Russia wants to bury Lenin?
By IANSSaturday, January 22, 2011
Moscow, Jan 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The ruling United Russia party has launched a website announcing an online poll on the burial of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
The poll of the goodbyelenin.ru website launched Saturday has only one question: “Do you back the idea of burying the body of Vladimir Lenin?” The question requires a “Yes” or “No” answer.
So far, a total of 288 people have cast their vote. Out of them, 74 percent supported the proposal of burying Lenin and 26 percent were against.
Lenin died Jan 21, 1924, but despite his stated wish his corpse was embalmed and placed in a specially built mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square.
Over the years of Soviet rule, crowds of Soviet citizens and delegations from Communist-friendly countries visited the shrine.
However, proposals that Lenin’s mummy should be removed from the heart of Moscow arose immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and in the two decades since discussion of the issue traditionally flares up prior to all of the memorable dates of Lenin’s life.
Lenin, one of the leading political figures of the 20th century, masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917, and was the architect and first head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
–IANS/RIA Novosti
