Monument to Student Volodya Ulyanov

This is one of the best-known monuments in Kazan dedicated to the student years of future political leader Vladimir Ulyanov. Its official name is “Monument to Volodya Ulyanov the Student (Lenin),” and the site is protected by the state as a monument of federal significance. The bronze figure stands on Kremlyovskaya Street, opposite the main university building, where the young man studied law for only a few months in the autumn of 1887 before being expelled for taking part in a student demonstration.

The monument stands at the centre of a small semicircular area that students have long nicknamed “Skovorodka” (“the frying pan”). The overall height of the composition is eight metres: the bronze figure itself is just over three metres tall, while the granite pedestal accounts for almost five. The young man is shown full-length, in a relaxed pose, holding a book in his lowered right hand; with his left he holds a student jacket draped over his shoulder, its hem seemingly billowing in the wind. The rhythmic folds of the clothing and the flowing fabric were meant to emphasise the young hero’s resolve and inner strength.

The idea of erecting a monument in Kazan to Ulyanov’s student years was already being discussed in the 1920s, but the project only gained momentum by the mid-1950s, as preparations were underway for the university’s anniversary. The first sketch, by Kazan sculptor Ivan Novoselov, was approved by the university’s academic council, but in Moscow the project was deemed weak, and an open competition was announced. It involved teams led by Vera Mukhina, as well as Moscow sculptor Vladimir Tsigal working with architect Viktor Kalinin; after several rounds of discussion, on March 9, 1954, the academic council chose the Tsigal and Kalinin design.

The bronze sculpture was cast in Leningrad, and the monument was solemnly unveiled on November 21, 1954. Vladimir Tsigal was later awarded the Lenin Prize for this work. During the Soviet decades the monument became one of the main symbols of Kazan University: its image was printed on postcards, badges, and guidebooks, and in this role it was perceived differently from the formal statue of the mature Lenin by Nikolai Tomsky that stood inside the main building, later moved to the garden of Kazan’s Lenin House-Museum.

Despite its cultural and historical value, the monument has not escaped vandalism: on April 29, 2009, unknown persons doused the sculpture with black paint, though no similar incidents have occurred since. A smaller copy of Tsigal’s work was installed back in 1970 in one of Moscow’s old lanes, though there the monument bears a different official name — “Lenin the Schoolboy.”

Today the monument remains part of everyday student life: university students pass it daily, and the small square serves as a meeting spot and a place for short walks between classes. For many generations of Kazan students, the image of the young man with a book and a jacket billowing in the wind has become as recognisable a feature of the university courtyard as the old columns of the main building opposite.