>Socialist realism meets Tom of Finland:
> >
> > http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2640282
>
>Heavens. What is the backstory for *that*?
>___________________________________
I found it on a trail starting here:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n7/htdocs/russia-today-937.php?page=3
This is from a review from a while back:
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=100&story_id=9987
Issue #865 (33) Thursday, May 8, 2003
porn and lenin - good call!
by Claire Bigg
Staff Writer
Fifteen years ago, opening a place like Zov Ilicha (loosely translated by the venue itself as Lenin's Mating Call) would have been absolutely unthinkable - just nurturing the idea could have brought serious trouble from the authorities. But post-Soviet Russia has long generated looser public and sexual mores, and Lenin's Mating Call, which gleefully mixes pornography and Soviet symbols, comes across as just another slice of Soviet kitsch, despite its obvious vow to shock sensitive - or Soviet-minded - souls.
Proof that Soviet-themed bars are no novelty, Lenin's Mating Call has replaced Kotletnaya, a bar that also exploited the Soviet kitsch theme, although in a much more affable manner than the new venue. Entering Lenin's Mating Call is, in itself, quite an mind-blowing experience, and I hope I won't spoil the surprise too much by saying that you get to hear the mating call in question and will be greeted by a hairy man dressed in a glittering silver undershirt. After entrusting your coat to this graceful apparition, you walk under a kind of barrier to enter the bar, thereby "bowing" to Soviet idols - there are even a few electronic counters totaling up the number of bows. In short, Lenin's Mating Call chooses to throw you head first into its crazy world.
Inside, a host of silvery statues of Joseph Stalin, Felix Dzerzhinsky and Vladimir Lenin can be found on the walls and windowsills, and even hanging upside down from the mirror ceiling. One of the bar's two rooms, which are both painted in red and black tones, also contain a few unsavory paintings featuring a toilet bowl - content included - and various phallic parallels with the Kremlin towers. But the main attraction at Lenin's Mating Call is definitely provided by the flat screens that play speeches by Soviet leaders interspersed with soft porn scenes.
[...]
So, if you are an amateur of creme brulee and porn, Lenin's Mating Call is the place for you, and a lot more surprises - be careful which button you press on going to the rest room, for example - unmentioned above await in this strange and sleazy venue. Sensitive souls and puritans of all kinds, however, are advised to stay well away from this den of sin.
Zov Ilicha. 34 Kazanskaya Ul. Tel.: 311-8641. Open daily, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, without alcohol: 1,800 rubles.