Many placenames, companies and institutions had been named after Stalin and the "classics of Marxism", as well as Romanian Communist heroes.

Among the works on display are many portraits of Communist heroes.

Other Soviet cities renamed in honor of Communist heroes have recently restored their former names.

He will grow up to be a Communist hero played by Gerard Depardieu, dubbed into English but still a volatile presence.

He also churned out quick portraits of Communist heroes to be hung in government and party offices.

Many of his compositions, written under the strictures of the Soviet system, are paeans to Soviet life and Communist heroes as prescribed by state authority.

"One was protesting the dam; the other was to deface one of those big statues of Communist heroes that used to be all over the place."

An increasing number of pedestals are becoming available for this purpose as Muscovites see to the pulling down of statues to Communist heroes.

Communist heroes differ from country to country, with many of them not widely known beyond their national borders.

Mao Zedong himself started the Learn from Lei Feng movement in 1963, and since then there have been periodic campaigns to study the Communist hero.