The Lenin Museum, Tampere

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Not so much a museum as a library. Small, with only two rooms consisting of mostly glass cases with newspaper articles, newsletters, photos, etc. If you are looking for a true "museum" experience then don't bother coming here. However, if you want to learn some history behind Lenin and his travels in exile, it's worth a look. I was highly amused with some of the Russian propaganda postcards in the gift shop myself.

Hard to believe, but Tampere is home to the world's only permanent Lenin Museum. It is an interesting (in every sense of the term) place to visit. It essentially consists of two rooms -- one devoted to Lenin's time in Finland (where he lived from 1905 to 1907) and the other to his (and socialism's) rise in Russia. The two rooms are full of artefacts from the early 20th century and give a good idea of the man's vision and struggles. One leaves the museum with a better understanding of the roots of the socialism/communism movement and the feeling that Lenin's ideas were terribly twisted by his successors.

The museum is not for everyone -- looking at series of old photos and documents with nothing but a self-guided tour book as means of information can get tedious pretty fast. However, the gift shop is almost worth the detour in itself, with its weird assortment of souvenirs depicting Lenin. Reinforcing the stern atmosphere during our visit were 1) the fact that we were the only visitors and 2) the lone employee (who also sold us the entry tickets) seemed taken right out of the Soviet era.

Ok, this has to be one of the dullest museums I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot. I'm not quite sure what I'd expected, but even the gift shop was dull... The various Lenin and Communist memorabilia on sale would surely have had the old guy spinning in his mausoleum.

The museum consists of two aisles of glass cases, with various photos and newspaper articles about, well, Lenin. Apparently he hung out in Finland for a couple of years, between various revolutionary events, agitating the masses. Or something. The most exciting artefact in there, amidst masses and masses of text in Finnish and Russian, was a sofa that he may have dozed on at some point.

I was kind of interested in what he'd been up to in Finland before visiting, but after 15 minutes in this place I barely cared. An example of 'old style', 'educational' museums going horribly horribly wrong... Macabre, 'I've been to the only Lenin Museum in the world in a random city in the north' value only.

I Just wanted to let you know that we are coming to Tampere from Ireland to the Lenin Museum on Saturday 11th December at 4.30pm with the successful play KEEP COMING BACK. It would be good if you could come to see it and let others know it is on.
Stray Dog Productions Dublin presents
"Keep Coming Back"

Written and directed by Rynagh O’Grady
Cast: Rynagh O’Grady, Dara Clear, Feidlim Cannon.

Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Germany
November to December 2004

Nominated for A Fringe First Award in Edinburgh 2003 where they received 4 star reviews.

Carries a veracity and conviction in performance of real power...the cast are superb
THE SCOTSMAN

She has presented us with a gem of Irish theatre...flawless ISSUES Magazine

Classy acting makes these testimonies harrowingly real and sometimes very funny
THREEWEEKS Magazine

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Keep Coming Back is a story of contemporary Ireland, our history, our culture and a record of our own legacy. The production is a candid portrayal of aspects of life in Ireland today, which are relevant on all levels of family and community life as well as posing serious questions for the State. The piece has been written using first-hand experience of people just like Les, Nora and Colm, people who live beside us, whose lives and experiences most of us will never know.

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" Keep coming Back is theatre of testimony, based on true experiences that were shared with us. It is a celebration of recovery, the stories of survivors that take your breath away, people who have turned their lives around, and are genuine heroes. "RYNAGH O'GRADY, AUTHOR/DIRECTOR/ACTOR

Lenin Museum really is a curiosity. When I arrived I expected some anti-communism-museum, but it turned out to be the complete opposite.

The first you see is a bigger-than-life statue of Lenin who has a special relationship to the worker's town Tampere.

The initiative to establish the Lenin museum originated from the people of the city of Tampere. As early as the in the 1920s the students in the workers' institute discovered they were studying in the same Workers' Hall where Lenin had pledged to a delegation of townspeople to further the cause Finnish independence. In the same building Lenin and Stalin met for the first time in 1905. (found on the museum's homepage)

Here you will find information about Lenin and how the leader of Russian revolution lived before Soviet Union.

Two permanent exhibitions, Lenin's life and Lenin and Finland.

The museum is open from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 11.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. on weekends. These hours can be extended upon agreement. Admission is 20 FIM for adults, and 10 FIM for children and students.

A small museum and yet so full of details that you easily spend an hour there! It is full of furniture, pictures, diaries and other belongings from Lenins life in Finland. Even if I'm any particular fan of the man - at all - I found this museum very interesting as not a bit from his life, in Finland as well as Russia, is left out.

LENIN MUSEO
Lenin Museum
Hämeenpuisto 28, 3rd floor
Tel. (03) 276 8100, fax (03) 276 8121
E-mail: Lenin@sci.fi
The hall where Russian revolutionists headed by Lenin met in 1905 and 1906. Material on Lenin and the history of the Russian revolution as well as Lenin's links with Finland and changing exhibitions.
Open
Monday to Friday 9.00 - 18.00 and Saturday to Sunday 11.00 - 16.00