World of the Bizarre

Siberian forest is shaped to spell out 'Lenin'

By T.K. Randall
June 26, 2020

Image: Leaf Forest
Credit: Den Vish / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Situated near the Omsk region town of Tyukalinsk in southern Siberia, the area of pine woodland appears to have been meticulously planned to spell out the word 'Lenin' in Russian.

The trees were most likely planted in 1970 on the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth.

"From the ground it was like a walk through an ordinary forest, but one planted by man," said photographer Slava Stepanov. "All of the trees are planted in a straight line."

"In the U.S.S.R., people were very focused on anniversaries, especially the birthday of Lenin and the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution."When news outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviewed people who lived nearby, most said that they had heard of the tree formation but didn't know where it was or when it was made.

"Every factory, every enterprise, or even whole villages tried to somehow congratulate higher, stronger, more powerfully; to be more interesting and more noticeable than the rest," said Stepanov.

"Among other things, there was an idea that communism would be eternal."

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A post shared by Gelio | Stepanov Slava (@stepanovslava) on Jun 15, 2020 at 1:36am PDT

Source: The Moscow Times

Tags: Siberia