Moscow, Day 2: Communism’s Mummy

In Russia, they say “Lenin zhil, zhit i budet zhit’!” (Lenin lived, lives and will live!) Move over King Tut, Communism has it’s own Mummy - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Marx may have written The Communist Manifesto but it was Lenin who delivered. And for that reason every city in Russia has a Lenin Square, a Lenin Avenue and a Lenin Street. But Moscow has one more thing. Moscow has Lenin himself!

On Sunday morning, when I got to Krasnaya Ploschad, it was easy to guess what most people were there for. A long line extended all the way to the end of the Square and it looked like Lenin had more security in death than when alive! Nothing was allowed inside the mausoleum - no bags, phones or cameras. Moreover, you were not allowed to speak lest you would disturb this ‘great’ (a debatable adjective!) man’s slumber.

No signs were posted; no instructions given, but things were clearly understood. People followed those who were in front of them. Once you crossed the metal detectors, the guards indicated the way by their hands. The entrance of the mausoleum was dark. I went down the black malachite staircase and turned right, following a guard’s muted signal. Everything there - from the dim light to the reticence to the dark décor - reinforced the melancholy of the mausoleum.

I walked into another dark chamber where only one soft-light was shining on the object of everyone‘s interest. And this is where he lay in his glass coffin. I walked through the side and to the front of the glass case, right opposite him. Lenin was smartly dressed in a dark blue (or black) suit. The palm of his right hand was lightly clenched, his left weakly stretched out. His face was drained of any colour and if you looked hard enough, you could sense his pain. His last wish was to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg. But Stalin wouldn’t let that be. And since Stalin, the mausoleum has become some sort of a hybrid between a temple of communism and a popular tourist attraction.

Perhaps, one day someone sitting in the Kremlin will change this and Lenin will rest in peace. But for now, he remains incarcerated behind glass walls, coated in layers of immortalising chemicals and continues to pay the price for his fame and influence. And as long as he is out there, Russia’s love-hate relationship with him will go on…