[CivilSoc] Lenin's Body Undergoing Annual "Remont"

[Civil Society International]

The following item is from RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies
Vol. 3, No. 10, 6 March 2002
LENIN LIVED, LENIN LIVES, LENIN WILL LIVE.
Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square will be closed for two weeks
beginning on 1 March for preventative maintenance on the mummified corpse of
the Soviet leader, RIA-Novosti reported on 28 February. Professor Yurii
Denisov-Nikolskii, deputy director of the scientific center in charge of
maintaining Lenin's corpse, said everything in his organization's power is
being done to preserve Lenin "for many, many years," and that the body is
"in excellent condition."
Former President Boris Yeltsin, responding to pleas from reformers,
struggled to have the corpse interred and failed; former President Mikhail
Gorbachev summed up the sentiment of many to give Lenin "a decent, Christian
burial" with a comment carried by "The Guardian" on
29 July 1999: "I am in absolute favor of burying Lenin's body if this is
approached in a humane and Christian way."
Yet President Vladimir Putin has said publicly he wants to keep the body
where it is. "Many people in this country associate their lives with the
name of Lenin. To take Lenin out and bury him would say to them that they
have worshipped false values, that their lives were lived in vain.... I
cherish stability and consensus in society, and I will try not to do
anything to upset civil calm," said Putin, "The Independent" reported on 20
October 2001. CAF