Support The Moscow Times!

Blast Blows Hole in Lenin Statue

A police officer passing the Lenin statue Wednesday in St. Petersburg. Dmitry Lovetsky
A towering bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin was badly damaged Wednesday when a bomb exploded near the St. Petersburg train station where he gave a speech upon returning from exile in April 1917, months before the Bolshevik Revolution.

Nobody was injured in the explosion on the square near Finlandsky Station, which occurred at about 4:30 a.m., police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said.

He said the bomb had the power of about 400 grams of dynamite.

The 10-meter statue, erected on Nov. 7, 1926, is one of the first examples of monumental Soviet architecture and escaped damage during the 900-day siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany during World War II.

The statue will be dismantled Wednesday night and sent away for restoration, which is expected to cost 6 million to 8 million rubles ($17,300 to $23,500), St. Petersburg City Hall said a statement.

The Communist Party denounced the explosion as "a politically charged act of vandalism," RIA-Novosti reported.

State Duma Deputy Valery Rashkin, a Communist, said the blast might be an attempt to punish his party for its critical stance of the government during the financial crisis. "I am not ruling out that this was a kind of provocation for our criticism of authorities, an attempt to distract attention from the present-day conditions," he told RIA-Novosti.

(MT, AP, Bloomberg)

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more