Lenin Statue Damaged In Russia Attack

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5

An explosion destroyed part of a statue of Vladimir Lenin late on December 6 near St. Petersburg. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on monuments to the Soviet founder in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet states.

WATCH: Authorities inspect the damage to the Lenin statue late on December 6.

A statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin has been damaged by a small bomb, a reminder of lingering tensions over the legacy of Russia's communist past.

The explosion near the old imperial capital of St. Petersburg blew away parts of Lenin's windswept pewter coattails and shattered windows of nearby apartments. There were no injuries.

"Anyone who raises their hand to monuments is against history and the feelings of our citizens," St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko told a government meeting, Interfax reported.

Matviyenko linked the December 6 blast to an attack last year that blew a gaping hole in a large Lenin statue in St. Petersburg outside Finland Station, where Lenin famously returned from exile in 1917 to spearhead the Bolshevik Revolution.

State TV said the evening attack took place at around 10 p.m. local time in the St. Petersburg suburb of Pushkin.

compiled from agency reports