Lenin's legacy lives on

Lenin's legacy lives on

While politicians and entrepreneurs in Moscow willingly embrace the advantages of democracy and a free market economy, traditions out in the provinces can sometimes die hard.

In the Ulyanovsk region on the Volga River, 700 miles southeast of the capital, former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is enjoying something of a revival, Russian NTV reports.

On the initiative of some local officials, the weather-worn statues and monuments to Lenin are being restored to their former glory.

Why should our children and grandchildren be deprived of their heritage? Next thing you know, Russia will cease to exist as a state Local council head Yury Puzrakov

Lenin was born locally with the name Ulyanov - and the region's administrative capital, formerly Simbirsk, was renamed Ulyanovsk in his honour in 1924.

"The city council has decided that in Lenin's birthplace - and that, after all, is where we live - the monuments should be preserved," Tatyana Muratova, a member of the district council, explained.

The head of the local council, Yury Puzrakov, also supports the initiative as a way of maintaining Russia's identity on the world stage.

"Why should our children and grandchildren be deprived of their heritage?" he asked.

"These days our children are being fed all sorts of politics. Anyone can come along from anywhere to have their say, and next thing you know, Russia will just cease to exist as a state. It will just be an appendage, a raw materials appendage of other countries."

Not for personal gain

The enthusiasm to engage the younger generation in upholding their political and civic heritage is being translated into a work ethic which Lenin himself would surely have applauded.

This is the "subbotnik", whereby citizens undertake voluntary tasks on Saturdays for the good of the local community.

Restored to his former glory

The older generation, meanwhile, needs no persuasion, and in some villages people look after their Lenin monuments not for personal gain, but out of conviction.

Nikolay, a machine operator, sweeps the marble foundation every day and makes sure the monument is always adorned with fresh flowers.

"I come along to lay my flowers," he says, "but to whom? The monument to the soldiers and to Lenin. Nowhere else. If it's destroyed, where could I put them?"

Now, tearing down old monuments in Ulyanovsk Region is more difficult than putting up new ones, the TV said.

Anyone wishing to do so would have to get the support of the fiercely protective elected councillors. Then public opinion would have to be swayed.

Last but not least, in an unwelcome reminder of the new realities of a free market economy, the initiator would have to pay the full cost of having the monument demolished.

While the political climate may have changed almost beyond recognition since Soviet times, its seems that in Ulyanovsk region at least, one of the enduring slogans of communism just cannot be swept away.

Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.