MOSCOW.- One hundred years after his death, Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution, remains on display, embalmed, in Red Square. But his legacy languishes in Russian society, especially after the ruler Vladimir Putin I would reproach him for having “invented” Ukraine.
The authorities did not announce any specific event for this Sunday, the centenary of his death, and only a Communist Party ceremony is planned at his mausoleum, located near the Kremlin.
Tourist attraction
After the death of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov on January 21, 1924, at the age of 53, the Soviet authorities, by order of Stalin, decided to embalm his body and build a mausoleum.
The red and black stone building was completed in October 1930. In 1953, Stalin’s remains were moved next to those of Lenin, but in 1961 they were removed during the de-Stalinization process.
In Soviet times, large crowds gathered at Lenin’s remains. But today only some nostalgic people continue to honor the revolutionary leader.
This Sunday, a few dozen people gathered, despite temperatures reaching -15 °C. Lenin “represents an ideal,” Valentina Alexandrovna, 78, told AFP. For this retiree, “only” Lenin’s doctrine can allow Russia to “get out of the current situation.”
During the rest of the year, Lenin’s embalmed body is primarily a tourist attraction.
Once every 18 months, the mausoleum is closed so that scientists can repair the deterioration of its mummified remains.
According to the state news agency TASS, only 23% of Lenin’s body remains in the armored glass sarcophagus, kept at a temperature of 16 °C.
Putin, Lenin and Ukraine
Three days before the start of the offensive against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin denied in a speech the reality of the Ukrainian nation and accused Lenin of having invented Ukraine when founding the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
According to the Russian president, the Ukrainian State is located on Russian lands; and Lenin, by creating the Soviet republics with a little autonomy, allowed the emergence of nationalism and the subsequent implosion of the USSR.
“Because of Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine emerged. It would be perfectly justified to call it Lenin’s Ukraine. He is its inventor, its architect,” he stated.
The figure of Lenin has not, however, been totally suppressed. His portrait is still present in the center of many Russian cities, although most of his statues were destroyed after the fall of the USSR.
In Moscow, a 22-meter-high Lenin monument dominates Kaluga Square.
The Kremlin “needs Stalin”
Stalin is the Soviet leader that Putin refers to most. And not precisely to denounce the atrocious repression of his regime but to praise the statesman and war leader who defeated Hitler’s Germany.
Since the beginning of the operation in Ukraine, Putin places his campaign in the legacy of World War II and compares the Ukrainian authorities to the Nazis.
In the eyes of the Kremlin, Stalin remains a victorious model and Lenin a loser
“The current power needs Stalin because he is both a hero and a villain,” Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at the independent Levada polling institute, told AFP.
“He won the war, so all his atrocities are erased,” he adds.
“Lenin is the leader of the world revolution, which never occurred. Lenin is the leader of the world proletariat, which does not exist. Lenin is the creator of the socialist State, which no longer exists and no one wants it to rise again,” he ditches the expert.
Source: AFP
