Lenin Sightings!

Now this post is a VERY long time in coming. Sorry for the wait. I hope I don’t disappoint!

I guess it was last March? (It’s been so long I can’t even remember when it was) Mike and I were invited to a wedding, which we didn’t really want to attend as both of us have had our fill of deafening music, repetitive dancing and multiple courses of the same food. But since it was his counterparts brother we felt obliged to go.

After getting all fancied up we hailed a taxi to take us across town to be sure to arrive on time. When we got there, we were quite embarrassed/dismayed/overjoyed to find out that the wedding was already in full swing. We thought we were actually about 10 minutes early. We then realized that daylight savings had started and we were in fact an hour late. (doh another time change mishap by Mike and Kate! See Turkey blog day 2) And of course we had no idea because things like that are somehow part of the collective unconscious here. We are definitely not in that same loop. As it is very, very inappropriate to enter the wedding palace late (ie- after the bride and groom) we decided to just leave, and spend the afternoon doing something a little more to our liking-such as going places.

As it was a beautiful day we decided to take a little road trip to Yevlax. Yevlax is not a traditional outing destination. People usually just pass through as it is at the intersection of the major north/south and east/west roads of the country, but nobody stays.

Why then, you may be asking, would Mike and I want to go to Yevlax to visit. Well it turns out that there is in fact something worth looking at in Yevlax- especially if you are a Soviet relic nut. Although neither Mike nor I are all that into Soviet paraphernalia we like a good excuse to go pretty much anywhere- even Yevlax. Hidden away in a field/junk yard/garbage pit is one of the few remaining statues of Lenin. During Soviet days, every city had a Lenin statue but after the collapse, Lenin had to go. However, he has been, mysteriously replaced by another more current but also deceased, political figure. I’ve heard but cannot confirm that some of the Lenin statues were never completely taken down, but only his head was removed and Heydar Aliyev’s was mounted on the body. I’ll let you be the judge, they do look quite similar. We had read about it in our Mark Elliot guidebook, and having nothing better to do that day, we decided to go and check it out.

We arrived in bustling Yevlax after about a 40 minute Marshrutka ride. The statue is located on a side road a few kilometers heading out of town so we decided to just walk since the weather was so nice. Following the excellent directions in our guidebook we found the side road, turned, and started scanning the area for any stray Soviet leaders. Our search seemed to be in vain. We did find many Yevlaxians curious about us. Luckily we had a photo in our book and some rudimentary Azeri vocabulary so we asked a group of guys at a car repair place, “Lenin hardadir?” Which translates to, “Where is Lenin?” We were also pointing at the picture in the ME guide book for added clarity. And low and behold it worked! They knew right what we were after. It turns out we had walked past it- I guess it had blended in with the other junk. The guys even offered us a ride back to where it was.

In a few quick minutes, we were in the presence of greatness. Lenin indeed existed. The cool thing about this particular statue is that it has been broken/cut/sawed in half. So, you can cozy up to Lenin’s face for some great photo ops. We had a good time taking pictures, having snacks and enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful weather. (Note great views of distant Sheki Mountains)