Sign up for a free recipe e-book →

Clarissa's Blog

Burying Lenin

Published by

Clarissa

on

Finally, the monument to Lenin in my native city of Kharkiv has been toppled. This was the biggest Lenin statue in Ukraine.

And it only took 23 years.

Russians, in the meanwhile, can’t let the corpse of poor Lenin escape from the necrophiliac exercises they have been subjecting it to for 90 years. Contrary to Lenin’s wishes, he hasn’t been buried next to his mother. The guy hasn’t been buried anywhere because the Russians just can’t let him go. Whenever anybody mentions the need to just bury poor Lenin already, half of Russia goes batshit crazy protesting against the hugely shocking idea that torturing the corpses of people who have been dead for almost a century might be a weird collective pastime.

23 responses to “Burying Lenin”

  1. musteryou Avatar
    musteryou

    It’s weird how reification works.

    Like

    Reply
  2. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    Are you certain that isn’t a wax replica of Lenin on display? It’s been rumored for DECADES that his actual corpse long ago deteriorated beyond restoration.

    Do you remember that old advertising slogan, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”

    Like

    Reply
  3. Walsh Avatar
    Walsh

    Relics. I think the answer to the “Lenin Problem” is relics. It could be espoused that Lenin was the new Jesus. His philosophy of communism might not have differed too much from Christianity. (Stalin did not seem to get the basic idea.) So anyway … As the new Jesus, Lenin can “offer”:
    1. Clothes (with DNA).
    2. Hair.
    3. Finger and/or toe nail clippings.
    4. Blood.
    5. Prepuce
    6. Fingerprints.
    7. “Body parts that Putin can part with.” (That might be a sizable chunk of Lenin.)
    8. Artifacts which influenced his life. (e.g.: The one true cross. Tears. Hanky.)

    Well, anyway … stuff like that. If he can’t be a corpse, let him be a “saint”.

    Like

    Reply
    1. n8chz Avatar
      n8chz

      Prepuce? Really?

      Like

      Reply
      1. Walsh Avatar
        Walsh

        Back in the relic era the prepuce was often on the best seller list.

        Like

        Reply
        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Somehow, the idea of Lenin ‘s prepuce is more disturbing to me than that of Christian saints. 🙂 I’m guessing this means that in my case the conditioning worked.

          Like

          Reply
    2. Benoni Avatar
      Benoni

      what the fuck am I reading

      Like

      Reply
    3. Jones Avatar
      Jones

      I’d rather imagine Lenin’s head in a jar, chatting away inanely along with all of the other Influential Heads of Our Past in some Futurama-like museum …

      The shouting matches between Lenin and Nixon would almost be worth the price of admission on their own.

      As for suggestion number five … stop being such a yob. 🙂

      Like

      Reply
    4. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      That’s exactly why Lenin’s body was preserved. You are absolutely right, Walsh. It was to serve as an imitation of Christian relics, and people would make pilgrimages to it.

      Soviet Communism was imitating the trappings of Christianity very loyally. That was a brilliant move.

      Like

      Reply
  4. djiril Avatar
    djiril

    I’m trying to think of something insightful to say here, but my mind just keeps going back to this:
    http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2009/7/21/im-guessing-they-didnt-have-a-matching-card.html

    Like

    Reply
    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Jesus. Not even Lenin deserves that. I think. 🙂

      Like

      Reply
    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      But if people eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, then why not eat Lenin, I guess.

      Like

      Reply
  5. Lear Avatar
    Lear

    Mommies is beyond me but Should philosophers have statues at all? If not who should?

    Like

    Reply
    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Lenin was a politician, not a philosopher. Everything he write was based strictly on political needs of the moment.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Lear Avatar
        Lear

        So a Marx statue would be fine?

        Like

        Reply
        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          He definitely deserves one because his influence on the development of contemporary philosophy is enormous.

          Like

          Reply
          1. Lear Avatar
            Lear

            What about mmm Lincoln? 🙂

            Like

            Reply
            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Lincoln is a hero to pretty much everybody where I live, so of course.

              Like

              Reply
  6. el Avatar
    el

    Почему так беспощаден Ленинопад?
    http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20140929-pochemu-tak-besposhchaden-leninopad/

    May be, you’ll like her blog. Just found it and haven’t checked myself, except this post:
    http://susel2.livejournal.com/70749.html

    Like

    Reply
    1. el Avatar
      el

      Now I looked at “Избранное, или Где это мы?” and it seems interesting.

      On another topic – “people are more easily fooled than ever” :

      Curses, Fooled Again!

      Like

      Reply
  7. el Avatar
    el

    Стих –
    http://scholar-vit.livejournal.com/383428.html

    Like

    Reply
  8. Metal Thug Avatar
    Metal Thug

    😦

    Like

    Reply
  9. el Avatar
    el

    May be, you have already read all that, but I wanted to share, in case you didn’t.

    Коржавин Наум – Ленин в Горках
    http://poetryrain.com/authors/korzhavin-naum/12788

    Isn’t it extremely beautiful? Without connection to agreeing or not with the message. I seldom like poetry, but this made an impression.

    I first read his “Дети в Освенциме” (it’s on the same site) in Russian Israeli paper, close to Holocaust Day. Look at his “Вариации из Некрасова” about a Russian woman too. But “Ленин в Горках” is the best of all.

    Have you been reading Tareeva from the beginning? Just discovered she has written a series of posts about Постмодернизм. The first post is dated 25 августа, 2011 , in case you want to check. In the fifth post she quotes Блок as the example of the opposite approach:

    Жизнь – без начала и конца.
    Нас всех подстерегает случай.
    Над нами – сумрак неминучий,
    Иль ясность божьего лица.
    Но ты, художник, твердо веруй
    В начала и концы. Ты знай,
    Где стерегут нас ад и рай.
    Тебе дано бесстрастной мерой
    Измерить все, что видишь ты.
    Твой взгляд – да будет тверд и ясен,
    Сотри случайные черты –
    И ты увидишь: мир прекрасен.

    In the first 6 (!) posts she explains what it is, which you already know, of course. But from 17 сентября, 2011 she has several more posts only about her own approach to it.

    Ответы на комментарии к последним постам. Постмодернизм. 7.
    http://tareeva.livejournal.com/72513.html

    Immediately afterwards come
    Ответы на комментарии к последним постам. Постмодернизм. Музеи
    Ответы на комментарии к последним постам. Постмодернизм. О себе.
    Ответы на комментарии к последним постам. Постмодернизм. О себе. 2

    I haven’t read Блок or modern Russian authors, whom she criticizes, but it was still interesting. Ah, and in the first posts she also writes quite a lot about architecture. She worked in the area.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor

Recent posts