On the eve of the 137th anniversary of Lenin’s birth, vandals painted a Star of David onto a large statue of the Soviet leader in southern Russia. Interfax news agency reported that Sunday’s incident took place in Rostov-on-Don. The perpetrators have not been found and the motive was unclear.
“Lenin’s hands on his monument in Gorky Park were covered with dye and a Star of David was painted on it,” a city official told Interfax.
Lenin, who led the 1917 revolution that founded the Soviet Union, was of mixed Jewish descent, but he was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church and was extremely hostile to organized religion in general, preaching a fierce atheism.
Lenin continues to enjoy substantial support in today’s Russia, ranking third in popularity among Russian leaders since 1917 in a 2006 poll by the ROMIR sociological service.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
