Aleksey Shchusev’s granite structure incorpo-
rates some elements from ancient mausoleums,
such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus
the Grea | Jorge Láscar via Wikimedia Commons
a state-sanctified relic linked to the legitimation
surrounding Lenin’s Mausoleum is different. If the of the Soviet Union and its warped mourning for
cults of Stalin, Mao Zhedong and Tito were ‘cults of communist repressions.
a living leader’ the cult of Lenin was anchored in his
sovereign dead remains. (Tumarkin 1997: 3), In the
The breakup of the Soviet Union, coup d’état
Russian Orthodox religion, a person is considered a and transition to democracy left a power vacuum
saint if their body does not decompose or putrefy. in 1991. After the city of Leningrad returned to
The fact that Lenin’s body does not decompose its original name of St Petersburg, Boris Yeltsin
suggests his peculiar association with sainthood. removed the honour guards from the Mausoleum in
1993. He also suggested that Lenin should be buried,
The cult of Leninism helped to shore up the
and raised the issue again in 1997; however, political
continuity of the Soviet state. Lenin is not only forces were opposed to his burial for the sake of
venerated as the first leader of the Soviet Union but tradition and continuity.
is symbolically linked to the October Revolution of
1917 and the continuity of the Russian state with the
In 2001, Putin argued against the removal
Soviet Union. He is associated with revolutionary of Lenin by suggesting that because many people
time, as well as the lineage of the state from in the older generation continue to identify with
Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, through Stalin Lenin and Communism, his burial might dislodge
and present-day Vladimir Putin. Moreover, the their sense of stability. The Mausoleum, like the
extraordinary circumstances of his afterlife link Soviet melody to the Russian national anthem,
him with religious relics and the immortal presence maintains national continuity and social stability
of the sovereign. His preserved body has become during times of loss, difficult transition and political
78
Observing Memories
ISSUE 3