Burying Lenin

~ Clarissa

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.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

23 thoughts on “Burying Lenin”

  2. 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. 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. 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

    3. 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. 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

    1. 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

  9. 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