New York is an extraordinary city — perhaps the only place where people from around 200 different countries can feel at home, even if they don’t speak English. I’m one of those millions, and for a simple reason: just like in my hometown, there’s a statue of Lenin in New York.
For the first few seconds, I thought it was a hallucination — but no, there he was: Vladimir Ilyich, standing in the exact same pose I remember from childhood. It’s a strange feeling — moving from city to city, changing continents, climates, and cultures, yet still encountering the leader of the world proletariat, now perched atop the very pinnacle of capitalism in New York.
How Lenin ended up in New York
Let’s clarify one thing right away: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself never set foot in New York. Throughout his revolutionary career, he moved between London, Geneva, Zurich, and Stockholm — but never made it to New York.
Leon Trotsky in the Bronx
Another key figure of the October Revolution, however, did live in New York — Leon Trotsky. And his story here is more fascinating than fiction.
Expelled from France for anti-war propaganda and detained in Spain as a “dangerous anarchist,” Trotsky was eventually put on a ship and sent across the Atlantic.
In New York, he accomplished quite a lot: he worked for the Russian-language newspaper Novy Mir, gathered several hundred supporters, spoke at rallies against U.S. involvement in World War I, and even planned to settle in America long-term. But then the February Revolution broke out — and he quickly packed his bags.
📍 Address where Trotsky lived: 164th Street, The Bronx
When, in October 1917, a Bronx newspaper ran the headline “Our man from the Bronx leads the Russian Revolution,” it wasn’t far from the truth.
The story of the Lenin statue in New York
The statue itself dates back to the 1980s in the Soviet Union. Sculptor Yuri Gerasimov created a 5.5-meter bronze statue of Lenin, but after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was never installed and ended up abandoned at a dacha outside Moscow.
In the early 1990s, developers Michael Rosen and Michael Shaoul were building a residential complex called Red Square in New York’s East Village — an eccentric project inspired by political changes in Eastern Europe. Looking for a striking symbol, Rosen decided to install the Lenin statue on the roof.
With the help of the art group WUM, the sculpture was located, transported from Russia across the ocean, and installed in 1994 on the roof at 250 East Houston Street. The figure was oriented south — toward Wall Street.
The statue remained there until 2016, outlasting the Soviet Union itself. After the building was sold, it was removed, and Red Square lost its defining symbol.
Lenin in New York today
The statue wasn’t destroyed or sent to a museum. Instead, New York developers simply moved it to a nearby street. Since 2017, the bronze Lenin has stood on the roof of 178 Norfolk Street—a six-story building opposite Essex Street. The building still belongs to Rosen and Shaoul.
The new location is more modest: a lower rooftop, a less dramatic view. But Lenin still faces south—toward the financial district.
Interestingly, there’s also a Lenin statue in Seattle. It was brought from Slovakia in 1993 after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The Seattle Lenin stands out in the open in the Fremont neighborhood—and is often dressed up in costumes depending on the holiday.
