Embalmed Lenin to have new suit
The embalmed body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, on show in a Moscow
mausoleum, is to get a new suit, a Russian official says.
The founder of the Soviet state will be given new clothes in
November-December, embalming expert Yuri Denisov-Nikolsky told Russia's RIA
Novosti news agency.
New clothes - including a trademark white spotted tie - are ordered for
Lenin every three years, he said.
Lenin has been in the mausoleum since his death in 1924.
Mr Denisov-Nikolsky said the new suit would be Lenin's 10th during the 30
years in which he has been involved in preserving the body.
He said that when Lenin was first buried in the Red Square's mausoleum, he
was dressed in a military uniform.
But shortly before the 1941-1945 war "someone decided that the uniform
symbolised Lenin's militant character and totalitarian policy, and he was
immediately dressed in civilian clothes", Mr Denisov-Nikolsky said.
The expert added that since last year's inspection he had "noticed no
changes in Vladimir Lenin's body".
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, some Russian
officials have demanded that Lenin's body should be removed from the
mausoleum and finally buried - in line with the revolutionary leader's
wishes.
But Russia's Communist Party has strongly objected to the idea, and
parliament has repeatedly put off debating the issue.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3251523.stm
Published: 2003/11/07 20:15:35 GMT
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