In chilly Moscow

[peejay 327]

In chilly Moscow, a heated debate over burying Lenin's body

By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News

Red Square without Lenin? Hard to imagine. Like Trafalgar Square without Nelson. Or Times Square without the Naked Cowboy. But it’s an idea that’s floated every couple years – and it was proposed again yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary of Lenin’s death.

On Thursday, a deputy in Prime Minister Putin’s ruling United Russia party suggested removing Vladimir Lenin’s preserved body from the iconic mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square and finally burying him, 87 years after the leader's death. Vladimir Mendinski didn’t sugarcoat his language, referring to Lenin as an “extremely controversial political figure” and calling his Red Square burial an “absurd, pagan-necrophilic mission.”

The fighting words to Russia’s Communist Party didn’t keep a few hundred Lenin supporters from braving 10-degree weather to gather on Red Square today to lay flowers at the mausoleum.

“They want to falsify history,” said 63 year-old Lidiya Petrovna, when told of Mendinski’s comments. “They want to bury not just his body, but his ideas. We are here as Soviet citizens!” I reminded her that we are in Russia now, but she dismissed me. “I am Soviet. This isn’t my country.”

Anatoly Turenko, a 36-year-old Moscow Communist official, made it clear that his party was opposed to moving the body: “This is a decision for all Soviet nations to make together.”

For now, there is nothing for them to worry about: Media reports quoted the Kremlin press office saying they had no plans to move Lenin’s body. But it remains to be seen how much longer Lenin supporters can present a solid opposition. The average age of those gathered at Red Square today couldn’t have been under 65, and polls show a continuing decline of support amongst Russians to keeping Lenin in the mausoleum.

'It's the building that's so iconic'

Seeing Lenin’s body (or what is left of it – Mendinski claims that only 10 percent of what is left can actually be called Lenin’s body) is also a big draw for tourists. Five days a week, tourists line up to silently shuffle through the mausoleum and get a quick look at Lenin. Today’s anniversary events kept tourists from even getting near the mausoleum, but they still weighed in on the controversy.

“As long as the mausoleum stays, they can take the body,” said Simon Gay, a singer from the Westminster Abbey Choir, taking in Red Square before a performance. “It’s the building that’s so iconic.” As for how to settle the debate, Gay had a unique suggestion: “Maybe they can rotate a different body in there every week.”

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/21/5891860-in-chilly-moscow-a-heated-debate-over-burying-lenins-body

[mawilson 2,133]

[alienlovechild 75]

“They want to falsify history,” said 63 year-old Lidiya Petrovna, when told of Mendinski’s comments. “They want to bury not just his body, but his ideas. We are here as Soviet citizens!” I reminded her that we are in Russia now, but she dismissed me. “I am Soviet. This isn’t my country.”

Chop up his body and sell the bits as souvenirs. It would be fitting to make profit off that old bolshevik ####### who made so many people miserable.

[peejay 327]

My first and only visit to Red Square was in 2002, but Lenin's tomb was closed that day. So I never got to see the old #######. I did tour the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, Arbat Street, and lots of other tourist sites in Moscow. I stayed in a little town outside of Moscow named Ozeretskoye with my cousins. This was before I met and married my wife. My cousins and I road the bus, then the electric train into Moscow and got around Moscow on the Metro subway. Thank goodness I had my relatives with me to show me the way.

I stayed over in the Moscow suburb of Pushkino overnight at my wife's uncle's flat on our way back from visiting her parents in Siberia in 2009 before flying back to the USA the next morning. Unfortunately no time to do much except look out the window of the electric train from and back to Sheremetyevo Airport between Pushkino. Pushkino was nice except for the obnoxious drunkards trying to panhandle vodka money at the train station. Nothing new. Same as in the USA. Bums bumming. Houston has its share of them too.

[alienlovechild 75]

My first and only visit to Red Square was in 2002, but Lenin's tomb was closed that day. So I never got to see the old #######. I did tour the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, Arbat Street, and lots of other tourist sites in Moscow. I stayed in a little town outside of Moscow named Ozeretskoye with my cousins. This was before I met and married my wife. My cousins and I road the bus, then the electric train into Moscow and got around Moscow on the Metro subway. Thank goodness I had my relatives with me to show me the way.

I stayed over in the Moscow suburb of Pushkino overnight at my wife's uncle's flat on our way back from visiting her parents in Siberia in 2009 before flying back to the USA the next morning. Unfortunately no time to do much except look out the window of the electric train from and back to Sheremetyevo Airport between Pushkino. Pushkino was nice except for the obnoxious drunkards trying to panhandle vodka money at the train station. Nothing new. Same as in the USA. Bums bumming. Houston has its share of them too.

I'd like to visit Russia in the future but I heard Moscow was expensive for foreign tourists compared to other parts of Eastern Europe.

[peejay 327]

I'd like to visit Russia in the future but I heard Moscow was expensive for foreign tourists compared to other parts of Eastern Europe.

I guess I was fortunate to have had relatives there and the opportunity to travel there on the cheap in 2002. I didn't have to stay in a hotel or eat out all the time in restaurants. It's funny, but one of the cheapest place I found to eat in Moscow was at McDonalds. There were also some small fast food kiosks at the train station that served local food that was reasonably priced.

I'm no expert on Moscow, but I'd venture to say that the further you get away from the tourist areas in the center of the city the prices drop. But unless you are fluent in Russian and know your way around it would be best to stay close to the places you want to see. Like I said, without my Russian speaking relatives I would have been been lost. I grew up in the 1960's listening to my mom, aunts, and grandparents speaking Russian/Belorussian when they were together, but my proficiency is not beyond a few simple phrases and words. My dad was a W.A.S.P. from northern Oklahoma and we spoke English at home. I never pursued learning Russian. I never envisioned in my youth that I would ever travel to the former USSR to meet my mom's relatives or that I would ever marry a foreigner from Russia.

And, yes, when you get away from the large tourist cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg into the small towns and villages in Russia and Belarus the prices drop. I found the capitol of Minsk in Belarus to be affordable, but I haven't been there since 2003.

[Danno 1,228]

I'd like to visit Russia in the future but I heard Moscow was expensive for foreign tourists compared to other parts of Eastern Europe.

You can do it fairly reasonable..... and if your budget is even lower than that.... Check out this guy.

http://unclepasha.com/

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Chop up his body and sell the bits as souvenirs. It would be fitting to make profit off that old bolshevik ####### who made so many people miserable.

+1

btw if your thinking of visiting Russia...think hard. For the most part it's a giant sh*t hole. Unless your going there to score on the broads...

[alienlovechild 75]

btw if your thinking of visiting Russia...think hard. For the most part it's a giant sh*t hole. Unless your going there to score on the broads...

It's on my list but not at the top. I'd rather go to Slovakia, Poland and Germany on my next trip to Europe.

My wife isn't likely to let me score any broads while I'm there.