Vandals blew a gaping hole in the rear end of a statue of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin on Wednesday, but Russian officials were not amused by the "monstrous" act of vandalism.

<table bordercolor="black" cellpadding="2" align="right" bgcolor="white" border="1">
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<td>DAMAGED GOODS: The statue, in St Petersburg,u00a0which was damaged in Tuesday's blastu00a0is one ofu00a0Russia's best-known statues of Vladimir Lenin.u00a0PIC/AP</td></tr></tbody></table>The April Fools Day blast damaged one of the last Soviet-era monuments to Lenin still standing in Russia's former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg, allowing daylight to shine through a huge hole in Lenin's hindquarters.
The culture committee of the Saint Petersburg city government strongly condemned the blast, which took place outside the Finland Station where Lenin famously returned from exile in 1917 before leading the Bolshevik Revolution.
"We are deeply disturbed by this monstrous event. Any aggression, any vandalism of monuments deserves a broad social condemnation," committee chairman Anton Gubankov said in a statement.
Experts determined that the monument was at risk of collapsing and planned to take it down overnight so it could undergo repairs, according to the statement.
Nobody was hurt in the night-time explosion and officials said they were looking for the culprits.
Lenin, who died in 1924 and whose embalmed body remains in a mausoleum in Moscow, is still a venerated figure for many older Russians and for the country's Communist Party.

Vandals blew a gaping hole in the rear end of a statue of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin on Wednesday, but Russian officials were not amused by the "monstrous" act of vandalism

Vandals blow a hole in the rear end of Lenin statue

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Vandals blow a hole in the rear end of Lenin statue

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