Lenin's Birthday portrait
A Drabble about good intentions that get you in trouble
April 22 is the Birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the world's proletariat and the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. It always surprises me that Hitler's and Lenin's birthdays are so close, just one full day apart (April 20 and 22, respectively). Here's a Drabble illustrating how serious Lenin's cult was in the former Soviet Union. It is a loose translation of a story by Denis Dragunsky, a wonderful Russian children's books author, who remembered this episode from 1961:
My classmate brought Lenin’s portrait to school. It wasn’t good, but the resemblance was there. He’d drawn it to celebrate Lenin’s birthday, and perhaps to earn the teacher’s praise.
Instead, the teacher yelled at him, “D’you know how much talent it takes, to draw Lenin? Only the best professional artists are trusted with this honor! How dare you to’ve botched him so badly? It’s not Lenin!”
The upset student tore the drawing into pieces.
“How dare you to tear Lenin’s portrait?” the teacher was red with anger.
“But you’ve just said it wasn’t Lenin. Can’t I tear a not-a-Lenin portrait?”
About the Creator
Lana V Lynx
Avid reader and occasional writer of satire and short fiction. For my own sanity and security, I write under a pen name. My books: Moscow Calling - 2017 and President & Psychiatrist
@lanalynx.bsky.social
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