Monuments are not just masterpieces of sculpture, but also symbols of history. Behind them is always a famous person and the fact of history associated with it. A striking example of this is the monument "Lenin on an armored car." It was installed in 1926 in St. Petersburg, at the Finland Station. In this historical monument, an armored car is of great interest. Indeed, disputes still boil around him. One group of specialists claims that this comradely leader of the proletariat helped him through the thorns of the Bolshevik revolution. Others call the monument a falsification of history. We will understand the details of the question.
Competition
Shortly after the death of V.I. Lenin, a competition was announced for Russian sculptors to create a historical monument as a symbol of a significant stage in the country's political life. The work “Lenin on an armored car” was recognized as the best work. Three masters immediately became its authors: Vladimir Schuko, Sergey Evseev and Vladimir Gelfreich. They captured the leader in bronze with his hand pointing forward on the tower of a combat vehicle. The monument "Lenin on an armored car" ten meters high was erected on a symbolic day, November 7th. But since then, he and the personality of the leader himself have kept more secrets and doubts than historical significance.
Fire, water and copper pipes
It is established that the brand of the armored car of Lenin is “Austin”. This model was an English development. Cars were ordered in the UK, and in Russia they were modernized and used for the Russian army in the First World War. The service then seemed rather risky, so military groups were formed from volunteers. Armored vehicles opened fire, only close approaching the enemy. Artillery shells therefore, at point-blank range falling into a combat object, easily flashed armor. Despite this "shortsightedness," Austin vehicles, nevertheless, helped to accomplish many military feats and were successfully used in ambushes. And even though the armored car decorating the Finland Station in St. Petersburg did not specifically participate in the battles, its “pedigree” has actual confirmation.
Specifications
From 1917 to 1919, several modifications of the armored cars were made. Typically, there were cars with two rudders, front and rear for a reverse stroke. They were equipped with two Maxim machine guns to repel the attack. The weight of the armored car was 5.3 tons, engine power reached 50 horsepower. On the highway, he developed a speed of up to 50 km / h. The crew accommodated four people.
Legend
Since the revolution, many myths have been created about the armored car, on which Lenin literally drove through the revolution. Thus, it is known that after the emigration in April 1917, it was decided to meet the leader of the proletariat officially with a demonstration of Bolshevik power. Sailors, soldiers and military equipment - they relied on them in this meeting. But since it seemed to be a problem to get a real combat vehicle for the Bolsheviks, the training development was taken from the division at the Mikhailovsky Manege. There is no exact information about the name of the armored car of Lenin. Compared to combat colleagues, in reserve armor, he simply passed at number 2.
Subsequently, two versions appeared, according to which Lenin was carried in his arms or he himself climbed onto the roof of an armored car in order to deliver an opening, inspiring speech to the Bolsheviks about the onset of a new historical stage in the life of Russia. And after that he went to the headquarters of the Bolsheviks (Kshesinskaya’s mansion) on the same armored car, making stops along the way to re-recite his speech. According to the testimony of the driver, presumably Vasily Fedorov (his identity was not completely established), Lenin's armored car took part in the storming of the Winter Palace. The imprint of this event is damage to the front steering wheel from the junker bullet.
Also, historical evidence claims that on the armored car the leader of the Bolsheviks met in Petrograd the attack of the troops of General N.N. Yudenich in 1919. And after the revolution, the “Enemy of Capital”, as the armored car, on which Lenin spoke, was involved in battles near Yamburg, Pulkovo and Krasnoye Selo. However, in 1922 he was transferred to the disposal of the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was lost. Only five years later, the search for an armored car began. They involved museum workers, event veterans and archivists. They collected a lot of material about the events and eyewitness accounts, but the armored car itself could not be found. Only in 1939, in a abandoned warehouse of the defense organization (OSOAVIAHIM) in Sosnovka, a machine was discovered that looked outwardly like the desired artifact.
Museum piece
The identification of the armored car was based on several signs: the presence of headlights that were absent from other cars of this brand, towers on the roof, installed with a curvature, and two rudders, with damage from the junker bullet in the front. A little later, forensic experts, under a layer of dirt and paint, found the notorious number 2. In the aggregate, these signs became the basis for confirming the originality of the armored car. However, the examination protocol has not fully reached our days.
After restoration, the find adorned the Museum of the Revolution (in the Kshesinskaya mansion). She was later transported to the Lenin Museum (Marble Palace). At the end of the 20th century, the historical journey ended, and the exposition of the Military Museum of Artillery and Engineering Troops in St. Petersburg acquired the legendary Lenin armored car, where it is today.
Uncut
However, historians have reason to believe that much of the description of the revolutionary period in Russia was flattened, embellished or cut out altogether. So, for example, the very fact of Lenin’s appearance on an armored car seems different. Returning from exile to the capital, Lenin collided at the station with an indignant crowd with banners and an orchestra. However, she did not meet anyone, rather, the leader’s associates decided to seize the opportunity during the overthrow of Russian statehood. The armored car of Lenin was indeed present in this story, but it is impossible to establish today exactly where it was taken and what name it bore.
Doubts are also caused by the identity of the driver Fedorov, whom the old Bolsheviks accused of imposture. Accordingly, his story should also be classified as fiction. Doubts were reinforced by the struggle for the title of armored car, which unfolded after the death of the leader.
The specialists also shut up the small but significant fact of finding the armored car in Sosnovka. It was determined precisely that its production belongs to the Putilov factory and the year of manufacture is 1919. So, Lenin could not speak at it during the outbreak of the revolution, which was described in such detail by the Bolsheviks themselves.
Leader's speech
A lot of controversy and doubt is caused by Lenin's speech on the armored car. There were witnesses who claimed that the leader did pronounce it. So, the journalist, observer of the revolutionary movement Konstantin Yeremeyev claims that the leader of the Bolsheviks made a political declaration, but it was not recorded and he cannot reproduce the words of his speech. Perhaps this misunderstanding will be able to explain another version of the development of events. Lenin was carried (carried) to a trained armored car, from the roof of which he shouted several incoherent phrases. The most famous of them is the exclamation: "Long live the socialist revolution!" In 1926, it was she who was put on the pedestal of the monument "Lenin on an armored car" (Finland Station). The fictional speech itself was later called "famous."
In the film
In 1927, the silent film "October" was shot, which reflected the events of the October Revolution. The film, together with the paintings "Strike" and "Battleship Potemkin," composed a historical film trilogy. In the filming, the director Eisenstein used a museum exhibit - an armored car 2.
The picture was perceived by the audience as a documentary. And nobody tried to dissuade them of this. It is ironic that Lenin himself considered cinema the most important means of propaganda. An imitation of historical truth was beneficial to the government to maintain power. Moreover, the film was shown in the USA. There he passed under the title "Ten Days That Shook the World." This is how reality replaced the film.
Details
Conflicting evidence of eyewitnesses of those events causes a lot of embarrassment. Some of them claim that there was no armored car, and the leader of the proletariat completely read the "famous" speech from the foot of the train. And then he went to the headquarters of the Bolsheviks and read the April Theses, which, by the way, were not accepted by his comrades-in-arms.
Discrepancies were also found in the leader’s appearance with the monument “Lenin on an armored car”. Photos of that time confirm that in April 1917 he was still without a beard and mustache. The monument reflected the familiar, “classic” look of the leader.
Other details point to falsification of the history of that period. For example, to this day, almost in perfect condition and composition have reached all the writings and household notes of the leader. This is quite surprising given the turbulent times and emigration. Such an observation cannot but be invested in the treasury of the general distortion of revolutionary events in Russia.
Modernity
Despite such a convincing revelation of the hoaxes of the Soviet period, modern power nevertheless carefully guards the symbols of the revolution. It in every possible way prevents the destruction of ideological idols, clearing from falsifications. And although more than once the question was raised about the liberation of Red Square from the Bolshevik cemetery and the mummy of the leader himself, no action was taken.
But the citizens of Russia had their own opinion on this matter. On April 1, 2009, an armored car monument to Lenin was blown up in St. Petersburg. But this did not affect the situation of inconsistency with the realities of the past. By order of the authorities, the ten-meter leader was restored and reinstated on a pedestal.
Historians believe that such an act was motivated not so much by a general plot of inconsistency with historical facts, as by a critical assessment of Lenin's personality. And there were also reasons for this. According to the apt expression of historians, he was deliberately "mummified." That heroic image, full of decisiveness and lofty ideas, today does not fit with the facts of mass executions and hostages that were made under the leadership of the leader of the Bolsheviks. Farther and farther away from the revolutionary period, experts discover new sides and turns. Perhaps that is why the main question of what role Lenin played in the life of Russia remains open.
PS
Now it is impossible to say for sure whether the symbol of the revolution "Lenin on an armored car" is a monument to the falsification of history. Too much has been done, written and said by the Bolsheviks themselves to realize their personal goals. Time is gone, and independent witnesses are gone with him. But the fact that there are doubts and inconsistencies around the monument and personality of V. I. Lenin himself is a fact. The revolution is a thing of the past, and the modern generation is writing a new story. The main thing is that she be true, and not a heroic legend.