Siberia’s amazing woodland tribute to Lenin’s birthday
Published 10 September, 2008, 06:05
It happened 38 years ago, back in the Soviet era, in a remote area near the Siberian border with Kazakhstan. Locals decided to celebrate the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the driving force behind the Socialist Revolution and the creator of the Soviet Union.
Without proper financing, they decided to use what is in plentiful supply in Siberia – wood. They carefully planted (or axed down) thousands of trees, to form the slogan “Lenin is 100 years old!”
The scale of the project is truly remarkable. Each letter of the slogan is 80 meters ‘tall’ and the whole sentence is about 600 metres long. Vladimir Lenin was born in 1870, so the slogan appeared in the wilderness exactly 100 years later, in 1970.
Internet blog EnglishRussia was the first one to discover the artefact using the Google Earth programme. Back in 1970 there were neither internet nor Google, but Yury Gagarin had already rocketed to space in 1961, and sputniks were surely taking photos of the surface, even if they were primarily places of military interest. That is why the mystery of this act of Lenin worship grew long-forgotten in the Siberian woods.
But those who created it knew their day would eventually come – and that someone would read the message to learn that the wilderness is actually inhabited.
It is believed a local forester Aleksandr Kanshchikov was actively involved in the project.
Despite the passing years, the message is still readable, as you can see for yourself if you follow the link.
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