MOSCOW – A senior aide to President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday the time has come to bury the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin – a statement that could be the Kremlin’s attempt to gauge public reaction to the divisive issue.
Georgy Poltavchenko, Putin’s envoy to the Central Federal District, said Lenin’s body should be removed from its granite tomb on Red Square and buried in a cemetery along with remains of other Bolshevik dignitaries.
Poltavchenko said he was voicing his private opinion on the matter. He did not elaborate. Putin has said in the past he was against burying Lenin’s body.
“Our country has been shaken by strife, but only few were held accountable for that in their lifetime,” Poltavchenko said at a news conference, according to the Interfax news agency. “I don’t think it’s fair that those who initiated that strife remain in the center of our state near the Kremlin.”
Lenin died in 1924 at age 53 after a series of strokes, having said he wanted to be buried in St. Petersburg.
About 400 Bolshevik leaders and other dignitaries also were buried along the Kremlin wall during Soviet times. Some of their relatives have strongly opposed plans to bury the remains elsewhere.
Former President Boris Yeltsin strongly pushed for removing Lenin’s body but was stopped by vigorous opposition from the Communist Party and others. Putin said in 2001 he opposed removing Lenin’s body from its Red Square tomb so as not to disturb civil peace in the country.
“Many people connect their own lives with the name of Lenin,” Putin said at the time. “Burying Lenin would mean … that they had lived in vain.”
At Putin’s initiative, Russia resurrected the music of the old Soviet anthem, albeit with new words, and brought back the Soviet-era red banner as the military’s flag. Putin has shrugged off criticism from liberals, saying the use of the symbols will help overcome deep divisions in society by paying tribute to the achievements of the Soviet past that older people cherish.
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