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Museums of Vladimir Lenin in Russia

The Revolution in October 1918 in Russia had a decisive influence on the development of Russian history and significantly influenced world history. There are a lot of places in Russia associated with Vladimir Lenin, who headed the Bolshevik Party, and after the Revolution headed the Soviet Government.

Many people are interested in visiting places associated with Lenin. In this review on the online travel guide Geomerid you can read about Lenin Museums in Russia:

1. Lenin Museum in Ulyanovsk
2. Lenin Museum in Kazan
3. Lenin Museum in Samara
4. Lenin Museum in Krasnoyarsk
5. Steamer St. Nicholas
6. Lenin Museum in Shushenskoye
7. Lenin's hut in Shushenskoye
8. Smolny Palace
9. Cruiser Aurora
10. Lenin's workroom in the Kremlin
11. Lenin's House in the Lenin Gorki
12. Lenin Museum in the Lenin Gorki
13. Lenin's Mausoleum
14. Muzeon Park

All Lenin Museums are arranged in chronological order of the biography of Vladimir Lenin

Lenin Museum in Ulyanovsk

The Lenin Museum in Ulyanovsk is the largest memorial in Russia dedicated to the biography of Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, as well as the events of the October Revolution of 1917. This museum began to be created in 1923 during Lenin's lifetime and is now the main attraction of Ulyanovsk.

The Lenin Museum is located in the center of the city, where Vladimir Ulyanov was born, and his childhood passed here. Several houses are associated with Lenin's name in Ulyanovsk. Later, the authorities decided to preserve the whole quarter of the old Simbirsk of the late 19th century. In 1970, a huge Lenin memorial was opened next to these houses, which includes the Lenin Museum.

The Lenin Museum, which is called "The House where Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) was born" is located in the wing of the house of Simbirsk landowner A.Pribylovskaya. In 1878, Ilya Nikolaevich acquired ownership of a small two-story house where the Ulyanov family lived until their departure to Kazan in 1887. This house became the very first Lenin Museum in Russia, created in 1923, during the lifetime of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

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Lenin Museum in Kazan

The memorial Lenin museum house was opened in 1937. Now it is the oldest museum in Tatarstan. The museum is in a wooden house of the Orlovs. The house itself was built in 1870. It was preserved in its original state to our days. The furnishings of the house are as they were when the family of Ulyanov lived in Kazan.

As is known, the family of Ulyanov-Lenin moved from Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) in 1887, when the young Vladimir Ulyanov graduated from Simbirsk gymnasium with a gold medal. He decided to enter the law faculty of Kazan University. At first the Ulyanovs lived rented various apartments but finally they settled down in the Orlov`s house, where they lived for about a year. However, they had to leave Kazan after Vladimir Lenin was expelled from the university for active participation in student disturbances. The family of Ulyanov moved to Samara.

Two kitchens and a small nanny`s room is on the ground floor of the museum house. Three residential rooms are on the first floor of the museum house. Vladimir Lenin lived in one of the rooms. A big living-room was also on the first floor of the museum house. The brother and sister of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry and Marie, took an active part in the creation of the museum in 1937. 

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Lenin Museum in Samara

The memorial house-museum of Lenin in the historical center of Samara is devoted to the life of the Ulyanovs after they were forced to move there from Kazan in 1890. The museum is located in the former mansion of the merchant Rytikov.

Lenin in his first year at the university  began to visit Marxist groups and was one of the most active participants of the so-called student unrestIt was for these reasons that the Ulyanovs moved from Kazan to Samara. In Samara the Ulyanovs rented the entire first floor of the roomy house of the merchant Rytikov. There Vladimir Ilyich prepared for admission to the law faculty of St. Petersburg University and worked as assistant lawyer at the district court. At the same time he began to write his first theoretical works and create Marxist groups in Samara.

The memorial house of Lenin was opened on January 3, 1940. At the mansion of Rytikov there were restored the interiors and the furnishing of the time when it was rented by the Ulyanovs. At the museum there is also an exposition devoted to the three years (1890-1893) Vladimir Ilyich Lenin spent in Samara. 

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Lenin Museum in Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk museum center may be considered the biggest exhibition floor of Siberia. In our days most of it is occupied by various expositions devoted to the modern art. However, there also remained the most interesting expositions devoted to Lenin and the first years of the Soviet power.

The construction of the huge museum building at the confluence of the rivers Kacha and Yenisei began in 1982. In 1987 it was opened as the 13th branch of the Central Lenin Museum, the only in Siberia. Due to the avant-garde architecture of the interior space, as well as well arranged expositions, this museum of Lenin became one of the most interesting ones in the Soviet Union.

In 1991 it was decided to close most of the expositions devoted to Lenin and give the space to the expositions of modern art. However, it was decided to preserve the main expositions devoted to Lenin, so-called Red Halls, because of their cultural value.

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Steamer St. Nicholas

The steamer St. Nicholas is moored on the Krasnoyarsk embankment near the Krasnoyarsk Museum center, which was one of the largest Lenin museums in Russia in Soviet time. On this ship, Lenin sailed into exile from Krasnoyarsk to Minusinsk, and then went to the village of Shushenskoe. 

Vladimir Lenin was arrested in 1895 for revolutionary activities and threatening the state system. After the trial, he was sentenced to serve in exile in Shushenskoye under police supervision. However, Lenin`s mother arranged for him to travel from St. Petersburg to Shushenskoye not as a prisoner, but at his own expense. 

In May 1896, Vladimir Lenin, boarded the steamer St. Nicholas in Krasnoyarsk and arrived in Minusinsk a few days later. Nadezhda Krupskaya and her mother arrived to Shushenskoe later. Thanks to this trip, St. Nicholas steamer  was not sawn for scrap, but for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was restored and became one of the Lenin museums dedicated to the October Revolution. A Museum exhibition dedicated to Lenin`s stay in Krasnoyarsk and Shushenskoye was created inside the ship. 

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Lenin Museum in Shushenskoye

One of the most interesting Russian museums of wooden architecture and also Lenin museum  is located 500 kilometers to the south of Krasnoyarsk in Shushenskoye. A Siberian village of the end of 19 century was completely preserved on an area of 16 hectares.

The location of this Lenin museum in such a remote place is related to the fact that in 1897-1900 in Shushenskoye Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) served his exile. The memorial part of the exposition has 29 houses, 23 of which are the original houses of the end of 19 century. 

Of a particular interest are the house of Zyryanov where Lenin lived the first year of his exile and the house of Petrova where he moved after he was joined by N. К. Krupskaya. Also, it will be very interesting to have a look at the regional government and prison of the end of 19 century. Everything was preserved in its original state there.

After their marriage, Lenin and Krupskaya moved to the spacious house of the landowner Praskovya Olympievna Petrova, where they rented half of the house: a kitchen, a room, and separate rooms for Lenin, Krupskaya, and her mother. As Krupskaya wrote in her memoirs: "... we lived a family Life. And we fought with the Russian stove together with my mother.

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Lenin 's Hut in Shushenskoye

The Shushenskiy Bor is a national park located on the right bank of the Yenisei river. It was created to preserve an ecosystem of Siberian forests in the foothills of the Sayan Mountains in 1995. 

Despite plain part of Shushensky bor is also included to national park, its value is historical, not natural. The flat part of the park is just near Shushenskoye. Lake Perovo is 15 kilometers from the village. It is a favorite recreation place of the natives. And it is there that Lenin liked to hunt and rest during his exile. On the bank of the lake there remained a Lenin’s Hut where he used to rest with local peasants during a hunt. 

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Smolny Palace

In 1806, next to the magnificent baroque monastery building designed by Francesco Rastrelli, there was built the simple classic Smolny Palace. It was designed by Giacomo Quarenghi. Quarenghi has developed a class layout, which is still used in school design.

In October 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Workers` and Soldiers` Deputies` Soviets and the Council of People`s Commissars led by V. Lenin moved from the Tauride Palace to the Smolny Palace (Institute). The October Revolution was also led from there. On October 25, Lenin came to the Smolny Palace. That day, on October 25, all the key objects of the capital (railway stations, telegraph, post office, bridges, etc.) were in the hands of the Bolsheviks. 

Lenin lived and worked in the Smolny Palace from October 1917 to March 10, 1918, when the government moved to Moscow. Together with Krupskaya, Lenin occupied two rooms in the Smolny Palace, which were later turned into a museum.

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Cruiser Aurora

The Aurora cruiser is one of the main symbols of the October Revolution and Lenin museum. On November 7, 1917, at 21: 40, the cruiser Aurora fired one salvo from the bow gun, which served as a signal for the soldiers to storm the Winter Palace in Saint-Petersburg. All the key points in the city were already occupied by the Lenin`s soldiers (Bolshevists). It remained only to capture the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located. So it became the main symbol of the October Revolution. 

Today, the cruiser Aurora is the No. 1 ship in the Russian Navy. This title was awarded to him in Soviet times, and has since been preserved. The cruiser Aurora is moored on the Petrogradskaya embankment near the Nakhimov Navy school, opposite the Summer Garden. Now it is a Museum and there are always a lot of people here.

There are always a lot of people here. Visitors can walk along the deck, approach the gun that fired the shot, and go down to the hold. There is a Museum dedicated to the events which the cruiser Aurora took part.

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Museum Lenin's Workroom in the Kremlin

The Museum Lenin`s workroom in the Moscow Kremlin is now located in Lenin Gorki estate. The house where it is placed is at a significant distance from the main house of Gorki estate. At the Kremlin there was reconstructed the interior of the study and the rooms of Lenin and Krupskaya where they lived since 1918. On February 26, 1918 it was decided to move the capital of Russia from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The Soviet government also moved there. 

Lenin and Krupskaya were assigned a space of 300 square meters on the third floor of the Senate Palace. Their apartments included the Lenin study, a reception room, a room for the meetings of the Sovnarkom (Council of People`s Commissars), a library and several residential rooms for the family of Lenin.

From 1922 though 1924 Lenin and Krupskaya lived at Gorki but, when Lenin died, Krupskaya returned to their Kremlin apartment and lived there to her death in 1939. In 1994, during the repair works in the Senate Palace, all furniture of the Lenin study and apartment, which were made a Lenin museum by that time, were moved to one of the houses at Lenin’s Gorki. 

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Lenin House in the Lenin’s Gorki

The estate of Gorki was founded by Zinaida Morozova, a widow of Savva Morozov, one of the richest people in Russia, at the beginning of 20 century. In 1918 V. I. Lenin made it his dacha. Since 1922 and to his death he lived there constantly. Today on the territory of the estate there are several expositions devoted to the first years of Soviet power and Lenin in particular.

From the time of their first visit to Gorki in 1918 to the first insult of Lenin in 1922, Lenin and Krupskaya lived in the Northern Outhouse, as they thought the main house to be very big for them. The interior and furniture remained intact in the rooms of Lenin and Krupskaya. A small dressing table is in the corner of the room of Lenin. Lenin wrote his works at this table. Books were kept in the linen closet. A wolf skin is on the floor of the room of Lenin. It is a gift of Tver hunters who visited Lenin.

After the first insult in 1921 doctors prescribed him to move to the Main House, which was more suitable for his then health condition.  But moving to the main house Lenin asked to change nothing for him there. The rooms of Lenin, Krupskaya and his sisters were on the first floor of the main house. The room of Lenin is now the same as it was on the day of his death.

The bed where he died is behind a screen. A calendar is on the wall. Lenin himself tore a leaf off the calendar every day. The last leaf of the calendar is the date of his death, January 21, 1924. A death mask is on the table. It was made just after the death of Lenin.

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Lenin Museum in the Lenin Gorki

The building of Lenin Museum was constructed in Leninskiye Gorki in 1987. Architect L. Pavlov called it «My Parthenon». The building looking like a mausoleum is faced in marble. It has a cubic shape and an entrance colonnade. The museum is quite rightly considered an important monument of the Soviet period, both by the form and content.

Entering the museum you ascend to a great hall by a large staircase with steps of black marble. A 5-meter marble sculpture of Lenin is in the center of the huge round hall. On the walls of the hall you can see an exposition devoted to the first years of Soviet power.

The museum exposition consists of 5 halls where you can know about the activity of Lenin and the Soviet government. In each hall there are special cubes with projectors showing documentary chronicles of the first years of Soviet power. On the walls of the museum halls there are a lot of original documents, decrees of the Soviet government, with remarks of Lenin, as well the summaries of the speeches of Lenin, his letters to colleagues. The quotes of Lenin are all over the walls.

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Lenin's Mausoleum

The mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, who was the first leader of the Soviet country, is at the wall of the Moscow Kremlin in the center of the Red Square. As in ancient times, the mausoleum is the burial vault for the body of the Communist leader, which it was decided not to bury in a Christian way but to embalm and put in a mausoleum, which would be open for visiting.
The first wooden building of the mausoleum by the Kremlin Wall was erected on January, 27 1924. The architect Shchusev designed the mausoleum as a four-stepped Babylonian ziggurat (burial vault).

However, the same year Shchusev erected a second building, which was also wooden but of much more complicated design. It had columns, pilasters and a tribune. But this building also lasted only 5 years until 1929-30 when the same architect Shchusev built the today Lenin Mausoleum of reinforced concrete paneled with granite, porphyry and marble. The tribune where the Soviet leaders stood during parades and demonstrations are on the mausoleum. The enclosed spaces for the common people are on both sides of the mausoleum.

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Park Museon

The Museon park, one of the most interesting parks of Moscow, is on the embankment of the Moscow River, near the Gorky Park and the western side of Balchug Island. The Central House of Artist is at the park. The exhibitions of the Tretyakov Gallery are held there. However, the most interesting is to have a walk in the alleys of the park among hundreds of monuments of the Soviet period, which were moved there from all over the country.

Since that time many other monuments, as well as the objects of monumental propaganda of the Soviet period, were brought there. Now there are over 700 monuments at the Museon. So it can be quite rightly considered an open-air museum of the Soviet period. Anyway, the Soviet period is a part of the history of Russia, and it is very interesting to see the monuments of that time in a comfortable atmosphere of a Moscow park. 

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