LENIN MONUMENT APRIL 13TH 1917, 1977

Björn Lövin

Narrator: On a cold day in April 1917, Lenin stopped off in Stockholm on his way to Petrograd. In Europe, the Great War was in full swing, and there were rumours of a revolution in Russia. On a press photo documenting the visit, someone has marked Lenin with an X. He is walking along the cobbled street Vasagatan, with its tram lines. Lövin’s ”Lenin Monument” recreates both the street and the tram rails, and one of the cobblestones bears an X like the one in the press photo. This is not a monument that pays tribute to a person or deed in the way monuments often do. Instead, it is a memorial, in the true sense of the word.