One hundred years after his death Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution, remains embalmed on display in Red Square. But his legacy lingers in Russian society, especially after President Vladimir Putin accused him of “inventing” Ukraine.
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Authorities did not announce any specific event for this Sunday, January 21, on the 100th anniversary of his death.and only a Communist Party ceremony was planned at its mausoleum near the Kremlin.
In anticipation of possible protests The authorities shielded Red Square and reduced public events and honors to a minimum. to the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.
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After the death of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov on January 21, 1924 at the age of 53, the Soviet authorities, on Stalin's orders, decided to embalm his body and build a mausoleum. The red and black stone building was completed in October 1930..
In 1953, Stalin's remains were placed next to Lenin's, but were removed in 1961 as part of de-Stalinization. During Soviet times, large crowds gathered at Lenin's remains.
But today only nostalgics honor the revolutionary leader.
The low temperatures – about 15 degrees below zero – reduced the influx but did not prevent it Hundreds of people paid tribute to the father of the Soviet proletariat at the foot of the Kremlin.
Communists and nostalgics of the old regime of all time fought the cold by waving flags with hammers and sickles and singing Soviet songs on the cobblestones of the square.
They laid large floral wreaths at the entrance to the marble mausoleum that houses Lenin's embalmed body, protected by a sarcophagus since 1924, and paid homage to him in almost sepulchral silence.
Lenin “represents an ideal,” Valentina Alexandrovna, 78, told AFP.
For this pensioner, “only” Lenin’s doctrine can enable Russia to “get out of the current situation.”
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During the rest of the year, Lenin's embalmed body is primarily a tourist attraction. Every 18 months the mausoleum is closed so that scientists can repair the deterioration of its mummified remains.
According to the state news agency TASS, only 23 percent of Lenin's body is still in the armored glass sarcophagus, which is kept at 16 °C.
Putin, Lenin and Ukraine
As happened on the 100th anniversary of the revolution in 2017, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was absent from the communist celebrations. Of course, during the presidential campaign he takes every opportunity to criticize Lenin, whom he accuses of having “placed an atomic bomb under the building called Russia” by recognizing the right of peoples to self-determination.
Three days before the offensive against Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, Putin denied the reality of the Ukrainian nation in a speech He accused Lenin of inventing Ukraine when he founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
According to the Russian president, the Ukrainian state is on Russian soil; and Lenin, by creating Soviet republics with some autonomy, enabled the emergence of nationalism and the subsequent implosion of the USSR.
“Soviet Ukraine came into being because of Bolshevik policies. It would be completely justified to call it Lenin's Ukraine. He is its inventor, its architect,” he explained.
However, the figure of Lenin was not completely suppressed. In Moscow, a 22-meter-high Lenin monument dominates Kaluga Square.
On the contrary: Stalin is the Soviet leader to whom Putin refers most. And not just to denounce the cruel oppression of his regime, but to praise the statesman and war leader who defeated Hitler's Germany.
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Since the start of the operation in Ukraine, Putin has framed his election campaign in the legacy of World War II, comparing the Ukrainian authorities to the Nazis.
In the eyes of the Kremlin, Stalin remains a victorious model and Lenin a loser. “The current power needs Stalin because he is both a hero and a villain” Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at independent pollster Levada, told AFP.
“He won the war, so all his atrocities have been erased,” he added.
“Lenin is the leader of the world revolution that never was. Lenin is the leader of the world proletariat, which does not exist. “Lenin is the creator of the socialist state, which no longer exists and no one wants it to emerge again,” the expert concludes.
AFP and EFE