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January 21st marks the hundredth anniversary of Lenin’s death. It is still omnipresent in Russia today.
Even 100 years after his death, Lenin receives many visitors: the embalmed body of the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin, lies in a suit in a glass case in the dim light of the mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.
Legend:
On the anniversary of Lenin’s death, young people also mark their presence on Red Square for their idol. (Moscow, January 21, 2024)
Keystone/AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union he founded, the builder is still a tourist attraction in the Russian capital. Visitors come from far away to see the mummy of the man who, five years later, founded the world’s first communist state, a state of workers and peasants, after the socialist October Revolution of 1917.
Mysterious embalming
The art of embalming remains a state secret. About every two years, Lenin’s body is placed in a mixture in a tub at the Russian Research Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants or parts of his body are injected with preservative substances, as Russian media report.
Legend:
An archive photo of Lenin’s embalmed body: his face and hands can be seen in the mausoleum (Image: 1991).
KEYSTONE / DPA / Novosti
The recipe for the supposedly colorless, odorless and non-toxic preparation is secret. But it is said that formalin, potassium and glycerin were also used for the first embalmings. Lenin’s brain is kept separately.
Debate about Lenin’s funeral
There have been debates about finally burying Lenin for years. According to surveys, most Russians want this. The Russian Orthodox Church demands this. “It is a stupid, pagan mission of love for corpses that we have in Red Square. “Experts know that only ten percent of the body remains,” said the prominent politician Vladimir Medinsky, who maintains close ties to the church and President Vladimir Putin.
Putin himself despises revolutions and their leaders. He also blamed Lenin for the destruction of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, even under Putin, Lenin is omnipresent. There are several huge monuments to Lenin in Moscow alone. The world-famous metro in the Russian capital bears Lenin’s name.
Putin also once said: “As far as the body is concerned, in my opinion it shouldn’t be touched.” The Kremlin chief emphasized that there are still many people in Russia who associate a large part of their lives with Lenin and with him “certain achievements of the past, achievements of the Soviet Union.” As long as that is the case, nothing should change in the cult of personality.
Contested historical heritage
In contrast, Western historians in particular repeatedly point out that Lenin is considered the founder of the Red Terror. «Lenin initiated a turning point with the socialist experiment. And he was clearly also a pioneer for the reign of terror and violence of his successor Stalin,” said Eastern European historian Tanja Penter of the German Press Agency. “Lenin was a radical innovator who fanatically believed in the rightness of his cause,” said the professor. “And he was a tyrant who ruthlessly pursued his goals against all odds.”
Many former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, which Putin waged war on, have long since had their Lenin monuments torn down. But in Russia this is out of the question. Under Putin, symbols of a reign of terror are in vogue, as the flaring cult surrounding Lenin’s successor, Josef Stalin, shows.