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They could always replace him with this: |
Posted on 11/11/2005 5:56:24 AM PST by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
For almost 80 years, the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin has laid in an elaborate mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow. In the Soviet era, crowds would wait hours on end for a chance to glimpse the remains of the Communist leader who changed the course of history during the Russian Revolution. But times have changed, and now Russians are debating whether to leave the body in place, or not.
Russian Communists line up at the Lenin mausoleum The lengthy queues of people waiting anxiously to see Lenin may be long gone.
But, three days a week, it is still possible to walk down into the red and black stone mausoleum that was once revered as a shrine to Russia's revolutionary leader.
Vladimir Lenin (1997 photo) Lenin lies in a black suit inside a glass coffin, his face lit up in a way that makes him look almost like a wax figure.
After walking around the coffin, visitors head back outside to see the graves of other Soviet leaders, including dictator Josef Stalin.
Vladimir Lenin died in 1924. Technicians used a method of embalming that was a state secret.
The cult of personality built up around him silenced any question of whether his remains should be preserved in this way.
However, since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, questions have lingered over his continued presence in the heart of Moscow.
Recently officials again suggested it is time for the long-dead leader's remains to be buried elsewhere. Polls suggest that the debate splits the country right down the middle. And, a brief survey of visitors to Lenin's mausoleum seems to reflect that.
Sergei and Olga are a married couple from Russia's Far Eastern region, on a visit to Moscow. Sergei says Lenin should be left where he is, to remind future Russians of their history.
But Sergei's wife Olga begs to differ. She says it is not a Christian way of treating a person after their death.
Olga's comment about religion reflects the concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has grown increasingly influential since the end of the official atheism of Soviet times.
Church leaders have long suggested that keeping an embalmed body on public view conflicts with Christian tradition.
Many bolster the argument, saying that Lenin left a will stating his desire to be buried next to the grave of his mother in Russia's second city, Saint Petersburg.
Olga Ulyanova However 83-year-old Olga Ulyanova says this is untrue. And, she speaks with some authority. Ms. Ulyanova is Lenin's niece - his closest living relative.
She says that at 53 Lenin was too young to have left a will and too caught up with affairs of state to think about such a thing. She adds he should be left where he is.
Ms. Ulyanova's comments concur with those of Russia's Communist Party, which strongly opposes moving Lenin's remains.
When the issue first arose, in the early 1990s, huge marches were held as the party denounced any talk of taking Lenin away.
One of Russia's most-senior Orthodox Church leaders is Metropolitan Kirill, head of public relations for the Moscow Patriarchy. The metropolitan takes a cautious approach and proposes that a referendum be held to decide the issue.
"From a religious point of view, there is only one way to consider his question," he said. "He should be buried."
But Mr. Kirill adds that any decision must carefully thought out, to avoid inflaming political passions. He says that Russian society is already strained by conflict and actions must instead contribute to a reconciliation among people.
Ivan Klimov is a sociologist with the Public Opinion Foundation in Moscow. He says such a sensitive issue must be handled carefully.
He says a meaningful discussion should be held on a socio-cultural level, not on the basis of politics.
Mr. Klimov says opinion polls taken by his agency find that 56 percent of Russians favor burying Lenin, but a similar percentage also feel he had "done more good for Russia than bad."
Any thorough debate about Russia's Soviet past is likely to be difficult, making it likely there may be no resolution about Lenin's future, anytime soon.
I've seen this devil several times; not out of respect but out of historical curiosity. Almost no Russians go to see the carcass; its virtually all foreign tourists and he has a very weird looking marble tomb. As you can see, his hand is curled up; a result of some paralysis due to a poor shot by Fanny Kaplan, who was subsequently finished off by the NKVD. A Russian friend who lives in Moscow and is married to a Moscow cop told me that the tomb guards have been bribed several times by wealthy Texas oilmen to let them in after the tomb is closed so they could get a photo taken of themselves lying next to Lenin's tomb.
Lenin could replace the Jackass as the symbol of the Democrats. This would free up the Jackass to be the new symbol of the Republicans.
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They could always replace him with this: |
>>>Putin has already put out feelers suggesting burying Lenin. As the old line communists die and their voices silenced the body will be buried.
Can we send Mikhail Gorbachev an invitation to join him?
http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/hl/hl103046.htm
They are trying to decide what to do with Ferdinand Marcos' remains too. He is on view also. From the article...
"As politicians and ordinary citizens renew a national debate on what to do with the Marcos corpse some 16 years after his death, Bactat, a retired soldier, is sticking by his boss as administrator of the former leader's mausoleum.
Public displays of the remains of former leaders are going out of fashion elsewhere in the world including Russia, where, after eight decades on public display in a glass box like Marcos, the government is considering what to do with the remains of its first communist leader Lenin."
biochemist Boris Zbarsky and anatomist Vladimir Vorobiov worked night and day to preserve the body so that it looked as it had done in life. Ever since, Lenin's body has been checked twice a week for deterioration. Every 18 months it is taken to a laboratory beneath its mausoleum to be undressed, examined and immersed in preserving chemicals. Nowadays, Moscow's 'mausoleumists' earn most of their money by preserving the bodies of dead mafia bosses.
Why do they preserve the bodies of dead mafia bosses????
Only one answer: EBay!
A quite apt comparison as Stalin, former seminarian, made the decision to embalm Lenin in the hope the Russian people would identify the incorruptible Lenin with the saintly Incorruptibles.
As a true believing Communist, Lenin could not have cared less about Christian tradition. His remains are right where he'd want them to be. But his eternal soul got (or is in for, depending on your interpretation) a big surprise!
I attended an open-casket eulogy in little town in Oklahoma years ago. It was a small church with only the front doors for entering and leaving.
For some reason the corpse started slowly `sitting-up' during the service! There were several `exits' after that happened, but we proceeded to the cemetery after things calmed down.
The problem here may be that the ground just won't accept this bird . . .
I, too, have thought this is a possibility. They need to bury the corpse. And hopefully just forget about him.
Wow! I didn't know that. Thanks.
That also ties in with the thesis that communism is an inversion or perversion of religion.
Dunno. I just Googled quickly to find a photo 8-)
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