Although many monuments of Socialist realism around town have been deposed, a few remaining examples are worth viewing if you're in the neighborhood. The Worker and Collective Farmer is an oversized statue of a man and woman reaching boldly toward the sky; he's holding a hammer, and she, a sickle. Their determined expressions aren't exactly cheerful, but you can feel their strength and commitment to overcoming hardship (at the entrance to the All-Russian Exhibition Center; metro: VDNKh). The Gagarin Monument is a sweep of steel rocketing toward the cosmos, topped with a sculpture of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin remains a cult figure in Russia, seen as the man who made the world finally take Russians seriously (Gagarinskaya Ploshchad; metro: Leninsky Prospekt). The Lenin monument on Oktyabrskaya Square shows the Soviet founder with a crowd of enthusiastic followers at his feet preparing to build a nation (Oktyabrskaya Ploshchad; metro: Oktyabrskaya).
