Arson or accident: Lenin's hut burned down in Sestroretsk

In the morning of November 21, a fire was reported on the territory of the museum "Lenin's Shalash". The fire was extinguished, but the legendary exhibit burned, almost nothing left of it. More about the incident and the Museum - in the material "Izvestia".

Lenin's tent: what happened, the latest news, whether there was arson

Thursday morning, November 21, in the Telegram-channel of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of St. Petersburg reported that the main exhibit of the museum "Lenin's Shalash" in the resort area of Sestroretsk destroyed. Half an hour after the rescuers received the message, the smoldering fire was extinguished, without casualties.

Later it was confirmed that one of the main exhibits of the museum complex was set on fire at night. Who exactly is responsible for the arson, it is not known, the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.

"Lenin's tent": was there any value?

This monument did not have any value. This is due to the fact that the installation was a maquette, and the burned hay and so annually renewed in April.

"Specifically this mock-up of a shalash (made of hay) has been with us since April of this year. The hay on the installation is usually renewed at this time. The hay changes color over the course of the season. If the shalash burned down in April, it would be, of course, more offensive," said Vyacheslav Samokhodkin, head of the museum "Lenin's Shalash", candidate of historical sciences.

Reaction to the burning of Lenin's hut

Chairman of the party "Communists of Russia" Sergei Malinkovich has already expressed his opinion on the incident. He called the burning of the shalash "a crime against Lenin, the ideas of socialism, the memory of the Soviet country and in general against Russia."

"I am sure that the trail will lead law enforcement agencies to all sorts of foreign agents, to admirers of the West and the terrorist Kiev regime lurking or infiltrating our land, our city. We need quick, tough, effective police and counterintelligence measures," he said.

Museum "Lenin's Shalash": what it is

The museum complex "Lenin's Shalash" is dedicated to the events of the summer of 1917, when Russian revolutionary and one of the main organizers of the October coup of 1917, Vladimir Lenin, together with another revolutionary Grigory Zinoviev, hid from arrest under a warrant issued by the Provisional Government in connection with the accusations of the Bolshevik Party leaders in the organization of the July riots in Petrograd.

On the night of July 10, Lenin and Zinoviev moved to Razliv (a historical district in Sestroretsk) disguised as Finnish peasants. There they built a shalash from branches, which was covered with hay. Nearby a hollow was made, in which newspapers and manuscripts were kept. It was there that Lenin began work on his book The State and Revolution. Lenin and Zinoviev stayed there until August 8, 1917, after which they moved to Finland.

Subsequently, the place went down in history as "Ilyich's Last Underground", and in 1927 a monument was unveiled there. In 1964, a pavilion-museum made of granite, marble and glass was built next to the granite monument.