Bury Vladimir Lenin? Russians Put It To A Vote

MOSCOW — A new poll sponsored by the pro-Kremlin party is asking Russians to vote on whether it's time to bury Vladimir Lenin.

The embalmed body of the man who founded the Soviet Union still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the communist state collapsed.

The contentious issue is raised almost every year around the anniversary of his death on Jan. 21, 1924.

It is not clear whether the government intends to abide by the outcome of the United Russia party's poll, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that the fate of Lenin's body will in the end be decided by the Russian people.

Comments

[Flor Arellano]

01:54 AM on 01/28/2011

I actually wouldn't want him buried since I would like to one day go see his body. But eventually it will get buried. The same thing happened with Eva Perón's body. It was on display for a while, but now she is finally buried.

[Rooster Coburn]

11:08 PM on 01/27/2011

Disney can make an "anamotronics" version anyways!

[Hooty owl]

09:50 PM on 01/27/2011

I doubt they'll bury him. If we had Washington in a glass case somewhere we'd probably be hesitant to put him in the ground too.

[decora]

08:12 PM on 01/27/2011

This all makes me wonder; when are we going to bury Abraham Lincoln? As it is, he sits embalmed in a chair on the national mall in DC. I think it's time we just let Abe have peace, and layed him to rest too.

[Hooty owl]

09:48 PM on 01/27/2011

... this is a joke, right?

[Cougar29]

07:16 PM on 01/27/2011

His grave will soak up more urine then any other..

[Zutroy]

07:51 PM on 02/01/2011

What a nonsensical comment. Comrade Stalin's grave is covered in flowers and wreaths. What makes you think Comrade Lenin's will be pissed on?

[Jon W B]

04:55 PM on 01/27/2011

I always thought that it was creepy that the Soviets kept him around, even if he was the first leader of the Soviet Union. I'm glad we didn't keep George Washington's body around...

[syntax facit saltum]

01:20 AM on 01/28/2011

You know there are no more Soviets, right?

[Jon W B]

12:25 AM on 01/29/2011

Ha, yes, I know. But, he did die while Russia was the USSR, and even up til the Soviet Union fell, they kept him around.

[BLACKCAT66]

04:51 PM on 01/27/2011

It's kinda gross, just bury him....or have him freeze-dried and made into a lamp that way he can still be useful.

[johnfkennedyjr]

12:37 PM on 01/27/2011

As if the Russian people made the decision to entomb Lenin on public display in the first place.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

10:20 AM on 01/27/2011

Leave it as it is , a monument to a failed progressive ideal. Just make it a memorial to the mass murders and political executions it took to provide" the workers state".

[balamo]

07:29 AM on 01/27/2011

not our business...

[SukiTheCat]

07:27 AM on 01/27/2011

nah, won't be good for tourism

[Cougar29]

06:48 AM on 01/27/2011

Didn't he liken his own supporters to "useful idiots"? Any thoughts?

[Leo Bloom]

10:46 AM on 01/27/2011

No he didn't. This is a self-perpetuating myth. Like Paul Revere's ride yelling "The British Are Coming."

[Greg Mirsky]

01:19 PM on 01/27/2011

I think that this attribution comes from Mona Charen's Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First. But Mrs.Charen properly notes that Lenin never publicly expressed this thought even though it suites his cynical politics. Personally, I'd believe that idea of using "useful idiots" belonged to and positively shared and used by Stalin, Mikhail Suslov, Andropov.

[Cougar29]

06:47 AM on 01/27/2011

Was it 15 or 20 million he presided over who died? Any guesses com mies?

[pinkibus]

07:35 AM on 01/27/2011

Cougar - you are referring to Stalin. BIG BIG difference.

[Darjmar]

09:58 AM on 01/27/2011

Pinkibus - well, sure, the number may be lower - but they were both pretty bad people, weren't they? Or are you in fact defending Lenin?

So he did kill less people than Stalin - that doesn't make him somehow a "good guy". At the level of millions killed, it's kinda silly to argue "less bad guy" either.

[decora]

08:11 PM on 01/27/2011

no he only killed a few million, which didn't seem so bad because the Czar had killed at least that many in World War I, and his various programs.

the mass death didn't really kick up until collectivization in the late 20s/30s, which was all Stalin's idea. of course, a lot of US companies helped stalin do this, but huffpo is supposed to be a happy place. lets not bicker and argue about who profited from who's mass slaughter.

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

09:55 AM on 01/27/2011

Lenin was not Jewish.

[ramal]

05:59 AM on 01/27/2011

Past time. Isn't Mao Tse Tung stuffed and dried somewhere in Bejing? Time to make him food for worms too.