Schlagwort: Red Army

Lenin in the Communist Curve

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In the course of our documentation of all German monuments to Lenin, it became increasingly clear that despite the frenetic destruction of all leftovers from the GDR in the early 1990s, the Soviet revolutionary hero can still be found in the most unexpected places. This is also the case at Seepark Lünen, a 63-hectare green space in the Ruhr region. When the recreation area was created in 1996 as part of the National Garden Exhibition, nine Soviet monuments that had landed in Lünen by chance were also erected. To the present day, they stand there as an unconventional tourist attraction. Weiterlesen →

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Post-apocalyptic view

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The abandoned airfield in Wittstock an der Dosse presents a contrasting scene: Lenin is standing at the lectern in a Statesmanly pose, but he is covered with fissures and moss. His head is smashed. In the background is a red brick building erected by the Wehrmacht with broken windows and crumbling walls. A time document of the last 100 years of German history in the form of a post-apocalyptic setting. Weiterlesen →

Lenin peeling off

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Two red stars can still be seen on the rusted gate. It stands wide open and leads nowhere, because the garages and warehouses behind it have been demolished in the meantime. Dismantling and complete renovation in Krampnitz are proceeding rapidly, and all traces of the Soviet Army will probably be erased in the coming months and years. Also the red stars and an already heavily weathered Lenin mural. Weiterlesen →

The engraved portrait of Lenin

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When the Soviet Army left East Germany in the early 1990s, a vast network of empty barracks and ghost towns was left behind. There are still traces, leftovers and some mysteries of the Soviets to be found there today. One of these enigmas is the Lenin head, about one meter high, carved into the wall in the abandoned complex in Kummersdorf. Weiterlesen →

In the shadow of Perestroika

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The hall is dark and has to be lighted with a torch. Now Lenin appears on the back wall in a resolute forward march. Behind him are symbolic buildings and infrastructure of the Soviet Union as well as a waving red flag with a Roman XXVII. Apparently, the mural was created on the occasion of the 27th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which took place in Moscow from 25th February to 6th March 1986. There, the General Secretary of the Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev, introduced the political reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) with which he wanted to modernise the Soviet Union. This process failed and only five years after the announcement of the plans, the USSR disintegrated. Weiterlesen →

Quotes

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In some barracks of the Soviet Army in Germany, apart from monuments in honour of Lenin, some quotes from the revolutionary leader can still be found. Like the statues, busts and reliefs, the inscriptions are also highly endangered and are gradually disappearing as a result of conversion processes, the atmospheric conditions or acts of vandalism. Here are the last remaining quotations of Lenin in former installations of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany:
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Lenin relief brought back to light

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Old photos of the Soviet barracks in Möhlau show a relief with a side portrait of Lenin. For years it was thought to have been lost when the Soviet army left, because the remaining stele was blank. But after a quarter of a century of weathering, the top layer of the stele began to peel away and surprisingly, the red colour of the former monument and the outlines of Lenin’s head appeared, although diffuse and blurred. We immediately set out in the hope of restoring the original relief.

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Mural renovated and extended in graffiti style

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While exploring abandoned objects one constantly comes across graffiti, tags and other works of „street art„. They have become part of the unique landscape of abandoned places. However, they rarely have a concrete connection to the historical sites in which they are located and many visitors tend to perceive them as foreign bodies or disturbing elements. An exception can be seen in Möhlau, where a graffiti artist first renovated a monumental Lenin mural of the Soviet army, only to expand it with a stylized Soviet flag. Weiterlesen →

The hidden mural

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On the former airfield in Sperenberg (Brandenburg) there is still a flaking Soviet mural with Lenin inside an abandoned building. It is a difficult discovery even for experienced Urbex explorers, because the corridor to the room can only be reached through a small hole in a wall. But first you have to find the right building in this vast ghost town. Weiterlesen →