Lev Kerbel

Who was Lev Kerbel?

Lev Efimovich Kerbel is a renowned sculptor of Soviet realist works. Kerbel's creations included statues of Marx, Lenin, Yuri Gagarin, which were sent by Soviet Government as gifts to socialist and the Third World countries across the world. In 1976 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union presented the Government of Sri Lanka the monument of Solomon Bandaranaike, the late Prime minister of the country, carved by Lev Kerbel.

In 1990-ies following the collapse of the socialist block many of his works of art were destroyed. However his enormous Karl Marx monument in Chemnitz, formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt, has been preserved as a cultural monument.

Kerbel was born to a Russian Jewish family in the village of Semenovka in Chernigov Gubernia, Russian Republic, on the day that Winter Palace in Petrograd was stormed by the Bolsheviks. Lev's family moved to Russia's Smolensk region there he began sculpting as a child. He continued to sculpt and in 1934 he won an award from the Komsomol for a plaque of Lenin.

During the World War II, Kerbel helped build the defenses for the Battle of Moscow, then served in the Northern Fleet, gaining renown as a military artist.