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Thursday, 24.02.2011
Lenin no longer receiving visitors: Mausoleum will be closed for two months
Moscow. The Lenin Mausoleum closes its doors. The official line is that the mausoleum will be closed for two months for maintenance works but discussions about the future of the revolutionary leader are increasing.
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From February 25th to April 19th the Lenin Mausoleum will stay closed. According to the FSO, the Federal Guard Service, prophylactic works on Lenin's body will be performed.
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Nearly 90 years in the Mausoleum
Since his death in 1924 Lenin's body lies in the Mausoleum. Stalin ordered that the body of the revolutionary leader was to be embalmed and be put on public display against the wishes of Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya and family.
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During the first years the mummy was kept in a Oak-mausoleum next the the Kremlin wall. The dark red granite building he is housed in nowadays was being built in 1930. Lenin's body had to be moved temporarily to Tyumen during the World War II.
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Only ten percent real
Years of storage have left their marks on the hero of the October Revolution. Regular checks are carried out on Lenin's body and he is taken out of the Mausoleum into a special laboratory where his he is given a embalming bath and a change of clothes.
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Allegedly years ago during the perestroika upheaval a visitor to the mausoleum discovered mold in one of Lenin's ears. Apparently there is only ten percent left of the original Lenin.
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Christian burial being discussed
The debate surrounding Lenin's burial is heating up, the Russian Orthodox Church is an advocate of it.
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United Russia, the Kremlin's political party, started a similar initiative. In a poll on its website 70 percent were in favour of a burial.
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Officially no subject for discussion
The communists are against any such plans. Officially the Kremlin has buried this issue but heated discussions continue behind the scenes.
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Therefore the latest closure leads to new speculations. The newly embalmed Lenin should be available again for public viewing on the 19th April and three days later the communists will be able to pass on their birthday wishes, as it is Lenin's 141st.
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