Ulyanovsk has a monument to the Russian letter Ё — the seventh letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, represented by an E with two dots, and the most frequently omitted letter in the Russian language. The small granite monument stands in the city centre and was erected in 2005 to honour the letter's regional connection: it was first used in print by the historian Nikolai Karamzin, who was born in this region in 1766.
The monument is a gentle, self-aware piece of civic pride. It photographs well, it makes an excellent conversation starter, and it reflects a broader truth about Ulyanovsk: a city that takes its cultural heritage seriously enough to build memorials not just to politicians but to punctuation. Worth a few minutes of your time while walking between the Lenin sites and the Goncharov museum.