Russia remembers Lenin on the centenary of his death while Putin questions his legacy

One hundred years after his death. Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution, is still displayed, mummified, in Red Square. But his legacy has become weak in Russian society, especially after President Vladimir Putin rebuked him for “inventing” Ukraine.

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The authorities did not announce any specific event for this Sunday, January 21, the centenary of his death.Only a Communist Party party was planned at his shrine near the Kremlin.

In anticipation of the possibility of protests The authorities protected Red Square, and reduced public events and honors to a minimum. For the leader of the Bolshevik revolution.

After the death of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov on January 21, 1924, at the age of 53, the Soviet authorities, by order of Stalin, decided to embalm his body and build a mausoleum for him. The red and black stone building was completed in October 1930..

In 1953, Stalin's remains were moved alongside those of Lenin, but in 1961 they were removed during de-Stalinization. In Soviet times, large crowds gathered at Lenin's remains.

But today only nostalgic people continue to honor the revolutionary leader.

Low temperatures – about 15 degrees below zero – reduced the crowd flow, 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 for the old regime from all eras fought the cold by waving flags, hammer and sickle and singing Soviet songs on the cobblestones of the square.

They laid large wreaths of flowers at the entrance to the marble mausoleum containing Lenin's mummified body, protected since 1924 by a stone sarcophagus, and paid their respects before him in almost sepulchral silence.

Valentina Alexandrovna, 78, told AFP that Lenin “represents an ideal.”

For this pensioner, “only” Lenin's doctrine could allow Russia to “get out of the current situation.”

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During the rest of the year, Lenin's mummified body is primarily a tourist attraction. The shrine is closed once every 18 months so that scientists can repair the deterioration of the mummified remains.

According to the official TASS news agency, only 23 percent of Lenin's body remained in the armored glass coffin, which was kept at a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius.

Putin, Lenin and Ukraine

As happened in the centenary of the 2017 revolution. Kremlin President Vladimir Putin was absent from the communist celebrations. And of course, in the context of the presidential campaign, he uses any opportunity to criticize Lenin, whom he accuses of placing “an atomic bomb under the building called Russia,” by recognizing the right of peoples to self-determination.

Three days before the start of the attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin in a speech denied the reality of the Ukrainian nation and Lenin was accused of having invented Ukraine when he founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

According to the Russian President, the Ukrainian state is located on Russian territory; Lenin, by creating Soviet republics with little autonomy, allowed the rise of nationalism and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union.

He said: “Because of the Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine appeared. It would be completely justified to call it Lenin's Ukraine. He was its inventor and architect.”

However, Lenin's personality was not completely suppressed. In Moscow, a 22-meter-tall monument to Lenin dominates Kaluga Square.

On the contrary, Stalin is the Soviet leader whom Putin refers to the most. Not specifically to condemn the brutal repression of his regime, but to pay tribute to the statesman and warlord who defeated Hitler's Germany.

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From the beginning of the operation in Ukraine, Putin places his campaign in the legacy of World War II and likens the Ukrainian authorities to the Nazis.

In the eyes of the Kremlin, Stalin remains a victorious model, and Lenin a losing model. “The current power needs Stalin because he is a hero and a villain at the same time.” Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at the independent pollster Levada Institute, told AFP.

He adds: “He won the war, so all his atrocities were erased.”

“Lenin is the leader of the world revolution, which never happened. Lenin is the leader of the world proletariat, which does not exist. The expert concludes that Lenin is the creator of the socialist state, which no longer exists and no one wants it to exist again.

AFP and EFE