In the Soviet Union, there was a cult of Lenin's personality. In every provincial town, there was always a monument or a bust to the leader of the revolution. Monuments and busts of Lenin are one of the symbols of the USSR.
Lenin's image canonized in Soviet art
Busts to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin are a category of sculptural works that have become an integral part of the Soviet state. Leniniana was the canon of art in the USSR. The busts were created with the aim of perpetuating the memory of the leader, the founder of the Soviet state. Also, the sculptures were a propaganda of the existing system.
The busts, as a rule, were installed in front of educational institutions, on the alleys of parks, in the buildings of Pioneers' Houses, Houses of Culture, places of mass gathering of people. Leniniana began in 1924 with the Resolution of the II Congress of Soviets, which ordered the development and approval of projects for monuments to Lenin. For 60 years, many thousands of bronze Ilyichs were created.
The beginning of Leniniana
Moscow sculptor G. D. Alekseev, while Vladimir Ilyich was still alive, received permission to create sculpture from nature. As a result, two busts appeared in 1919 and 1923. But these works of art were not the first. In Smolny, at the entrance to the second floor, a bust of the young Ulyanov was installed, a delicate artistic work of an unknown author.
During Lenin's lifetime, a sculptural bronze bust was opened in Zhitomir in 1922, for the creation of which the soldiers collected spent cartridges and old weapons.
After the death of the leader, the busts created by Alekseev began to be massively replicated. Lenin's death gave impetus to a whole movement to create sculptures dedicated to him. Many eminent artists created sculptures of the revolutionary leader at different times.
The image of Lenin in the work of famous sculptors
People's Artist of the Soviet Union N. V. Tomsky, while studying at the art-industrial technical school, tries his hand at creativity, speaking with a portrait work - a bust of "V. I. Lenin as a Child ". Subsequently, he sculpts a monument-bust to Ilyich, numerous plaster copies will be created from it.
Since 1936 busts of Lenin, made in unglazed porcelain by the Leningrad Porcelain Factory, have been produced in large numbers. Public reception offices, for example, recruiting offices of military registration and enlistment offices, were designed with such works. The models were the works of recognized sculptors: M. G. Minezer, N. V. Tomsky, V. B. Pinchuk.
A significant contribution to the creation of Leniniana was made by the famous Soviet sculptor N. Ya. Talyantsev. As a student at the Academy of Arts (1924), he immortalized the image of the leader in a table bust, which was recognized as one of the best, he was replicated throughout the Union.
With the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Leniniana ended, busts of Lenin have become antiques and are of interest to art connoisseurs and historians.
