In a glass sarcophagus inside a Moscow tourist attraction rests the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin. Situated in Moscow’s Red Square, Lenin’s mausoleum represents a time in Russian history that many contemporary Russians now celebrate. To others, the mausoleum represents a time in Russian history that led to citizen oppression and Soviet Communism. 

As Lenin’s mausoleum nears its 100th birthday, it’s worth remembering that the old Communist Party of the Soviet Union is still around. Each election cycle, Russia’s Communist Party loses the popular election for President. Recently, Lenin’s mausoleum reopened to the public to small crowds, mostly due to Covid 19.

Who Was Vladimir Lenin?

On Jan 27, 1924, Lenin was put in a mausoleum In Red Square. Lenin’s body remains perpetually viewable to anyone who visits Moscow and the Red Square. Lenin should be remembered for his leadership during the Russian Revolution. This was a time when the Russian people threw off the shackles of peasant hood to become members of a state, a country with national pride.

By most accounts, Lenin is the father of modern Communism even though the Soviet Union no longer exists. Some might even say he is the founder of modern Russia because of the Soviet Union. Why does Lenin have this distinction? He was the leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which in itself is a big deal. Lenin is modern Russia’s founding father, even if the government he founded is now out of power. Yet the Lenin mausoleum remains a tourist attraction.