- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Soviet Death Masks Go on Show in Moscow

© Photo : State Historical Culture preserve "Gorki Leninskie"Soviet Death Masks Go on Show in Moscow
Soviet Death Masks Go on Show in Moscow - Sputnik International
Subscribe
On the night of January 21, 1924, sculptor Sergei Merkurov was packed into a horse-drawn carriage on a secret assignment. Shivering in the -30 degrees Celsius cold, he still didn't realize where he was going as the carriage pulled into Vladimir Lenin's estate outside Moscow.

MOSCOW, June 7 (Joy Neumeyer, The Moscow News) – On the night of January 21, 1924, sculptor Sergei Merkurov was packed into a horse-drawn carriage on a secret assignment. Shivering in the -30 degrees Celsius cold, he still didn't realize where he was going as the carriage pulled into Vladimir Lenin's estate outside Moscow.

It was only when he saw Lenin lying in bed, dead after his fourth stroke, that he realized the task before him.

"You were planning to sculpt a bust of Lenin," whispered Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's widow. "Now you must make a mask."

This plaster cast of Lenin's visage – along with his hands, one permanently clenched following the second stroke that paralyzed his right side – marks the beginning of "Masks Shock," a new exhibit at Gorki Leninskiye, Lenin's estate-turned-museum.

Read more in The Moscow News.

 

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала