Kirov Monument (Orekhovo-Zuevo)

The Kirov Monument in Orekhovo-Zuevo is a statue of the Soviet party leader Sergei Mironovich Kirov at the end of Kirov Street, in the Krutoe neighbourhood. One of the Soviet-era monuments of the Orekhovo-Zuevo urban district in Moscow Oblast, it was unveiled in 1955 as a smaller replica of a well-known Leningrad monument.

History

The monument was unveiled in 1955. It is a reduced copy of the Kirov monument erected in 1938 on Kirov Square in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). The Leningrad original was made by the sculptor N. V. Tomsky, later a People's Artist of the USSR, and the Orekhovo-Zuevo statue follows his design.

Kirov headed the Leningrad party organisation and was assassinated in Leningrad in December 1934. After his death many towns, streets, factories and squares were named after him, and copies of Tomsky's statue were put up in towns across the country. Kirov Street in Orekhovo-Zuevo, where the monument stands, carries his name as well.

What to see

The statue stands in the Krutoe neighbourhood at the end of the street of the same name. The figure repeats Tomsky's Leningrad model on a noticeably smaller scale. There is no inscription, so a passer-by may not know whom it honours; if you are coming on purpose, read up on it beforehand.

Good to know

Visitors describe the monument as old and long neglected; locals cannot remember when it was last restored and regard it as all but forgotten. It is a modest but typical piece of post-war monumental sculpture of the kind small towns received in the 1950s, and its interest lies mainly in the town's history.

Getting there

Orekhovo-Zuevo is reached by suburban train on the Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) line. From the station, make your way across town to Kirov Street in Krutoe; the monument is at its far end.