It has already turned 90 years since the person who changed the course of Russian history in the last century passed away, whom some people extol as god and others curse. This is V.I. Lenin. But there is still a debate about why Lenin was not buried?
The fate of these disputes in Russian history is the subject of this article.
Historical facts about the death of Lenin
Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) died at the age of 53 in January 1924. Before his death, the leader of the young Soviet state was seriously ill and was virtually paralyzed. His wife, “a faithful friend and comrade” (as historians later write), NK Krupskaya, took care of him.
The death occurred at the cottage of Lenin in Gorki (this is one of the districts of the Moscow region). The year of Lenin's death coincided with the beginning of the redistribution of power between his associates, which ended with the unconditional victory of Stalin.
Funeral ceremony
Two days after death - January 23 - the body of the leader was brought to Moscow. The question of the funeral began to be decided.
As a result, on January 27, the embalmed body of Lenin was put in a hastily created mausoleum. The contemporaries' reaction to such an unusual funeral was mixed.
Of course, Lenin himself has repeatedly spoken out that the proletarian revolution will change all spheres of life: language, religion, family, traditions. It turns out that his unusual funeral was part of the new system.
But about everything in more detail.
Who decided to save the body of Lenin?
The memoirs of Lenin’s comrades in different ways tell us who was the initiator of this decision. So, Trotsky considers him Stalin. He testifies that Stalin in 1923 at a meeting of the Politburo spoke about the need to preserve the body of the leader, following the example of preserving the relics of saints in Orthodox Christianity.
Trotsky, Kamenev and Bukharin (according to the memoirs of Trotsky himself) then opposed this idea of ​​Stalin.
However, if we take into account the fierce hatred of Lev Davidovich to Stalin who drove him out of the country, then you need to be careful about his statements on this issue.
It is unlikely that certain historians believe that Lenin and Stalin were united by one idea: Stalin wanted to offer his people a new religion, where Lenin would become a god, and he would become a king.
There are versions according to which the question why Lenin was not buried but embalmed, the answer is this: among the Bolsheviks there were people who believed that science could soon find a way to resurrect people from the dead, which is why they helped to to preserve the integrity of the body of his leader.
Relations of Lenin's relatives to embalming
The wife of the Bolshevik leader, a prominent representative of this party, N.K. Krupskaya, judging by her own recollections, resisted a similar method of burial of her husband.
She tried to prove the necessity of habitual burial. However, no one heard the words of the widow. Also, the protests of Lenin's brother and sisters, who also had weight in the Bolshevik party, were not heard.
Krupskaya was ordered to give her husband's things, which she did with tears in her eyes.
Later, she could not go to the mausoleum. But this was decided by the younger brother of Lenin - Dmitry Ulyanov. However, for a long time he could not stand the sad sight, and, seeing Lenin's mausoleum inside, he came out with tears. Dmitry Ilyich could not see his brother in the form of a lifeless doll.
Why Lenin was not buried: version of the last will of the leader
At the end of the 80s. of the last century, when the fame of Lenin faded in the hearts of Soviet citizens, versions began to appear that he himself wanted to be buried next to his mother - Maria Alexandrovna (now two unmarried sisters of Lenin are buried in this place).
The author of this version was the historian A. Artyunov. He believed that the Bolsheviks, in their own way disposing of the body of the leader, actually violated the will of a dying man. The year of Lenin’s death was difficult for the country, then the press published many letters of “ordinary Soviet people” about the need to preserve the leader’s body. However, the historian believed that it was not citizens, but Lenin himself that had the right to decide whether to be embalmed or whether he would still be awarded the usual cemetery rest.
But today this version does not stand up to criticism because no written evidence has been preserved of either Lenin himself or his relatives, which would make it clear that V. I. Ulyanov wanted to be buried with his mother.
Perhaps, as an atheist, Lenin did not attach any importance to the place of his burial.
Unusual funeral as an element of the creation of the myth of Lenin
Immediately after the October Revolution, capturing the telegraph and the media, the Bolsheviks set themselves the task of widespread agitation of their ideas. This activity was a success for them. Many people believed in communist dreams thanks to an established propaganda system.
Immediately, the press, which fell within the sphere of influence of party leaders, began to create the image of a formidable leader — the indestructible Vladimir Ilyich, a friend of the people and a courageous fighter for his freedom.
A similar exaltation of the image of Lenin continued throughout his life. Maxim Gorky is credited with saying that the new Soviet Russia needed a new faith, a new religion, and the image of Christ took the image of Lenin - a fighter and sufferer for national happiness. Therefore, Lenin had to be immortal, he must be able to rise from the dead.
Consciously or unconsciously, but the members of the Bolshevik party did a lot in creating the myth of the leader. When Lenin’s body was not interred, the myth of him became only stronger.
By the way, when JV Stalin died many years later, he was also embalmed and put in a mausoleum. True, Lenin and Stalin did not lie together for long: after Khrushchev's revelations, Stalin's body was secretly buried near the Kremlin wall.
Today, the mausoleum and the leader’s body lying in it still cause heated debate among contemporaries. Many of them can no longer answer the question of why they didn’t bury Lenin? But the image of the Mausoleum annoys them. Another part of the country's population belongs to the mausoleum with mixed feelings: from curiosity to expressing respect for the memory of the leader.
What will happen to the Mausoleum next? It is hard to say today whether Lenin will find the last peace in the earth or will always be the subject of visual acquaintance for onlookers and foreign tourists.
Did the leader deserve such a fate? Also not entirely clear.
Wait and see. And nothing can be added to these words.