Monument to V.I. Lenin, installed in Birobidzhan. 1978
Photo: State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region
November 5, 1930
At a meeting of the Bureau of the Birobidzhan District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the question “On capital construction in Tikhonkaya in 1931” was heard for the first time.
This village was proposed to be considered as the future administrative center of the region. At the meeting, the program for the construction of administrative buildings, industrial, cultural, public utility enterprises and institutions was discussed and their list was approved.
The final part of the minutes of the meeting states: “Given the complete absence of communal construction in Tikhonkaya and the importance of Tikhonkaya as the center of a region with large economic and political tasks (resettlement, state farm construction, etc.), the implementation of the specified construction program is considered absolutely necessary.”
The tasks for the immediate deployment of design work, financial support, and supply of building materials were also identified there. When constructing buildings and houses, it was proposed to use 60% fire-resistant material (slag concrete, brick) and 40% timber (American-type round logs). The consideration of this most important problem for the planning and construction of the city was entrusted to the Birobidzhan office of OZET. She was also instructed to select specialists and immediately contact interested organizations to conclude construction contracts. At this meeting, the Bureau of the District Committee made the decision: “The RIK will carry out the final layout of the village of Tikhonkaya as soon as possible, based on the requirements of its further development as a District Center.”
November 5, 1979
In Birobidzhan, the square named after. Lenin.
The architectural ensemble of the square was created according to the design of Lev Valentinovich Misozhnikov, the head of the Moscow architectural workshop.
The author of the monument is Lev Kerbel, an outstanding Soviet and Russian sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, academician of the USSR Academy of Arts, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes of the first degree.
The pedestal of the Lenin monument in Birobidzhan is lined with a beautiful rare black mineral mined in the Zhitomir region – labradorite. It is known that the bronze figure of Ilyich was cast at the Mytishchi plant.
