Nikolai Tomsky

6 December] 1900, – 22 November 1984) was a much-decorated Soviet sculptor, designer of many well-known ceremonial monuments of the Socialist Realism era.

Born in the village of Staro Ramushevo in Novgorod province, into a blacksmith's family, Tomsky studied in Leningrad.

The sculptor first came to attention with his memorial to Sergey Kirov, a heroic bronze with friezes around the base, for which he won the 1941 Stalin Prize.

Thereafter his career developed in an official direction; he would be eventually tasked to re-design Lenin's own sarcophagus, produce Stalin's bust at Stalin's grave, and produce at least five major statues of Lenin throughout the Soviet Union.

His distinctive red-granite Lenin stood in the Leninplatz of East Berlin from 1970 to 1992.