Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
  • Latest News

    Soviet & Eastern Block Quiz


    Recommended Posts

    • Replies 2.1k
    • Created
    • Last Reply

    Top Posters In This Topic

    Hmm...This seems to have stummped everyone :o

    The sculptor did do a prety nice monument to Lenin but not in Berlin.........

    Do you want another Clue?? :lol:

    Order of Victory

    * * * * *

    Well, if I want to play (I do) and if I am absolutely clueless (I am), then I guess I'm gonna need another clue ... or maybe ten more. This is a real head-scratcher. C'mon, Давай, давай!

    Chuck

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Part of the problem may be that most of the clues have had to do with the sculptor and not with the monument or its meaning. OK, that was one third of the question, but we seem to have few art historians among us.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Ok, I next clue coming up, I thought the pics might give it a way but here we go, here is clue about who monument is to (By the way Iam disapointed there are no Soviet Art buffs on the forum :o) :

    He was born in March 27 1886 was a Russian revolutionary and high Bolshevik functionary. His 1934 assassination marked the beginning of Stalin's Great Purges, which removed almost all "Old Bolsheviks" from the Soviet government.

    I have probally given it away now ;)

    Order of Victory

    Edited by order_of_victory
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Its acctully Peter, but I will forgive you that :beer: Well done

    Heres the Bio of Kirov,

    Sergey Mironovich Kirov (Russian: Серге́й Миро́нович Ки́ров) (March 15 O.S. = March 27 N.S., 1886?December 1, 1934) was a Russian revolutionary and high Bolshevik functionary. He was born Sergey Mironovich Kostrikov (Ко́стриков), later assuming the name "Kirov" as an alias. His 1934 assassination marked the beginning of Stalin's Great Purges, which removed almost all "Old Bolsheviks" from the Soviet government.

    Born to a poor family in Urzhum, Russia, Kirov lost his parents when he was young. His father, Miron Kostrikov, had left him at a tender age; his mother also died in the subsequent year. As a child, Sergey was brought up by his grandmother before being sent to an orphanage at seven years of age. Becoming a Marxist, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in 1904.

    Kirov took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905, and was arrested and later released. He joined the Bolsheviks soon after being released from prison. In 1906, Kirov was arrested once again, but this time jailed for over three years, charged with printing illegal literature. Soon after his release, he again took part in revolutionary activity. Once again being arrested for printing illegal literature, after a year of custody, Kostrikov moved to the Caucasus, where he stayed until the abdication of Nicholas II.

    By this time, Sergey Kostrikov had changed his name to Kirov. He had selected it as a pen name, just as other Russian revolutionary leaders. The name "Kir" reminded him of a Persian warrior king, and he was to become head of the Bolshevik military administration in Astrakhan.

    Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he fought in the Russian Civil War until 1920. In 1921, he became head of the Azerbaijan party organisation. Kirov loyally supported Joseph Stalin, and in 1926 he was rewarded with the leadership of the Leningrad party.

    In the 1930s, Stalin became increasingly worried about Kirov's growing popularity. At the 1934 Party Congress where the vote for the new Central Committee was held, Kirov received only three negative votes, the fewest of any candidate, while Stalin received 292 negative votes, the highest of any candidate. Kirov was close friends with Sergo Ordzhonikidze, and together they formed a moderate bloc to Stalin in the Politburo. Later in 1934, Stalin asked Kirov to work for him in Moscow, most probably to keep a closer eye on him. Kirov refused, however, and in Stalin's eyes became a competitor.

    On December 1, 1934, Kirov was killed by Leonid Nikolaev in Leningrad. Stalin claimed that Nikolayev was part of a larger conspiracy led by Leon Trotsky against the Soviet government. This resulted in the arrest and execution of Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev, and fourteen others in 1936. It has been speculated that Stalin was the man who ordered the murder of Kirov, but this has never been proven.

    Due to Kirov's popularity, Stalin took his death as a real tragedy and buried him by the Kremlin Wall in a state funeral. Many cities, streets and factories took his name, including the cities of Kirov (formerly Vyatka) and Kirovograd (Kirovohrad in Ukrainian), the station Kirovskaya of the Moscow Metro (now Chistiye Prudy) and the massive Kirov industrial plant in Saint Petersburg (Kirovskiy Zavod).

    For many years, a huge statue of Kirov in granite and bronze dominated the panorama of the city of Baku. The monument was erected on a hill in 1939 and was dismantled in 1991, after Azerbaijan gained its independence

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    This is from my book on Sabsai:

    Sabsai's greatest success - the acme of his skill - is the monument to S.M Kirov, the outstanding statesman who worked Azerbaijan in the 1920's. Sabsai executed the statue for Baku, in 1939, in collaberation with an architect L. Ilyin. The bronze sculpture of Kirov has been erected on the peak of the Hagorni park, with a hughe high-reaching red granite pedestal for its base. It looks out on the whole of the sea front, on the infinite panorama of Baku, and the vast turquoise Caspean Sea.

    Kirov is depicted as an ardent orator, at the moment engrosed ina fervid speech, life asserting, full of vigor. The silhoulettee of the figure when seen towering over the sea expanse, against the mirror-like Southern Sea, is clearly adged.

    The monuments imagery is accentuated by the decrative pedastle.

    The pedestalis meade up of three freezes; The Establishment of Soviet Power in Azerbaijan, Oil-industry workers and the Cotton Growers.

    The monument to Kirov in Baku has been included in the "Gold Fund" of the Soviet Sculpture: for executing the monument Sabsai was awrded the state prize of the Soviet Union. The Monumentis in perfect harmony with the gerneral view of the city and is incarnation of the ideological and artistic socialist principles.

    Heres a pic, pics on the monument are few and far bettween,sohere is one my terrible scans

    Order of Victory

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Thank you, Order of Victory. Vindication at last! :jumping::jumping:

    For those of you who might be interested in this Kirov memorial, I would like to direct your attention to the following web page, which tells the story and has some fine pictures as well:

    http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magaz...s/92_kirov.html

    I was not quite prepared to follow up with a new challenge (forgot about the price of winning); but am working on a little something that I know will be different; and some of fun as well. Please give me just a bit of time here.

    Best wishes,

    Wild Card

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Gentlemen,

    Okay, I think that I?ve got it ready. I have to open by telling you that there are only two ways to present this one - impossibly difficult, or relatively easy. So, after our spending about three weeks finding Kirov?s no longer existent memorial, let?s take the easy road.

    This picture was taken in Moscow on May 7, 1995. At the time of the outbreak of the GPW, the gentleman on the right (the one on the left wasn?t born yet) was one of the sports heroes of Russia. He would have been comparable to say Tony Stewart or Sam Hornish but with half the wheels. The question is - Who is he and what was his unique duty assignment?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Thanks Chuck, at least you?ve never pulled a ?Sukarno? - we may have coined a new term here. If I may elaborate on that one for a moment, there was something that I loved about that guy.

    On one of his visits to The Red Empire, so the story went at the time, his hosts set him up with some lovely ladies and secretly filmed the results. :blush: When an opportunity presented itself where his hosts needed a little leverage in the negotiations, they confronted him with the films. His reaction? :speechless1: He asked for a couple extra copies to share with the guys back home! :o:lol:

    Do you have any ideas about my friend in post #423. A clue - he had to have been hell on a Harley. Again, thanks and best wishes, :beer:

    Wild Card

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Guest
    This topic is now closed to further replies.



    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.