John Lennon Bench Statue in Voronezh, Russia

The John Lennon statue in Voronezh, Russia, is a figure of Lennon sitting on a bench in the courtyard of a new residential complex on naberezhnaya Chueva, on the city's Left Bank, facing the Voronezh Reservoir. The developer put it there in November 2024 to attract buyers and walkers. It is not a city monument, and the courtyard may be closed to non-residents.

Voronezh is not on the Volga

Many people find this page by searching for a John Lennon statue on the Volga, so it is worth being clear: Voronezh is not a Volga city. The Lennon figure is on naberezhnaya Chueva (Chuev Embankment), which runs along the Voronezh Reservoir, and Lennon sits facing the water. Some descriptions mention a "Chueva River", which does not exist.

We don't document a Lennon memorial in any Volga city at the moment. If what you want is a Lennon statue somewhere in Russia, this bench figure is the one we cover, and the full list of memorials has the rest of the world.

Put there by a developer, not the city

Local news first reported the figure on 12 November 2024, and the exact installation date was never published. Those first reports didn't name the building. The identification comes from a 2025 article marked as advertising, which places the figures in the courtyard of the Z-town complex: two towers, of 23 and 21 floors, with more than 600 flats. OpenStreetMap puts Z-town at naberezhnaya Chueva 7, in the Zheleznodorozhny district. The same article can't quite settle on the developer, either. Its text names OOO SZ "Novy Kod" and its advertising label credits OOO SZ "KomfortStroy".

The developer said it chose the figures to draw in buyers and people strolling on the embankment, and as a nod to creative people. We found nothing saying anyone involved is a Beatles fan. The sculptures were made to order in Moscow for about 1 million roubles each. Legally they count as "small architectural forms", not monuments, so nobody needed a permit to install them. The site is under video surveillance to stop anyone taking the figure.

The sculptor has not been named, and reports disagree on the material. Vesti Voronezh said gypsum, with the whole composition delivered with its bench at about 80 kg. The next day TV Gubernia described it as hollow artificial stone on polyester resin.

Yuri Loza's objection

On 15 November 2024 the singer Yuri Loza criticised the choice of subject. His points were that Lennon never set foot in Voronezh, and that residents would hardly have picked him if anyone had bothered to ask.

The figures around Lennon

Lennon is turned toward an empty stretch of bench, looking at a companion who isn't there. Behind a column, a paparazzo with a camera peeks out at him. That second figure is easy to walk past if you are busy lining up a shot of Lennon.

He has neighbours. Postman Pechkin stands with his bicycle next to Matroskin and Sharik (Pechkin cost about 200,000 roubles and is reportedly made of expanded polystyrene), and a doberman is curled up in an armchair. The 2025 article also lists Shrek characters. Back in November 2024 the developer promised a figure of a famous Russian celebrity, whom it wouldn't name, by May 2026, plus a hobbit house for children. We haven't found anything saying whether either was built.

Can you get into the courtyard?

We can't tell you for sure, and you should check before making the trip. When the figure appeared, local news said fans could now have their photos taken with it. The 2025 advertorial, on the other hand, says Z-town has a closed territory, and the sculptures are inside its courtyard. None of the sources says whether non-residents are allowed in, and we have no reliable public transport details for the site either. The approximate location is on the map.