In 1970, in honor of the centenary of V. Lenin, a large museum was opened in Ulyanovsk dedicated to the life of the leader - the Lenin Memorial. The memorial is a complex of buildings, which consists of the Vladimir Ilyich House-Museum , three other memorial houses, the museum square, the socio-political center and the Great Hall.
Among other things, the complex is a building with a long history, which are monuments of architecture of the XX century, as well as a center for scientific research and cultural heritage. Ulyanovsk itself received such a name in 1924, in honor of the real name of Lenin. Until this year, the city was called Simbirsk. During the years of the Soviet Union, Ulyanovsk was a popular tourist center, after the collapse of the country, interest in the life of Ulyanov-Lenin came to naught.
House Ulyanov
The family was headed by his father, Ilya Nikolaevich, at that time he was the director of public schools (in the Simbirsk province). Eight years after the birth of Vladimir (1870), Ulyanov Sr., together with his large family, moved from rented apartments to a small wooden house. Their prosperity was modest, so the house consisted of one floor and the so-called mezzanines, where the children's rooms were located.
Mother, Maria, was a very educated woman, she knew three languages, played the piano and was fond of reading a wide variety of literature. Now in her room are neatly arranged books ranging from Pushkin and Lermontov to Hugo in the original. All the holidays were held with beautiful melodies by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, coming out from under the keys of a home piano, children and guests had fun, danced on New Year's Eve to Russian folk songs. Lenin spent a happy childhood and youth among his sisters and brothers. Here he had the first ideas about the revolution, immediately after the death of his father and the execution of his elder brother, Alexander, who participated in an attempt to assassinate the tsar, Alexander the Third.
Family life
The Ulyanovs lived modestly enough, there were no paintings or posters on the walls, but cards hung: both in the father’s room and in the largest room - the dining room. In addition to the usual meal, the dining room was used for classes and preparing school lessons, reading and games. All entertainment events took place in a spacious living room, and people usually gathered a lot - family friends and father's colleagues came. In the living room there is an old piano and a compulsory bookshelf.
The head of the family’s room also contains a bookcase, an original sofa for relaxing, work accessories in the form of seals, inkwells and so on. Dense, simple curtains hung all over the house, and floor paths lay. Maria’s room is filled with her favorite books, on the dresser there is the most expensive gift from her eldest son - a handmade box.
All her life, Maria did not leave children in difficult periods, although she herself went through a difficult time, including the death of her daughter Olga at the age of 19 from typhus (during her studies in St. Petersburg). Vladimir shared his room with Alexander; it contains the original of Marx’s book Capital, which left a big imprint on Lenin’s reflections on the creation of socialism.
Magazines, chess, a sewing machine, antique wall clocks, kitchen utensils, dishes and much more are displayed in the public domain. The flowering garden still shines with its beauty, as if there were not these hundred-odd years, wars and coups.
The main building of the memorial
After 1923, a revolutionary museum was housed in an already nationalized house owned by the Soviet government. At the same time, a wooden mausoleum was built for the body of Lenin. By 1929, the house was transformed into a memorial in the Ulyanovsk Museum, which served not only the purpose of telling the history of the revolution, but also showing the conditions under which the future leader of the proletariat grew up.
The main building of the Ulyanovsk Memorial Museum with huge stained-glass windows and the main exposition on the third floor is equipped with stairs built in the Soviet style. The first floor welcomes guests with a sculpture of the Communists and the grandiose exhibition "From the Tsar to the President." On the second floor there is a semicircular simulated picture depicting the city of Simbirsk in the second half of the nineteenth century. More than three thousand things presented in various expositions help the visitor go through the life and path of the leader, see the world and the formation of the first Soviet country through his eyes with the help of genuine photographs. Collections of gifts from foreign guests are very interesting: here are expensive carpets, and various products from crystal, glass, and porcelain.
The Ulyanovsk Lenin Memorial collaborates with many major museums in Russia and organizes various interesting exhibitions. All this is possible thanks to the vast territory of the exhibition complex.
Collections of the Ulyanovsk Memorial Museum
The most interesting and noteworthy is a collection of household items and ethnography. It consists of household items: dishes, samovars, irons, lamps, tools that the peasants used when cultivating the land. This also includes works representing the life of Lenin and related to the perpetuation of his name in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. Special attention is paid to collections of military weapons, medical instruments, various devices for school use, and so on.
The stamp collection, by and large, consists of postcards that depict the cities of tsarist Russia, Europe and even Simbirsk, photos of postcards dedicated to the February revolution, World War II and the Social Democratic movement, old postage stamps, including the Leninist period, envelopes of the time and even food stamps.
The collection of printed publications includes various leaflets and magazines, newspapers, brochures and books from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern day. You can find out about the rest of the expositions on the official website or by telephone numbers.
Place of birth of Ulyanov-Lenin
The Ulyanovsk Lenin Memorial also includes an apartment in which the family lived for 4 years (since 1871). The house is located next to the outbuilding, where in April 1970 Vladimir was born. On the first two floors of the museum there is an exposition with documents and data on the biography of the family. All things are originals and represent the life of the Ulyanovs in the 70s of the 19th century.
The museum is rich in paintings by the artist Zhukov and a whole library of the famous local historian Trofimov. In this part of the Ulyanovsk Memorial Museum, both excursions and various exhibitions are held. Local historians created a discussion club in the Ulyanovsk Lenin Memorial - "The Origins of the Simbirsk Mentality."
Great Hall of the Memorial
The seventeen-meter-high hall has not only chic acoustics, but also a good capacity - almost 1300 people. The hall was filled with all the modern technology of the time. Party card ceremonies or, for example, various kinds of awards are the only events for which the Great Hall was used. Most striking is the huge statue of Lenin, five meters high. In addition to the hall, the Lenin Memorial of Ulyanovsk has rooms for 200 people for conferences and meetings, as well as for showing various patriotic films.
Today it is used as a concert hall of the Lenin memorial in Ulyanovsk for various performances by famous artists, the philharmonic orchestra and festivals.
What to see?
The poster of the Lenin Memorial of Ulyanovsk is available on the official website. All festive events, New Year's concerts, excursions, screenings of historical films and so on were announced there.
The cinema, located inside, is equipped with a 22-meter screen and the latest speaker system. The cinema is designed for 1000 seats, and ticket prices start at a minimum of 50 rubles.
Ticket offices and ticket sales
The museum is located at: area of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, house 1. To clarify the time of the events, contact the ticket office of the Lenin Memorial in Ulyanovsk, telephones are available on the official website.