A Russian photographer used his drone to secure an unusual Vladimir Lenin-related photo opportunity. Not the Bolshevik revolutionary’s preserved body, but rather his name written with trees by Soviet foresters, back in the day.
The pictures taken by Slava Stepanov show the name Lenin formed from pine and spruce trees. Walking among the trees, one would hardly realize they were anything special. But from the air, the letters of the 300-meter tribute are clear.
This particular geoglyph was planted sometime in the 1970s in Omsk Region in southwestern Siberia near the city of Tyukalinsk. But the landscape feature is not unique.
Over 50 such giant messages from the past are known to be scattered across the former USSR, planted at various times to commemorate Lenin, the 1917 Russian Revolution that he led, and the country itself, among other things.
The tree geoglyphs used to be part of local lore, largely unknown to outsiders, but the spread of satellite images and map applications has brought them to public light.
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