Russia’s Kursk plans monument to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev

Russian city Kursk is planning to install a monument to former CPSU General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Governor Alexander Khinshtein has stated.

He said the decision was made following the first meeting of the regional organising committee preparing for the 120th anniversary of Brezhnev’s birth, which will be marked in 2026, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

In his words, residents of Kursk "rightly consider Brezhnev their compatriot."

“His family comes from the village of Brezhnevo in the Kursk district. He studied at a land management technical school in Kursk, later worked here, and also met his future wife at a dance in our region,” Khinshtein wrote on Max.

The monument project was proposed by honourary citizen of the Kursk region Gennady Dyumin, father of presidential aide and former bodyguard Aleksey Dyumin, who, according to the governor, will fully finance the project.

An open competition for the best monument design will be announced next week by the Russian Academy of Arts.

Khinshtein also pointed to the potential creation of a museum and tourist site at the Brezhnev family estate, located 15 kilometres from Kursk.

He noted the symbolism of holding the committee meeting on the eve of Victory Day, saying Brezhnev “went through the entire war, was wounded and concussed, received five military orders, and led the column of the 4th Ukrainian Front at the 1945 Victory Parade in Moscow.”

Brezhnev’s rule is widely associated with economic stagnation, the start of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the persecution of dissidents and cultural figures, including through punitive psychiatry and forced exile.

Russia has also seen a continued trend of installing monuments to other Soviet leaders.

In the capital of the Khakassia region, Abakan, plans are underway to erect a monument to Joseph Stalin.

Since 2022, more than 20 Stalin monuments have been installed in Russia, 13 of them in 2025 alone, according to the Communist Party.

The largest number has been recorded in the Vologda region, which recently approved its fourth Stalin monument.

Two statues each have been installed in the Moscow region and Chuvashia, with others appearing in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Pskov, North Ossetia, Buryatia, and Bashkortostan.

In total, Russia now has more than 110 Stalin monuments, only 9% of which date back to the Soviet era, with many installed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov