Law enforcement authorities in St. Petersburg launched a criminal investigation after vandals set fire to a replica of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin’s straw hut, where he once hid from Imperial Russian authorities.
The hut, part of a historical and cultural museum complex in the village of Razliv, was discovered torched in the early hours of Wednesday. Police are searching for suspects, who could face up to three years in prison if convicted of damaging a cultural heritage site.
Lenin used the hut in the summer of 1917, disguised as a Finnish hay farmer, while evading arrest before the Bolshevik Revolution. During his time there, he began drafting his seminal work, “The State and Revolution,” which argued for the overthrow of the bourgeois state in favor of a proletarian government.
The Razliv museum announced plans to restore the hut, which requires periodic refurbishment and has previously burned down twice — in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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