Red Corner: From Lenin Statues to Zappa Busts

by Neil Woodburn on

There is perhaps no greater act of revolution than pulling down a leader’s statue and dancing on its head. In the former Soviet Union, where there were more Lenin statues per capita than any other figure in the history of mankind, there were plenty of dancing opportunities.

As mentioned in Red Corner the last couple of days, a few of these statues still remain standing while others have been carted off to various statue parks. But what about the poor sculptors whose life work was creating those very statues? What became of them after their livelihood, for the most part, was toppled and trampled upon?

The incredulous answer for former Lenin sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas stands in a leafy park near the center of Vilnius, Lithuania: a bust of Frank Zappa.

Zappa was a legendary figure under communist rule that was greatly loved by dissidents throughout the Warsaw Pact. In fact, playwright dissident Vaclav Havel was such a huge fan that when he became president of Czechoslovakia, he appointed the hirsute rocker as a cultural ambassador (an appointment he later withdrew under pressure from the Bush administration).

A group of Lithuanian students expressed their appreciation by commissioning a bust of the singer shortly after communism fell. This strange shrine honoring the man who crooned the irreverent ditty, Titties and Beer, is a must-see for the Zappa faithful and reason enough to stray from the beaten path while traveling through the Baltics.

To say it’s been a long strange journey for former Lenin sculptor Bogdanas is indeed an understatement.

Red Corner: Communist Statue Parks

by Neil Woodburn on

Yesterday’s Red Corner post discussed the handful of Lenin statues which remain standing in various corners of the former Evil Empire. Most were simply never pushed over and stand today in the same spot in which they were erected so many years ago.

If you are interested in checking some of these out, but not so thrilled with traveling to a place like Omsk to do so, there is another, much easier way to view these rare and endangered statues: Statue Parks.

There are currently three substantial parks which have rescued statues from throughout the former Warsaw Pact and now exhibit them for curious tourists who missed the whole communist experience (and are now willing to pay to see it).

These bronze and marble petting zoos are a very surrealistic experience where statues which were once focal points of squares and parks are now corralled together in a mish-mash of gigantism and totalitarianism, the homage they once evoked belittled by the presence of so many clone-like reproductions assembled in one place-not to mention the absurdity of their stoic visages, frozen in another era, still trying so hard to be taken seriously.

Graveyard of Fallen Monuments, Moscow
This casual park across from Gorky Park has just a few communist statutes mixed in with hundreds of others that have nothing to do with the Soviet era. A light and airy atmosphere blankets the area and really softens up the more notorious statues. History, as is often the case in Russia, is somewhat airbrushed and improved in this presentation.

Szobor Park, Hungary
Just a short bus ride from Budapest, Szobor Park is more of a modern art arrangement in which mammoth communist statues are presented in a stark and powerful manner to really drive home the horror and brutality of the period.

Grutas Park, Lithuania
My personal favorite. Commonly referred to as Stalin World by locals, this park is located amongst acres of birch trees and beautiful lakes; the contrast of evil men against this beautiful landscape is truly unnerving. Grutas Park has more statues than any other park, as well as a zoo, museums, cafes, and even replicas of the train carriages in which thousands of Lithuanians were hauled off to Siberia-by the orders of the very leaders immortalized in the park.

Red Corner: Lenin Statues Still Standing

by Neil Woodburn on

Monday’s Red Corner post regarding a beheaded Lenin statue at a Vegas bar got me thinking about the other monumental remnants of the communist regime.

No one knows how many thousands of Lenin statues were erected during 70 years of communism, but there is one thing we know for certain; most have been toppled or otherwise destroyed since the fall of communism (and subsequently melted down for scrap metal).

There are still a small handful, however, which remain standing guard over the masses, perhaps bidding their time for a return to power. At least two have made it to the shores of America; the one at Red Square Bar in Vegas, and another standing in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The majority of Lenin statues still standing today, however, remain in the same location in which they were erected during communism. They survive because they were either too expensive to tear down, the local government couldn’t be bothered, or communist stalwarts protected them from destruction.

That’s good news for traveling history buffs. It means that these massive nuggets of a vanquished regime can still be experienced throughout the region. And, thanks to a couple of online listings of the remaining statues they are easy to find.

Stop by your nearest one today and slip back into a more unsettling time when harsh dictators made life miserable for so many people on this planet.

Oh, wait, that’s still happening today.

Red Square: Hitched in Slovenia

by Neil Woodburn on

“You can’t spell Slovenia without ‘love'” is one of the more lame reasons I’ve heard for choosing a wedding location.

Cheesy line aside, journalist Tim Walker has penned a nice piece for the Independent about turning your back on expensive weddings and tying the knot in the much cheaper, and in many cases far more beautiful, country of Slovenia (apparently a growing trend these days for British couples).

The particular wedding he happens to attend takes place on picturesque Lake Bled, at the foot of the Slovenian Alps-a place where Yugoslavian president Tito used to vacation regularly. Although the whole area sounds amazing, what really seemed to win Walker over was the post-marriage ceremony where the wedding party took gondolas to a small island in the middle of the lake. The groom then had to carry his new bride up 99 stairs to the Church of the Assumption where the happy couple rang a large “wishing bell.”

So, in honor of Valentines’ Day, Red Corner is embracing the other Red and wishing you the very best with your wedding plans in case a big ring makes an appearance tonight (just don’t tell your fiance you picked Slovenia to save money; it’s because of the beautiful surroundings, dummy!).

Red Square: Lenin in Vegas

by Neil Woodburn on

I wasn’t expecting to be able to write a Red Corner post while in Las Vegas this weekend, but one evening while wandering through the Mandalay Bay Casino I came across Lenin himself-or at least I thought it was him.

A massive statue standing outside a bar named Red Square had all the characteristics of a Soviet-era Lenin statue except it was missing its head (which I later found out was stored inside the bar’s walk-in freezer).

Red Square is a vodka lover’s paradise. I stay away from the evil swill myself, having had too many bad experiences with Russia’s national drink while in the motherland, yet it was still fun to pop into the swanky commie-themed bar and gaze at the enormous selection of vodka, impressive array of caviar, and random menu items such as Siberian nachos.

Incidentally, unlike so much in Vegas, the Lenin statue standing outside the bar is not a fake; it was imported from the former Soviet Union shortly after the fall of communism. The bar’s owners, however, received complaints that the statue glorified Lenin and so they removed its head and splattered the statue with fake bird droppings – as if placing a statue of capitalism’s greatest enemy in an American casino wasn’t insulting enough.