Memorial to "V.I. Lenin and the Marxists of Nizhny Novgorod"

The memorial "To Lenin and the Nizhny Novgorod Marxists" is conveniently situated at the intersection of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Malaya Pokrovskaya Street. Sculptors L.F. Kulakova and N.M. Chugurin, together with architect G.B. Shirokov, pooled their efforts to produce this memorial in 1971. Nizhny Novgorod residents amuse themselves by inventing various (including ribald) dialogues between the figures depicted on the stele — which stands at the very point where the pedestrian section of Pokrovka begins. What exactly Lenin was haranguing the Nizhny Novgorod Marxists about in 1893 is anyone's guess. Sharp tongues claim it was "a thorough conversation on specific matters of underground work." But history textbooks have been known to say even stranger things.