What Lenin’s Centennial Mausoleum on Red Square Looks Like

This year, the mausoleum of Lenin located on Moscow’s Red Square is celebrating a milestone.

It is its 100th anniversary, which coincides with the death of the founder of the Soviet Union .

Since its inauguration in 1924, millions of people from around the world have come to see Lenin’s embalmed body, which remains inside an open sarcophagus.

However, the mummy has also undergone modifications since it was placed in this enclosure. During World War II, it was secretly removed and sent to Siberia, and then, in the 1970s, bulletproof glass was added to protect it from constant attacks.

According to BBC he was Joseph Stalin who began to think about the idea of ​​preserving the body of the Bolshevik leader and not having a common burial.

The initiative was also conceived after a Soviet Cheka leader lost his life while on a mission and doctors decided to embalm him.

In 1923, Stalin held a meeting with the Communist Party leadership to discuss Lenin’s possible death. At that time, he was still alive, but his health had deteriorated so much that he withdrew from public life.

It was here that the party’s general secretary suggested that if Lenin died, his body should be embalmed. Several prominent figures flatly rejected the idea, including Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, although a few months later Stalin’s position would eventually prevail.

On January 21, 1924, the first leader of the Soviet Union died after a long illness. Shortly after, a national competition was held for the construction of the mausoleum, which was won by architect Alexei Shchusev.

The monument was initially built entirely of wood, in order to be ready before the funeral. During the farewell ceremony, Lenin’s remains were paraded through the streets of Moscow and finally transferred to his grave on Red Square.

Although at first the body was only going to be on public display temporarily, the idea of ​​it becoming something permanent quickly began to gain strength.

So, soon after Lenin’s death, scientists Alexei Vorobyov and Boris Zbarsky began to engage in embalming the corpse, while Shchusev worked on a final version of the building.

Until August 1, 1924, the monument was inaugurated to be visited by the public and little by little it transformed into one of the most important icons of the Soviet regime. Six years later, a marble and granite version of the building was released.

In 1945 it was partially rebuilt to add a grandstand, where Soviet officials sat to give speeches and watch parades.

What is curious about the tomb is that at one point it was also accompanied by the corpse of another figure of great importance to the Soviet regime: Stalin.

After the Soviet Union’s “Iron Man” died of a brain hemorrhage in 1953, it was decided that he too should be embalmed and displayed in Red Square. And finally, it came to pass.

For a short time, the remains of the two leaders shared a mausoleum and next to the legend “Lenin” another inscription “Stalin” was added.

However, under the de-Stalinization policies promoted by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, In 1961, Stalin’s body was removed from this place and buried outside the Kremlin wall. His grave is located specifically between those of Mijaíl Súslov and Mijaíl Kalinin.

Since its opening to the public, Lenin’s tomb has become a major tourist attraction for people of other nationalities and is even considered by some to be a place of pilgrimage.

But just as it has attracted the interest of many, it has also suffered multiple attacks. Hammer blows, stones, bombs, gunshots and even an attempted arson attack are just some of the attacks the sarcophagus has suffered.

After an explosive device killed the attacker and two visitors in 1973, authorities decided to make the tomb more secure and add bulletproof glass.

A century after its inauguration, the Lenin mummy exhibition has become a topic of debate in Russia, with some arguing it is time for the remains to be removed and buried.

According to a 2017 poll, 63% of Russians support the burial of the Bolshevik leader, while only 31% are against it.

But the President of Russia, Vladimir Poutine has demonstrated since coming to power that he does not want to move the body from this place. “This is not an issue that is on the Kremlin’s agenda,” explained Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov a few years ago.

As the same Russian government reported in 2016, at least that year they planned to allocate 13 million rubles (about $150,000) to keep the mummy in optimal conditions. More precisely, this expenditure was intended to carry out “biomedical work aimed at preserving the body of Vladimir Lenin in order to give it the impression that he was alive,” according to the state contracting agency.