The statue of Lenin, in a small park off Azadi köçesi, is a charmingly incongruous assembly of a tiny Lenin on an enormous and very Central Asian plinth surrounded by fountains. Behind Vladimir Illych is the Magtymguly Theatre , where traditional Turkmen performances can be seen. Across the road, Lenin faces an austere concrete building that was once the Archive of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan . Its walls feature modernist concrete sculptures made by Ernst Neizvestny, a Russian artist who lived and worked in Ashgabat during the 1970s.
