Fallen Monument Park, Moscow, Russia

Why Visit Fallen Monument Park

Ever wonder what happened to all the statues of Lenin from the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries? Certainly, some still stand in their original places (the one on Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko Boulevard is a favorite gathering place for Ukraine’s Communists, and most Belarusian towns seem to still maintain a spot for Ulyanovsk’s favorite son, who always seems to be pointing toward some unremarkable Khruschyovka apartment block or a post office).

However, many have vanished from the neighborhoods they once dominated. Although some have found their way to artist communities in the West (the Slovak Lenin statue that appears today in Seattle’s Fremont district accounts for only one of these missing monuments), the final disposal of many of these mass-produced works of art has remained something of a mystery.

History of Fallen Monument Park

In October 1991, many Soviet-era “socialist realism” statues of its former leaders and peasant-class workers were carted off to Muzeon Park, green space near the Crimean Embankment in Moscow. After the Soviet Union broke apart, these statues were placed all along the park's outer edges, which took on the name “Statue Park of the Central House of Artists.” Somewhere along the way, the Western expatriate community gave it the nickname of “Park of the Fallen Heroes,” or simply “Fallen Memorial Park.”