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Why Lenin's Corpse Lives on in Putin's Russia
The Russia File ^ | 2017 | Alice Underwood

Posted on 09/30/2018 3:02:32 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

It’s not every society whose ideals are embodied by a corpse. But in the Soviet Union, the never-decaying body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was meant to freeze his ideals in time: a promise to citizens that they were on the collective path to the bright communist future.

Opened to visitors on August 1, 1924, his mausoleum became a key symbol of Soviet power, from the saint-like aura around Lenin’s remains to the Politburo’s tradition of standing atop the structure on holidays. Today, the unburied body remains a lingering element of the Soviet legacy, representing Russia’s inability or unwillingness to bury its Soviet past.

With indifference and nostalgia the predominant sentiments toward Lenin, and desire to bury him evenly split, the Kremlin’s most likely next step is nothing at all. This serves the government’s project of using the past to gesture to Russia’s continued greatness.

The prime example of this isn’t Lenin at all; it's Stalin who remains most alive in Russian cultural memory. Although his body was removed from its spot beside Lenin in 1961, the post-Soviet years have seen him remembered with increasing fondness—reaching a historic maximum this past year when he topped Russia’s list of most remarkable historical figures.

Stalin’s return to popularity aligns with growing pageantry around WorldWar II, the Kremlin’s favorite tool for evoking patriotic sentiment.

The continued reliance on Soviet symbols fuels a murky understanding of a period marked by repressions on one hand, and international preeminence on the other. In capitalizing on Russians’ sense of lost greatness, today’s government prevents a true reckoning with the past. The lack of a clear break with Soviet icons—even a 93-years-dead corpse—shows that politics may have changed since the fall of the Soviet Union, but leaders’ reliance on symbols that obfuscate their means of staying in power, remains.

(Excerpt) Read more at kennan-russiafile.org ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: communism; lenin; putin; putinoia; russia; ussr
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1 posted on 09/30/2018 3:02:32 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

2 posted on 09/30/2018 3:08:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Hahahaha


3 posted on 09/30/2018 3:11:28 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: BenLurkin

GMTA!!


4 posted on 09/30/2018 3:12:33 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain ("Progressivism" is as every kind of evil: it can never create, only corrupt and destroy.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“93 year old dead corpse.”

Those “live corpses” can be some scary dudes.


5 posted on 09/30/2018 3:12:34 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: Vermont Lt

Yes, Bernie Sanders certainly can be...


6 posted on 09/30/2018 3:16:38 PM PDT by mywholebodyisaweapon (Thank God for President Trump.)
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To: mywholebodyisaweapon

I live in MA. I spend many days filling up squirt guns with holy water to protect my family from Liz Warren.


7 posted on 09/30/2018 3:21:09 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
I think people are missing the point. It's a macabre Ripley's Believe It or Not curio. People go for the gawking not the ideology. I say sell it to a Las Vegas casino as an attraction.


 

8 posted on 09/30/2018 3:21:25 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

He’s dead, Jim.


9 posted on 09/30/2018 3:29:38 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Where Lenin lies the red flag flies, and the rat-grey workers wait
To tread the gloom of Lenin's Tomb, where the Comrade lies in state.
With lagging pace they scan his face, so weary yet so firm;
For years a score they've laboured sore to save him from the worm.
The Kremlin walls are grimly grey, but Lenin's Tomb is red,
And pilgrims from the Sour Lands say: "He sleeps and is not dead."
Before their eyes in peace he lies, a symbol and a sign,
And as they pass that dome of glass they see - a God Divine.
So Doctors plug him full of dope, for if he drops to dust,
So will collapse their faith and hope, the whole combine will bust.
But say, Tovarich; hark to me . . . a secret I'll disclose,
For I did see what none did see; I know what no one knows.

Ballad of Lenin's Tomb - Robert Service

10 posted on 09/30/2018 3:34:22 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Looks like Chuck Todd taking a nap.


11 posted on 09/30/2018 3:35:06 PM PDT by Senator Goldwater
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Communist western tourists.


12 posted on 09/30/2018 3:35:54 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

What the American press refers to reverently as “Lenin’s Tomb”, my friends in Russia call “The Mummy”.


13 posted on 09/30/2018 3:53:32 PM PDT by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

The only body part still in the mausoleum that once belonged to Lenin is the skull. Mortician’s clay doesn’t last forever.


14 posted on 09/30/2018 3:56:08 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
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To: Vermont Lt
"I live in MA. I spend many days filling up squirt guns with holy water to protect my family from Liz Warren."

LOL!!

15 posted on 09/30/2018 3:56:36 PM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: Westbrook

Hey, didja know that Lenin’s tomb is a commie plot?

Badabing!


16 posted on 09/30/2018 3:57:29 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I see they still hate Trotzky in Russia....


17 posted on 09/30/2018 3:57:33 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: BenLurkin

Question and answer:
Why is Lenin’s corpse still on display in Moscow”?

Answer: Because the Democrats don’t control Congress they can’t move it to the Great Rotunda of the Capital for their Marxist mindless minions to worship.


18 posted on 09/30/2018 4:07:18 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Vermont Lt

#7. You haven’t got enough Holy Water right now to stop Liz Warren. Have you tried filling it with garlic juice?


19 posted on 09/30/2018 4:09:11 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Billthedrill

I’m sure that Obama will be similarly entombed.


20 posted on 09/30/2018 4:12:22 PM PDT by Oldexpat (C)
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