Vladimir Lenin has returned to his rightful place in front of St. Petersburg's Finlandsky rail station after extensive repairs to a statue damaged by vandals last year, a city official said on Thursday.
The official with the city's culture committee said the monument's restoration came just in time for the 140th anniversary of the revolutionary leader's birth on April 22.
The sculpture was erected on November 7, 1926. It survived World War II unscathed after being protected by sandbags, but it has been attacked several times by street vandals in recent years.
The latest, most powerful attack came on April 1, 2009, when an explosion blew a hole in the rear of the sculpture. The first reports of the vandalism were considered a bad April Fool's joke, but the Communist Party of Russia described it as "a politically charged act of vandalism."
The police have not identified any suspects in the case and no arrests have been made.
The repair was estimated at 6 million rubles ($200,000).
ST. PETERSBURG, April 15 (RIA Novosti)