ST.PETERSBURG, January 21. /ITAR-TASS/. A sculpture of Vladimir Lenin established by the Soviet researchers of the Antarctic continent on the Pole of Inaccessibility in the most remote area of the Antarctic continent in 1958 is by right considered the most extraordinary monument to the former Soviet leader.
"People have visited it no more than five times throughout 56 years since the sculpture was established," Chief of the Russian Antarctic expedition Valery Lukin told Itar-Tass. "Vladimir Fortov, the now President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was the last to visit the monument as a tourist three years ago," he said. " No more visitors are expected in the next 16 years to come,"Lukin said.
Meanwhile, scientific research has been going on there according to the schedule adopted until the year 2030. However, the restoration of the Antarctic research station on the Pole of Inaccessibility has not been planned, Lukin said.
A snow blanket has fully covered the research station with the sculpture of Lenin on top; the sculpture is still seen because it is established on top of a windmill-like tower. The sculpture fully conforms to the 1958 standards. When leaving for Antarctica the Soviet researchers bought the sculpture in a shop. The story of bringing the monument to its present site on top of a windmill-like tower is linked to the Cold War epoch in the relations between the former Soviet Union and the United States.
" I do not know for what reason a Soviet delegation was absent on the first day of an international conference held in Paris in the framework of the Year of Hydrometeorology. When Solomon Belousov, a meteorologist who headed the Soviet delegation, declared that the Soviet Union would open a research station on the South magnetic Pole and on the South geographical Pole the chairman of the Paris conference said that plans to open a research station on the second South Pole had already been announced by the United States a day before.
In the 1950s, known as an epoch of strong rivalry between the former Soviet Union and the United States, the Soviet scientists had to challenge their US rivals, declaring they would open a research station in the most remote corner - on the Pole of Inaccessibility far away from the Antarctic coastline.
In 1957 the Soviet researchers endeavored to realize the ambitious plan, but the specified area could not be reached by the known sledge of caterpillar transport. Therefore, a research station - the Sovetskaya, was established half-way to the remote corner initially planned to harbor the monument. In the following Antarctic summer the hoped destination in Antarctica was reached. A research station was built, and the statue of Lenin was mounted on top of a turret.
The station had operated for exactly one month. Nonetheless, the sculpture of Lenin located in such a unique place on the Earth was acknowledged by the international community as one of the historical monuments on the sixth continent. The Lenin sculpture has upheld its status since.
Vladimir Lenin- an advocate of socialism and equality and the founder of the former Soviet Union, died on January 21, 1924.