Russian Historians Advise to Bury Lenin
The Russian History Institute presented a harsh evaluation of Vladimir Lenin’s role in history yesterday recommending burying the body and pulling down the Mausoleum of Lenin in Red Square, outside the Kremlin. The institute prepared the report following a request of a small NGO. The pro-presidential United Russia party and political scientists believe that the advice will be followed within the next few years.
The Russian History Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences supported an initiative to bury Vladimir Lenin and pull down the Mausoleum of Lenin in Red Square. The institute report is a reply to a request filed by an NGO concerned with victims of Soviet purges.
“Lenin’s activities have led this country to the social, economic and spiritual impasse, hampered its development and isolated the nation from the civilized world,” the report runs. “The state must not spend taxpayers’ money on the upkeeping, surveillance and restoration of the body of the Communist party’s leader.” The scholars also came up with suggestions of pulling down the mausoleum and handing Lenin’s remains to his relatives or followers, i.e. the Russian Communist Party.
Communists opposed the initiative calling the report “a real provocation against the Communist Party and the whole generation.”
The burial site of Lenin has widely debated since early 90s. Yet, it is for the first time that historians prove the need to bury Lenin.
Stanislav Belkovsky, a well-known political scientist, told Kommersant that he has information that “Vladimir Putin has been preoccupied with the idea of taking Lenin’s body out of the mausoleum.” The political scientist supposed that the body will be carried out of the mausoleum on the 90th anniversary of the October revolution. “It will be the final chord of Putin’s term in the Kremlin because he will have nothing to lose then,” Mr. Belkovksy said.
Anna Geroeva, Ekaterina Savina
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 07, 2006
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