What do we see here? On the left is a papier-mâché box, with a Palekh style miniature on it. It is dated 1961. The style developed after icon painters from the city of Palekh had to find new jobs following the revolution of 1917. The painting on the box depicts the tree stumps on which Vladimir Ilich Lenin used to rest and work. In the distance a foreign delegation looks on.

On the right, Fidel Castro is laying flowers to the tree stumps, on which Lenin used to sit and work. I repeat, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is laying dying flowers to the dead tree stumps on which the deceased Vladimir Ilich Lenin used to rest and work.

The thing with the stumps is quite amazing in itself. How else could you stage the absence of a person if not by the stumps that signify the absence of trees that stood there once, tall and proud. The person is long gone and only the absence of the trees is left.