Party on!!! Dude.
Posted on 06/24/2006 6:14:06 AM PDT by Popman
Russian communists reacted with dismay yesterday after they discovered that strippers and drunken businessmen had turned the birthplace of Lenin, once one of the most hallowed museums in the land, into a wild party zone.
The Lenin Memorial Museum, a complex of buildings with Lenin's home at its heart in the central Russian town of Ulyanovsk, admitted throwing open its doors to corporate parties in an attempt to raise revenues.
Museum staff acted as waiters at vodka-tasting parties and other events hosted by local banks and factories that often degenerated into binges with strippers, local newspapers reported.It is all a far cry from Soviet times, when dutiful citizens travelled to the museum on the banks of the Volga to pay homage at the simple house.
"We wish we did not have to engage in things like this but we have to maintain the building somehow," said Valery Perfilov, the museum's director, insisting that Lenin probably would not have minded. "Lenin was very pragmatic and flexible. He was known for his many compromises."
Local communists, however, met the governor of Ulyanovsk yesterday to lodge a formal complaint.
"Everything is for sale nowadays - body and soul," said Alexander Kruglikov, the head of the Communist Party's local branch. "I think making money out of Lenin's name is a shame."
Governor Sergey Morozov is unlikely to sympathise, however, as he wants to turn the museum into a theme park called Leninland, where visitors can dodge secret police and relive "the gulag experience".
Russian version of Mickey Mouse land ???
http://www.mochinet.com/poets/service/index.cgi?ListTitles=Bar-Room%20Ballads&PrintPoem=18
Above URL goes to "The Ballad of Lenin's Tomb".
Part is below:
I need not tell how from my cell in Lubianka gaol,
I broke away, but listen, here's the point of all my tale. . . .
Outside the "Gay Pay Oo" none knew of that grim scene of gore;
They closed the Tomb, and then they threw it open as before.
And there was Lenin, stiff and still, a symbol and a sign,
And rancid races come to thrill and wonder at his Shrine;
And hold the thought: if Lenin rot the Soviets will decay;
And there he sleeps and calm he keeps his watch and ward for aye.
Yet if you pass that frame of glass, peer closely at his phiz,
So stern and firm it mocks the worm, it looks like wax . . . and is.
They tell you he's a mummy - don't you make that bright mistake:
I tell you - he's a dummy; aye, a fiction and a fake.
This eye beheld the bloody bomb that bashed him on the bean.
I heard the crash, I saw the flash, yet . . . there he lies serene.
And by the roar that rocked the Tomb I ask: how could that be?
But if you doubt that deed of doom, just go yourself and see.
You think I'm mad, or drunk, or both . . . Well, I don't care a damn:
I tell you this: their Lenin is a waxen, show-case SHAM.
Such was the yarn he handed me,
Down there in Casey's Bar,
That Rooshun bug with the scrambled mug
From the land of the Commissar.
It may be true, I leave it you
To figger out how far.
If the partyers really wanted to pull a goof, they would haul him of the tomb, put a cigar in his mouth, a drink in his hand, have one of the girls sit on his lap and take a picture.
Instead of standing in long lines for roller coasters, visitors get to stand in long lines for bread.
[woot!]
So what's the problem?
Yup, Bill would be proud.
Though he probably would be a bit disappointed that the Russians didn't bring in hookers.
bump
Weekend at Vlady's....
No it's not! In Soviet times it was the KGB running the party and pimping the whores on any big-whig they needed to blackmail.
I think it's pretty f***in' hilarious!
Gee, you mean Lenin wasn't a party kind'a guy? Who knew?
CAPITALISM WINS!
Now, that's a concept if you think about it.
I'm not sure how many people would wait in line for reliving starvation, beatings, 18 hour work days, rags for clothing, freezing temps and eventual death.
But, people wait in line for hours to ride a roller coaster for 45 seconds
Yeah!
Damn, now that funny. I don't care who you are, THAT is funny.
Party on!!! Dude.
I checked out this thread for this picture???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.