Tallinn Trip – Soviet Statue Graveyard (Statue of Vladimir Lenin That Did Go on Display)

Unlike my last post of a Lenin statue that didn’t go on display, here’s one that did. It was unveiled on 4 November 1981 in Pärnu and is a copy of Matti Varik’s monument that was in Kotka City in Finland, designed to make him look thoughtful and statesmanlike although it’s more a look of an unwanted houseguest now. It was only removed relatively recently because the Finnish no longer wanted anything to do with Russian oppression and there are now no Lenin statues left in Finland on public display. Even when the Finnish statue was standing, it wasn’t revered and was treated as something of a figure of fun. This monument was on display at Rüütli plats in Pärnu until it was removed on 20 September 1990. It was plonked into storage by the Pärnu Government until it was transferred to this museum in 2016. As these things go, I thought that this was one of the better designed sculptures and at least it’s obvious who it is and doesn’t make him look too much like a gnome.