St. Petersburg communists raise funds for repair of Lenin statue

Communists in St Petersburg are asking for donations from party members toward the repair of a Lenin statue that was damaged in the city in an explosion in April.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - Communists in St Petersburg are asking for donations from party members toward the repair of a Lenin statue that was damaged in the city in an explosion in April.

The monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, located near St. Petersburg's Finlyandsky railway station, was badly damaged in the blast.

Authorities subsequently ordered the dismantling of the monument for restoration work. The work is expected to cost up to 8 million rubles ($236,000).

However, the St. Petersburg branch of the Communist Party said on Thursday that the city administration had yet to allocate the funds.

The Communist Party of Russia described the April attack on the monument as "a politically charged act of vandalism."

The bronze monument to Lenin was unveiled on November 7, 1926 at the site where he made a prominent speech after returning from exile in 1917 to lead the October Revolution. The statue was later moved closer to the Neva River.

Numerous Lenin statues were torn down in Russia and former Soviet republics following the collapse of the U.S.S.R., but many remain, with each large town or city usually boasting at least one.