Lenin’s Former Estate – And Home Of His Death Mask
Gorki Leninskiye is the palatial estate and final home of the Soviet leader Lenin. The location is now preserved as a museum to his memory and is well worth a visit.
Not only are numerous of Lenin’s possessions on display (including his Rolls Royce Silver Ghost that was customised for Russia’s snow laden terrain), there is also a reconstruction of his Kremlin office.
However, the item that steals the show is the Lenin death mask, showing both his face and hands from his last evening in 1924.
Examining one of the hands and the way it is curled inwards, one can see evidence of his stroke. The face and hands were sculpted by sculptor Sergei Merkurov, who would go on to sculpt hundreds of death masks, including other ‘great’ leaders of the Soviet Union such as Stalin.
