The museum, which offered a unique look at the life of the Soviet Union's first leader, drew over a thousand visitors during its final weekend. This Finnish institution was the last Lenin-focused museum of its kind in the Western world.
In honor of its closing, the museum offered free admission on Saturday and Sunday. The site will soon house a new museum dedicated to Eastern relations, called "Nooti" (Finnish for "note"), which will focus on the diplomatic exchanges with Finland’s eastern neighbor.
Director Kalle Kallio remarked that diplomatic “notes” from Russia have held a unique, often intense significance for Finland over the decades. This week alone, two such notes were sent to Helsinki following the seizure of Russian properties in Finland valued at millions of euros.
“Russia is doing great marketing for us,” Kallio quipped, as reported by Aamulehti.
The new museum is set to open in February next year. The decision to close the Lenin Museum, founded in early 1946, reflects Finland’s shift in foreign policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland’s accession to NATO and its closure of the eastern border in 2023 signal what officials described as "radical changes in the times." The new exhibition will cover relations with the East, from the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the present.
Over the years, the Lenin Museum attracted visits from notable figures, from Brezhnev to Gagarin, and was housed in a historic workers’ hall in Tampere, where Lenin first met Stalin in 1905. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it remained the only Lenin museum in the Western world.
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Source: IAR