councilor.org
| Source | Carl Remick |
| Date | 04/06/24/17:37 |
| Lenin gets a new suit
Friday, 07-Nov-2003 Story from AFP Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) MOSCOW, Nov 7 (AFP) - Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, whose body remains on display in the mausoleum on Red Square, is getting a new suit, an official said Friday on the 86th anniversary of the Russian revolution. Lenin will be given new clothes during works that will be carried on his body between November 10 and December 29, said embalming expert Yuri Denisov-Nikosky, a senior official at the Russian centre for bio-medical technologies. The former Soviet leader has lain in the mausoleum on Red Square since his death in 1924, preserved by enbalming despite his declared wish to be buried in his native Saint Petersburg. Denisov-Nikolsky said Lenin's new suit will be his 10th during the 30 years in which he had been involved in preserving the body, the RIA Novosti news agency said. New clothes, including a white spotted tie, are ordered every three years, he said. After he was first buried in the mausoleum, Lenin was dressed in military uniform, but "just before the (1941-45) war, someone decided it symbolised a militarist nature and he was immediately dressed in civilian clothes," Denisov-Nikolsky said. The official said that since an inspection last year, there have been "no changes in Vladimir Lenin's body." Last year he said that Lenin's remains could remain on display "for another 100 years." Some Russian officials have suggested that Lenin's body should be removed from Red Square and finally buried, but the Communist Party is strongly opposed to the move and parliament has several times put off debating the issue. For many years Lenin's tomb was a popular tourist attraction, and opinion polls regularly show that most Russians take a broadly positive view of his achievements. |
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