DUSHANBE, April 22, Asia-Plus  -- Communists of Dushanbe could not lay down flowers at the monument of Vladimir Lenin today to mark his 138th birthday as the monument was dismantled on March 1, 2008. 

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Shodi Sahbdolov, the leader of the Communist Party of Tajikistan (CPT), said that they held a ceremonial meeting on this occasion.   

The monument to Lenin in the Dushanbe Central Park was dismantled on the night of March 1.  By capital mayor’s resolution the monument was handed over to Tajikistan’s Arts Stock. 

We will recall that the Dushanbe mayor’s office announced a tender for reconstruction of the Dushanbe Central Park last year already.  Reconstruction is scheduled to be finished this year, and memorial complex to the founder of Tajik-Persian classic literature Abu Abdullo Rudaki will be installed in the park.        

In the meantime, an exhibition formally titled “April Theses”: LENIN & ART timed to coincide with the 138th birthday of Vladimir Lenin was held at the Bactria Cultural Center in Dushanbe on April 22.

 Statues of Lenin, portraits of Lenin, busts of Lenin, large canvases depicting the leader of the revolution and even kundals with Lenin as the main figure of Soviet ideological art were put on display in the exhibition.

The exhibition is an attempt to reinterpret the political and artistic reality, which has become a distant memory, but at the same time continues to have an effect on the contemporary artistic scene, the source said.  “April Theses” is a manifestation about what Soviet era art means; an integral part of our cultural heritage.