Red Square Exhibit Sheds New Light on Soviet Cult of Lenin

The Lenin Museum returns after nearly twenty years with a new exhibit "The Myth of the Beloved Leader," which puts some of the "Leniniana," as the museum calls the statues, paintings, clothes and documents connected to the Soviet leader, on show.



Read more:

Red Square Exhibit Sheds New Light on Soviet Cult of Lenin

The Lenin cult saw the bolshevik leader's image appear in increasingly bizarre manners such as in this light bulb, made in 1920.

Or here in a portrait made of postage stamps.

Or drawn on a lentil.

A commission in the 1930s tried to calculate how many Lenin statues there were in the Soviet Union, but gave up as they realized the impossibility of the task, Grankina said. Statues were made not just in the home of the revolution but all over the world and sent as gifts. Some are more creative than others.

Some are barely recognizable.

Lenin's table in the Kremlin has been preserved as it was when he died.

Lenin's death mask.

The exhibit also has a number of exhibits dedicated to Stalin.



This painting shows Lenin speaking to a young Stalin in a meeting in London before the revolution in an example of artists rewriting history to make Stalin look more important and closer to the bolshevik leader.

Pipes owned by Stalin.

Stalin's death mask.