Russia to bury Vladimir Lenin

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Russia to bury Vladimir Lenin

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Russia is edging towards a decision to bury founder of Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin.

10 June,2012 05:32 pm

The revolutionary’s body is still on public display in a mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square more than two decades after the break-up of the former USSR.New culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, who is seen as close to President Putin, yesterday said it was ‘absurd’ that Lenin had not been laid to rest 88 years after his death.Calling for him to be buried in a normal grave, as Lenin himself had requested, Medinsky said: ‘Maybe something would change for the better in our lives then.’He suggested Lenin should be given a send-off that recognised his role as a state figure.His comments indicate the Kremlin is getting ready for a burial, probably alongside Lenin’s mother in St Petersburg.The Bolshevik leader’s remains were embalmed on Stalin’s orders when he died aged 53 in 1924 and kept on display in Moscow apart from a period in the Second World War.Putin has repeatedly postponed a decision on burial, arguing that Lenin remained an icon for many elderly Russians.