Culver City,
California
x
Maker: Aleksei Rezaev
A Standstill in Commune
Date Made: 1991
Country: Soviet Union
Measurements: 90 cm x 60 cm; 35 7/16 in x 23 5/8 in
Joseph Stalin’s train is stalled at the Communist barrier, which is a cracked bar with bones and a skull on the ground below it. Seven silhouettes of Lenin monuments are scattered in the landscape around the train, each pointing in a different direction. The front of the train has a red star with a hand pointing at the viewer. The smoke from the train’s engine contains the images of a faceless crowd behind a barbed wire fence, an allusion to the Soviet citizens sent to the gulag by Stalin. The disparity in the directions of Lenin and Stalin speaks to the way that the Soviet path to Communism diverged after Lenin’s death, when Stalin’s desire for absolute power and a socialist utopia eventually led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens in the era of the Great Purge.
Accession Number: 2009.053.106
Item Name: Painting
Credit Line: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris
Collection/Series: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris