Lenin Mausoleum

From Moscowiki

Lenin Mausoleum is a special building on the Red Square to keep a reserved body of the first Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.

After Lenin's death in 1924 it was decided to preserve the body and to construct a mausoleum for it. Designed by Schusev, a pyramid of cubes cut from red granite decorated with marble and black labradorite replaced experimental wooden mausoleum. According to the decision of the Communist Party, new mausoleum became a platform for the political leaders of the country. Behind the monument all Soviet leaders including Stalin are buried.

Since 1930 many rumours and legends about the Mausoleum and Lenin’s body have spread all over the country: e. g., one of the rumours tells that the person in Mausoleum is not Lenin but his double, while the real body of the first Communist leader was damaged during the Great Patriotic War. After the disintegration of the USSR the Mausoleum lost its significance and in 1996 guard of honor near it was cancelled. Although some political leaders repeatedly suggest to bury Lenin as a regular man, the Government still has not made a final decision about it.