LENIN'S MAUSOLEUM
 |
Address:
Moscow, Red Square |
The ambiguous heritage of the Soviet times the Mausoleum
of V. I. Lenin solemnly rises in the Red Square at the background of
the Kremlin's eastern walls and compositionally accomplishes the whole
ensemble. And although in the last few years the suggestion of committing
the body of the Leader of the Revolution to the ground is discussed
with increasing frequency the monumental tombs still treasures a crystal
sarcophagus with the embalmed body that attracts thousands of curious
tourists and staunch communists.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died on January 21, 1924. For
people from all over the world could come and pay their last respect
to the great man the mourning Plenary Session of the Central Committee
decreed to construct a mausoleum in the Red Square and to put there
the embalmed body of the deceased leader. The architectural contest
was announced and won by talented architect Alexey Shchusev.
The temporary wooden Mausoleum was constructed during
a few days. It was built in the shape of a cube crowned with a three-story
pyramid. In a few months it was replaced by larger wooden mausoleum
shaped as a stepped pyramid. 
The present Mausoleum, also designed by Shchusev,
was erected in 1930. A stone replica of the previous one it was a stepped
pyramid of cubes faced with red granite, porphyry and black labrador.
Above the bronze doors the simple inscription "Lenin" was
made from red quartzite. Under the Soviets the Mausoleum also served
as a platform, from which party officials made speeches on important
Soviet holidays and greeted festive demonstrations and military parades.
The soviet scientists were entrusted with the extremely
difficult task of preserving the image of great Bolsheviks leader for
the future generations. They worked out the unique embalming technology
and made special equipment that created all the conditions and controlled
the level of lighting, temperature and humidity for the preserving of
the corpse.
After Stalin's death in March 1953 his body was also
embalmed and put in Mausoleum next to Lenin's, but soon afterwards on
the order of Khrushchev Stalin's corpse was removed and buried by the
Kremlin wall.
In the last decades the proposals to bury the remains
of Lenin are frequently discussed in the society. In October 1993 the
Guard of Honor that stood in front of the Mausoleum's doors since the
first days of its existence was disbanded. Since 1991 all the procedures,
connected with preserving Lenin's mummy, have been financed not from
the State budget, but from the Fund of Lenin's Mausoleum and private
donations.
