums were dedicated to the life of the charismatic founder of the Soviet Union. Leningrad, the cradle of the revolution now once again called St. Petersburg, had 11 of them. Kiev opened its Lenin Museum in 1938, even though Lenin had never been to the Ukrainian capital.
But when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, the collection was dismantled and packed away in storerooms. The statue of Lenin that had dominated Kiev's main square was destroyed, as were similar monuments throughout the country.
The former Lenin Museum was transformed into an arts center called the Ukrainian House, which inherited the collection.
"We had tried to persuade the authorities to revive the collection over the years, but the answer was always 'it's not the right time,'" said Nataliya Zabolotna, director of the Ukrainian House.
The right time came after Viktor Yanukovych became president early this year, replacing Viktor Yushchenko, who had sought to break with Russia and bring Ukraine closer to Europe.
Like Russia, Ukraine has seen a rise in nostalgia for the Soviet period, in part because of the economic downturn. Zabolotna noted the "emotional attraction" of the past for many Ukrainians, but said the exhibition was not intended to glorify Lenin.
"This exhibition is not just to shake off the dust from the museum's trash, and obviously not to revive Lenin's cult, but to put it into the modern context," she said. "A dialogue between pathos and irony, propaganda and criticism, documentary and mystification, this is what the exhibition is about."
The exhibition includes paintings by modern artists depicting Marilyn Monroe and a half-naked Madonna performing for the Bolsheviks in a mockery of their rule.
A reconstruction of Lenin's room in the Kremlin shows a table and lamp with an iconic green glass shade, leather armchairs on each side. On the table are writing materials and various souvenirs, including a bronze monkey that was a gift from the American oil tycoon Armand Hammer.
Also on display are porcelain plates with the notorious communist saying, "He who does not work does not eat."
An inscription on a telephone presented to Lenin in 1923 on his birthday reads "To an honorary electrician of the Kiev (telephone) network."
In addition to Lenin's old socks, the exhibition includes the "kosovorotka," the long peasant shirt Lenin wore while in hiding in the months ahead of the October 1917 revolution, and a copy of the suit he was wearing when shot during a failed assassination attempt the following year.
"All these things give a sense of an epoch, a long historic period, a system of values that many of us were brought up on," said Nina Sheyko, the exhibition's curator.
In a separate hall, black-and-white Soviet documentaries playing across a large screen show Lenin and the "heroic days" of the young socialist state.
Muted notes of "Appassionata," the Beethoven piano sonata that was Lenin's favorite, filled the exhibition halls.
Most of the people who visited the exhibition on Tuesday, the day after the opening, were elderly. They stood for long periods in front of the exhibits, which filled three floors, taking in the details of Lenin's life.
"He was an outstanding personality. But the historic situation forced him to be cruel, maybe too cruel. It was a revolution, and a revolution cannot be done without cruelty," said retiree Grygoriy Zaychyk.
A few young people looked around with interest.
"I thought all this did not exist any more," said Igor Mazur. "Good that it has been preserved. This is history, whatever it was, and it should be preserved for those who will come after us."
Just in time for Lenin’s b-day on April 22, 1870! What a way to celebrate E-day.
I wonder if the letter authorizing the execution of the last Tsar’s five children (including four teenage girls and a 14-year old boy) sent by Lenin’s lackey Sverdlov (later killed when a factory worker bashed his head in with a hammer) will be part of the “exhibition”. Sverdlov sent the letter because Lenin didn’t want to dirty his hands on a document that would make it difficult for western governments to recognize his monstrous rule.
Very few realize the howling barbarism that the Bolsheviks brought in with them.
Assembly line, subterranean execution rooms where the victims were held down on a table and the tops of their heads bludgeoned off with a length of railroad rail, slowing down only when the drains had clogged and the executioners could no longer keep their footing. Vast areas of previosuly food exporting land stripped even of seed crops, so that the residents were reduced to cannibalism.
Any level of resistance against such people is justified.
In any nation.
By any means.
Nostalgia for past horrors always fascinates me.
“Nostalgia for past horrors always fascinates me.”
I used to work with a young Jewish attorney. He was likeable, fit, handsome, brilliant, charming and one damned effective litigator.
He also collected Nazi war memorabilia. This always sort of made my hair stand on end.
He was a heck of a nice guy and I hope he is doing well wherever he is, but that aspect of his personality always left me a bit queasy.
I have a cousin in Slovenia who is nostalgic for the days of Tito who butchered more people per capita than Stalin. Perhaps because he was half Slovenian. I still can’t get my head around that. Do you know that when Stalin died people in the gulag cried? Humans are so bizarre and it bothers me that there are sop many lemmings who can’t see the dictatorship that 0bama is setting up.
By definition, most people are of mediocre or lower intelligence.
Modern totalitarianism is a truly odd phenomenon. Earlier, subsistence level cultures which resorted to brute force had some reason(s) for it. The modern phenomenon is far more destructive and usually just to stroke the egos of some very small people of very limited talent. Odd.
I was aware of the condemned weeping in the gulag for the “Man of Steel”. References to that episode always make me think of Solzhenitsyn’s short story: “An Incident at Krechetovka Station”. It will be a great misfortune if the 21st C. is more degenerated with Statism than the 20th. It could even result in another dark age.
The Good Old Days
This kind of crap just makes me shake my head and think we deserve every single thing we’re going to get.
Great tagline!
Get ready, a storm is coming.
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