Giant Lenin Head

The Lenin head on Soviets Square is the single most unforgettable sight in Ulan-Ude. A giant bronze cube of a head, perched on a low plinth at the centre of the square, gazes blankly over the city's neoclassical post-war facades. It is reportedly the largest sculpted Lenin head in the world, and one of the most disorientating monuments anywhere in Russia.

The square is the heart of the city. The head is the photograph everyone takes, and rightly so — there is nothing like it. Come in winter when it is frosted over for the full effect.

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Cast in 1970 to mark Lenin's centenary and reportedly the largest Lenin head in the world, the seven-metre bronze weighs around 42 tonnes. In a heavily Buddhist republic, local schoolchildren grew up with a meditative tilted-head Lenin watching over them, more bodhisattva than revolutionary.