Lenin to be buried at last?


An aide in Vladimir Putin's Kremlin regime has suggested that the time to remove Lenin's embalmed body from the mausoleum in Red Square has arrived.

Coming from a senior figure whose remit covers the square, this suggestion must be taken seriously.

Certainly, burying the body would remove a potent symbol connecting the new Russia to the Soviet era. Given the capitalist development of modern Russia this only seems fitting.

The move will anger Communists and an older generation who have largely missed out on the country's growing prosperity and remain nostalgic for the certainties of the USSR.

Comments

Hernandez said…
Ah, but is that REALLY Lenin's body lying there or a dummy? We all know what those Ruskis are like with all their lies and deceptions :-p

I think it would be a shame if they removed it - look at all the tourist money he attracts.
12 October 2007 at 13:05
Owen Polley said…
I'd imagine that the mausoleum's attraction to tourists won't be the most pertinent factor.

The symbolic significance of burying Russia's communist past will be the pressing consideration.

On one hand Putin's Russia is very much about making money, put on the other he has never moved to disclaim totally Russia's Soviet period and indeed has said that Russians "have nothing to be ashamed of".

The question of burying Lenin or continuing to preserve his corpse is loaded not just with political ideology but with a nation's self-esteem.
12 October 2007 at 16:09
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