Original Item: Only One Available. This is a large and imposing original Soviet Cold War-era cast & finished bronze bust of Vladimir Lenin, designed for architectural or institutional display. Lenin is depicted in profile, facing upward and to the right, in the monumental style commonly associated with Soviet state iconography. According to its history, the piece was removed from the building on which it had originally been mounted and preserved rather than discarded during the widespread removal of Soviet symbols at the end of the Cold War.

The bust measures approximately 20 inches tall by 23 inches wide and is formed from cast bronze rather than hammered sheet. A single metal hanging loop remains attached to the reverse.

Large architectural portraits of Lenin were displayed on government buildings, factories, schools, offices, and other public institutions throughout the Soviet period as part of the extensive visual culture surrounding the Soviet state. Many such pieces were removed following the political changes of the late 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, making surviving examples increasingly interesting as artifacts of Cold War public and institutional display.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, lived from 1870 to 1924 and was a central leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution. He became head of the Soviet Russian government and later served as the first head of government of the Soviet Union after its formation in 1922. His political writings and interpretation of Marxism became known as Leninism and had a lasting influence on the Soviet political system.

The combination of its large scale, cast bronze construction, surviving wall-mounting loop, and unmistakable Lenin profile makes this a particularly striking example of Soviet architectural iconography. Its surviving surface patina and traces of later paint also preserve evidence of its long period of public display and subsequent removal from its original setting.