The memorial exhibition of the House-Museum of Vladimir Lenin was created at the end of the 1920s. On March 29, 1929, there was a special meeting of Glavnauka — Central Administration for Scientific, Scholarly-Artistic, and Museum Institutions. Its participants decided that the Lenin Museum should become an ideological and propaganda center for the citizens of the newly formed Soviet Union. It was necessary to prevent “the detachment of the household complex from the general description of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s life and revolutionary activity.’ This meant that no icons would be included in the display at the Ulyanovs house.

Anna Ulyanov-Elizarova, Lenin’s elder sister and an active member of the Russian revolutionary movement, recalled,

However, she agreed with the decision of the Main Science Department to exclude the icons from the exhibition, as she believed that there was no need to restore the decoration of the house thoroughly.

In the 1990s, museum workers established what icons were in the Ulyanovs’ home, and received similar ones from the Vuchetich All-Union Art and Production Association. On February 1, 1992, an icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker was placed on display in the room of Varvara Sarbatova, the nanny of the Ulyanovs.

The icon dates from the late 19th century. On the gold background of the icon, an unknown master painted an image of Nicholas the Wonderworker in small relief. The saint is depicted waist-length, in full-face. He is wearing an orange-red cloak for church services, a phelonion, over which he wears an omophorion, a wide dark-blue ribbon, decorated with large red crosses. The fingers of Nicholas’s right hand are in a gesture of blessing, and with his left hand, he holds open a Sacred Scripture. Above the head of the saint is a large halo with relief rays, outlined with white dots. Along the perimeter of the icon, the master painted colorful floral ornamentation.

Nicholas patronizes children, orphans, travelers, and prisoners. He is believed to keep families safe, heal diseases and help all those in need.

In Russia, Nicholas the Wonderworker has always been considered one of the most revered saints — along with Theotokos and Christ Himself. The theologian and writer Theophan Prokopovich thought it necessary to teach ordinary people “so that they would not worship St. Nicholas” because they “put the memory of St. Nicholas above the feasts of the Lord.”