A Christian burial for Lenin?

Christian Century, August 11, 1999 by Eni

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, his body, embalmed in a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, is the subject of political controversy in Russia. Lenin, who led the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and became the head of the first Soviet government, was a national hero throughout the communist period, and is still revered by Russia's communists. The fate of his corpse could be a crucial factor in Russia's next parliamentary and presidential elections.

"He will be buried," President Boris Yeltsin told a Moscow newspaper last month. "The question is when." In a later interview, published on August 4, President Yeltsin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, said that Lenin's body would "definitely" be removed from the mausoleum. Asked when, he declined to name a date. The Russian Orthodox Church also supports in principle the plans to bury Lenin's remains, but is treating the subject very cautiously.

The current debate about Lenin's burial began as the Soviet empire began to disintegrate. In 1990 prominent theater director Mark Zakharov declared that "our Orthodox ancestors did not intend to have a pagan temple in Red Square." The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexsy II, added to the debate on April 24 this year. During a religious procession in Krasnaya Square (Red Square, which in Russian also means "beautiful square") which was shown on national television, the patriarch said that it is "inappropriate" to use the country's main square as a cemetery. (Behind Lenin's mausoleum, 12 top Soviet leaders, including Joseph Stalin, are buried in graves. Cremated ashes of dozens more, including the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, are buried in the walls of the Kremlin, which also holds a mass grave of Bolsheviks who were killed during the 1917 revolution.)

"It is immoral that, here on Red Square, rock concerts and other events are held right next to people's remains," the patriarch declared. "I hope that when the time comes some kind of pantheon or burial place will be built where the remains of such important people can be laid to rest."

Some observers have drawn a parallel between the veneration of Lenin's body and the veneration of saints' relics as practiced by the Orthodox Church. Like myths about saints, the cult of Lenin has developed its own lore. According to one story, soon after Lenin's death in 1924 the original wooden mausoleum was flooded due to a sewage leak. The Russian church's leader of the time, Patriarch Tikhon, commented ironically: "For relics such as these--an appropriate oil."

Today the "need" for Lenin to be given a Christian burial is one of the main arguments for his removal from Red Square. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said recently that he is in favor of Lenin's burial, "if it is done in a Christian way." Said Vsevolod Chaplin, spokesman for the Orthodox Church: "There is no canonical norm specifying proper burial, but there is an Orthodox tradition of giving the body to the ground."

Lenin's closest surviving relative, his niece Olga Ulyanova, is bitterly opposed to plans to remove his remains. She wrote recently that she disagrees with the argument that a Christian burial is necessary. "Lenin is buried according to a Russian Orthodox tradition," she said. "The sarcophagus is placed at a depth of three meters under the ground."

The communists, who also oppose removal of the remains, point out that Red Square--including the mausoleum--is listed by UNESCO as a protected landmark. Scientists who have dedicated their lives to maintaining Lenin's body--Moscow has an institute dedicated to this task--claim that for the sake of scientific knowledge, the body should not be buried.

Boris Yeltsin, who has described himself as the "gravedigger of communism," has frequently declared his wish to see Lenin buried, thus marking a definitive end to communism. In 1997 he promised to hold a referendum on the issue, but none has been held. In July the Russian media suggested that the Yeltsin government planned to bury Lenin on July 17, the anniversary of the murder by Soviets in 1918 of Czar Nicholas II and his family.

Some observers have also speculated that the burial is part of a government strategy for the parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in July 2000. The removal of Lenin's body would be a severe blow to the morale of the communists. A communist member of the Russian parliament, Viktor Ilyukhin, claims that the government will use its secret service agents to provoke a rebellion against the burial, which the government would then use as a pretext for banning the Communist Party or even canceling the elections altogether. Last month the communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, threatened to take unspecified "emergency action" if Lenin's body is removed.

The debate over Lenin's body has become a symbol of Russia's identity crisis, its failure to deal with the communist period and the public's ambivalent attitudes toward the past. According to a poll taken in April by the independent Public Opinion Fund, 53 percent of Russians are in favor of Lenin's burial (up from 42 percent in July 1998), while 35 percent oppose it (down from 44 per cent last year). The need to observe Christian tradition tops the list of reasons for his burial.