Lenin's Mausoleum
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- For other uses of Lenin's Tomb, see Lenin's Tomb.
Lenin's Mausoleum, also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated in Red Square in Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the final resting place of Vladimir Lenin. His embalmed body has been on public display there since the year he died, 1924. Aleksey Shchusev's diminutive but monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great.
On January 21, the day that Lenin died, the Soviet government received more than 10,000 telegrams from all over Russia, which asked the government to preserve his body somehow for future generations. (Edit: According to Robert Service in his book Lenin: A Biography, the idea for a Lenin Mausoleum came not from thousands of people [i.e., factory workers] but on orders of the Politburo, whose members wished to deflect some of Lenin's aura of esteem towards themselves. "The perceived need for 'mausoleumisation' was a measure of the Politburo's insecurity."] On the morning of January 23, Professor Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov—a prominent Russian pathologist and anatomist (not to be confused with physicist Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, his son)—embalmed Lenin's body to keep it intact until the burial. On the night of January 23, architect Aleksey Shchusev was given a task to complete within three days: design and build a tomb to accommodate all those who wanted to say their goodbyes to Lenin. On January 26, the decision was made to place the tomb at the Red Square by the Kremlin Wall. By January 27, Shchusev built a tomb out of wood and at 4 p.m. that day they placed Lenin's coffin in it. More than 100,000 people visited the tomb within a month and a half. By August of 1924, Shchusev upgraded the tomb to a bigger version. An architect Konstantin Melnikov designed Lenin's sarcophagus.
In 1929, it was established that it would be possible to preserve Lenin’s body for a much longer period of time. Therefore, it was decided to exchange the wooden mausoleum with the one made of stone (architects Aleksey Shchusev, I.A. Frantsuz, and G.K. Yakovlev). They used marble, porphyry, granite, labradorite, and other construction materials. In October 1930, the construction of the stone tomb was finished. In 1973, sculptor Nikolai Tomsky designed a new sarcophagus.
On January 26, 1924 the Head of the Moscow Garrison issued an order to place the Guard of Honor at the mausoleum. Russians call it the "Number One Sentry". After the events of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, the Guard of Honor was disbanded.
More than 10 million people visited Lenin's tomb between 1924 and 1972.
Though supposedly "rejuvenated" annually by Russian undertakers, Lenin's body looks so waxed that many people wonder if the body is still real. Some parts might be faux, or partially faux for the needs of presentability. Both the former Soviet government and the current Russian authorities refuse to comment on the topic of the body's authenticity. The family of Lenin's embalmers states that the corpse is real and requires daily work to moisturize the features and inject preservatives under the clothes. On a regular basis the corpse is removed from view to be undressed and treated.
The body was removed in October 1941 and evacuated to Kuibyshev, when it appeared that Moscow might be in imminent danger of falling to invading Nazi troops. After the war, it was returned and the tomb reopened.
Joseph Stalin's embalmed body shared a spot next to Vladimir Lenin, from the time of his death in 1953 until October 31, 1961, when Stalin was removed and buried outside the walls of the Kremlin.
Boris Yeltsin, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, intended to close the tomb and bury Lenin, but did not achieve this while he was in power.
The tomb is open every day except Mondays and Fridays from 10:00 to 13:00. There is normally a long line to see Lenin. No photos or video are allowed inside the tomb.
The preservation and public display of Lenin's body inspired similar tombs for Mao Zedong as well as Ho Chi Minh, even though the said displays violated both their wishes.
