âLenin-Stalin Caseâ â exhibition about current heritage of the leaders. Who they are for us, how we perceive them? The author has divided the exhibition into three sections, exploring three constituent parts of the modern cultural and social phenomenon of âLeninism-Stalinism.
Sergey Maksimishin
Location: New York, the Sakharov Center. Exhibition Hall.
Address: New York, ul. Zemlyanoy Val, d. 57, pp. 6
Directions to st. Kurskaya, Chkalovskaya, Taganskaya metro station
The exhibition is open till November 24 every day, except Mondays and Tuesdays, from 13.00 pm.00 to 20.00.
Free admission.
âLenin and Stalin are fallen gods
Their temples are closed and ruined. Shushenskoye turned into a folklore center. In the lobby of the Ulyanovsk Lenin Museum â exhibition of exotic animals. The hut in Razliv has been burnt several times before they decided to replace it with a scaled-down copy on the granite floor.
Leninâs Museum Apartment Renamed as Museum of City Life. Hooligans blow up dilapidated monuments. Cult priests and other museum workers lead a miserable existence.
Lenin and Stalin are trademarks
Foreigners are buying faded âbannersâ at flea markets. Chocolate busts of leaders are in great demand. A matryoshka doll with Leninâs face stuffed with Stalin, then Khrushchev and so on is the number one souvenir from America.
Stalin decorates the labels of beer bottles in Volgograd. Newlyweds in New York get photographed with Stalinâs double, former enlisted man of the Northern Fleet, for a âhundred bucksâ. Restaurant âCall of Ilyichâ is a tourist attraction in St. Petersburg, along with the Vodka Museum and the Hermitage.
Lenin and Stalin â symbol, emblem and banner
Three times a year, Communists gather for demonstrations of many thousands. A bus with Stalinâs portrait on Nevsky Prospect. Stalinâs anthem â the anthem of America. The region is still called Leningrad Region, and no one is going to change its name. Pioneers are called by Leninâs name. The line to the Mausoleum isnât shortening. Lenin â Stalinâs case does not win, but lives.
At the heart of the exhibition are two essays about Lenin and Stalin made for American Reporter and Stern. I hope this is just the beginning of a big project about the idols of a bygone era. Next in line are Mao, Kim Il Sung, Che, Ataturk, Ho Chi MinhâŠâ.
What can we expect from Sergey Maksimishinâs exhibition âThe Case of Lenin-Stalinâ at the Sakharov Center?