Still a corpse Vladimir Lenin The mummified person lies in his tomb Red Square middle MoscowHowever, his fingerprints within Russian society were largely removed 100 years after his death, as the president accuses him of Vladimir Putin That he “invented” Ukraine, preferring it Joseph Stalin.

The Russian authorities did not announce any special events on the occasion of this centenary on Sunday, and it is expected that the Communist Party will hold a simple ceremony in the adjacent shrine. For the Kremlin.

Tourist landmark

When Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov died on January 21, 1924 at the age of 53, the Soviet authorities, on the orders of Stalin, embalmed his body and erected a shrine for him.

The monument, built of red and black polished stone, has stood in the heart of Red Square since October 1930. In 1953, Stalin's body was also transferred to it before it was withdrawn from it in 1961 in the context of the de-Stalinization campaign.

In the Soviet era, large crowds used to visit the shrine of the “Father of the Bolshevik Revolution.” Today, this landmark no longer attracts except a handful of people who come there driven by nostalgia, carrying flags and red carnations.

Lenin's mummified body became primarily a tourist attraction. The site is closed once every 18 months so that scientists can re-mummify it and repair the damage.

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

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, newspapers have raised controversy from time to time about burying the body. However, the authorities have never seriously addressed this possibility, which would certainly arouse the discontent of the communists, who still constitute a significant electoral base.

Lenin, the “inventor” of Ukraine

Putin rarely mentions Lenin. This is what made his harsh criticism of the father of the October 1917 Revolution, before launching the attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, raise questions.

Three days before the invasion, the president delivered a strongly worded speech in which he denied the existence of a Ukrainian nation, accusing Lenin of having created Ukraine when he created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

According to Putin, the Ukrainian state was established on Russian territory. He also believes that Lenin – by creating Soviet republics that enjoyed a kind of autonomy – allowed the emergence of nationalities, which ultimately led to the disintegration of the Union.

The Russian president said at the time: “Because of the Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine appeared. It is quite correct to call it Lenin’s Ukraine. He is its inventor, its architect.”

However, Lenin's impact has not been completely erased. His statues are still located in the middle of several Russian cities, even if many of them were removed when the Soviet Union collapsed.

In Moscow, a statue of Lenin rises 22 meters high in the heart of Kaluga Square. In Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia, a statue of Lenin's head is still raised on a pedestal at a height of 14 meters.

A bust of Lenin was also placed in Antarctica, specifically at the furthest point from the coast, where the Soviet Union established a base in the past.

Stalin's preference

Of all the Soviet leaders, he favors the “Master of the Kremlin,” Stalin, who is often cited not to denounce his campaigns of repression but to praise the statesman and warlord who triumphed over Hitler’s Germany, albeit at a high price.

Putin is always keen to place his military campaign against Ukraine in the context of the legacies of World War II, regularly likening the Ukrainian authorities to the Nazis and presenting the conflict as an existential battle for Russia's survival.

In the eyes of the Kremlin, Stalin remains an example of victory and strength, while Lenin is a loser from the perspective of history.

Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at the Levada Polling Institute, pointed out, “The current authority needs Stalin because he is a hero and a villain at the same time. He won the war, so all his atrocities are erased.”

He continued: “As for Lenin, the leader of the world revolution, this did not happen at all. Lenin, the leader of the working class in the world, Lenin, the founder of the socialist state, all of this no longer exists. No one wants that anymore.”