The monument to Vladimir Ilyich Lenina

The monument to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

As first, the monument to the leader of the world proletariat was planned to be installed in Tambov in 1924 - 1926. On this occasion the city council had approved several resolutions, but none of them were fulfilled for various reasons. In 1935 the issue of installing a monument to V.I.Lenin was again on the agenda, this time it was going to be opened on the 20^th anniversary of the October Revolution, but ... did not happen again.

It should be mentioned, that by that time the first monument to the leader had already been installed in Tambov on the territory of one of the factories and the sculpture for the main monument arrived in Tambov only in early spring of 1938. It was a copy of the monument, which was earlier opened in Rostov region. It was made by the sculptors M.Listopad and S.Popov.

The monument presented the leader standing in a summer suit with a raised right hand. On that sculpture the appearance of Lenin was not as impressive and pompous as at the present sculpture. The pedestal stood in the center of a circular area with a diameter of 7-8 meters. Granite couches were located on the contour, and there were ring-shaped flowerbeds with summer flowers, mostly pansies, behind. This architectural design of the monument allowed people to use this object in the center of the city as a place of rest. Almost 30 years later the new monument has changed completely.

We haven’t found any information about the official opening of the monument, although it certainly took place. There are reports that on May the 1^st 1938 the celebrations of the May Day were first held at the Lenin Square. Since then it was called that way.

    In spring of 1967 the whole country was preparing to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the October Revolution.  It was decided to replace the monument of Lenin at the main square of Tambov. The sculptor A.Bondarenko and the architect A.Kulikova have made a new sculpture and completely redesigned the base of the monument, removing old architectural forms.

Installation of the new monument was made on an April Sunday day, when the area was crowded with citizens, who choose to be witnesses of the events. The speaker’s stand, which was still set on major holidays, became much smaller than the old wooden one and looked very neat and was made of some solid material. It was placed directly in front of the monument itself. Since then, for the last 45 years no significant changes to the monument to V.I. Lenin were made.