THECOLLAPSE OF T H E LENIN

PERSONALITY
CULTI N SOVIETRUSSIA,
1985-1995
TREVOR
J. SMITH

It is a devastating thing for a society to discover that its greatest myths are based not
on truth but on propaganda and fantasy.

Viacheslav Shostokovskii
he death of Vladimir Ilich Lenin in January 1924 was a terrible blow to the beleaguered people of communist Russia. Having just emerged from a decade of constant war and civil strife, the loss of Lenin, their visionary leader, was almost too
much to bear. So great was their loss that death was not allowed to claim Lenin: his
mortal body was preserved against the ravages of nature, his image reproduced en
masse, and his every word and deed sanctified. Under the direction of the Soviet
leadership, a quasi-religious cult of personality, the first traces of which had appeared
several years earlier, evolved rapidly and transformed Lenin into an immortal.
Lenins life and revolutionary career were embellished and refined, and over time the
historic Lenin was replaced by a largely fictional, god-like figure who served to legitimize both the state and generations of Soviet leaders who claimed to be carrying on
Lenins historic mission. With his body on display in Red Square like some holy artifact and his spirit haunting virtually every corner of the Soviet Union, for decades
there seemed to be justification to the poet Maiakovskiis claim that:

Lenin -

lived.
Lenin

lives.
Lenin will live.
Trevor J. Smith is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto.
]Quoted in Steven Kull, Burying Lenin: The Revolution in Soviet Ideology and Foreign Policy (Boulder,
1992), 22.

?V. V. Maiakovskii, Kornsornolskaia, in V K Maiakovskii: polnoe sobranie sochinenii v dvenatsati

tomakh, ed. V. Trepina, vol. 2 (Moscow, 1939), 319.

326

THEHISTORIAN

loday, nearly three-quarters of a century after his physical death, Lenin has
finally been laid to rest in the former Soviet Union. With amazing speed the personality cult that seemingly ensured his immortality has collapsed and the once deified leader has been relegated to what Leon Trotsky, Lenins revolutionary comrade,
once referred to as the dustbin of h i ~ t o r y . This
~ rapid change in the fortunes of the
Lenin cult demands explanation. Why, after weathering successfully the storms that
assailed it for more than half a century, did the cult of Lenin sink so quickly in
recent years?
When the winds of change began to blow in Soviet Russia in the mid- 1980s, they
posed no immediate threat to Lenins memory. Over the course of more than six
decades his cult had dcmonstrated an impressive ability to survive dramatic change,
always emerging intact. The nature of change in the late 1980s, however, proved
unlike anything the cult of Lenin had ever faced, as the reforms introduced by
Mikhail Gorbachev under the twin banners of perestroika (restructuring) and @asm s t (openness) sought to alter the very nature of the authoritarian Soviet regime.
Such tampering proved fatal for Lenins cult, as Lenin was not amenable to reform.
Because it was built on a foundation of deception and historical revision, the cult
was dependent on state control over the press and dissemination of information.
The Communist Partys tight control of education, particularly primary level curriculum, was also an important ally of the Lenin cult as the classroom was an
important forum for propagating Lenins myths amongst the states youngest, most
impressionable citizens. Once the state began to dismantle the system of controls
that had supported the Soviet regime since its inception, the cult of Leniii began to
erode; and once the cult began to decline, support for the Soviet regime it legitimized waned further. Locked in an inseparable embrace, the cult of Lenin and the
Soviet state spiraled downward together.*
When Gorbachev came to power in 1985 he had no intention of destabilizing
either the Soviet Union or Lenins cult. Gorbachev was a loyal son of the Communist
Party and a faithful disciple of Lenin who, according to historians Dusko Doder and
Louise Branson, accepted alniost literally the official image of Lenin the scholar and
philosopher. Gorbachev, however, was also a realist who recognized the need to
overhaul the ailing Leninist system. After decades of corrupt and ineffectual leadership, the Soviet Union was mired in a prolonged period of stagnation that had
allowed the West to pull steadily ahead of the USSR on a number of fronts.
Leon Trotsky, q u o t d in Dinitrii Volkogonov, Trofskii: poiiticheskii portrer (Moscow, 1992), 160.
Trevor J. Smith, Lenin For Sale: The Kisc and Fall of thc Personality Cult of V. 1. L e n h in Sovict
I<ussia, 1935-1995 (masters thesis, University of Ottawa, 1995), 4-16,43-142.
I h s k o I)oder and I,. Branson. Gorbochev: Heretic in the Krernliri (Markham, Ontario, 1990), 14.

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Gorbachev was determined to reverse this trend through a series of progressive

reforms that were intended to restructure the Soviet political apparatus and to grant
greater cultural and social freedom.
Following his election as general secretary of the Communist Party in March
1985, Gorbachev served notice that he intended to implement a fresh approach to
politics in the Kremlin. Rejecting the embellishment of career and person that traditionally followed the ascension of a new general secretary, he refused to encourage or even to tolerate a personality cult of his own. Gorbachev continued to
support Lenins cult, however. Since Lenin continued to legitimize the policies of his
political descendants, even 60 years after his death, it was of vital importance for
Gorbachev to establish that glasnost and perestroika, his trademark policies, were
actually grounded in Leninist philosophy. To this end, he pointed out that Lenin
had frequently used the term glasnost and that perestroika sprang from Vladimir
Ilichs immortal ideas.hGorbachev reassured the Soviet people that the great perestroika revolution is the direct successor of the works of October (1917) and the
deeds of Lenin and asserted that perestroika brings us closer to Lenin, and brings
Lenin closer to us. Using the general secretarys time-tested tool of selective quotation, Gorbachev used Lenins words to justify sweeping social and political
reform. He argued that for Lenin the precepts of Marx and Engels were nothing
more than general tasks that were necessarily modified by the concrete economic
and political conditions of each particular period of history.s Through such distortions of Leninist theory, Gorbachev was able to portray Lenin as the spiritual
source of his reforms.
Gorbachev also relied heavily on the physical props of the Lenin cult. For example, he officially launched his perestroika campaign in May 1985 from the steps of the
Smolny Institute in Leningrad, the Bolshevik headquarters during the Revolution, to
underscore his timeless connection with Lenin. Similarly, Gorbachev often made
highly publicized wreath laying pilgrimages to Lenin memorials throughout the
USSR to show that he honored the Leninist legacy entrusted to him.

61bid., 119; Mikhail Sergevich Gorbachev, Voprosy istorii 4 (1985): 5; M. S. Gorbachev, Moskovskii
komsomolefs, 12 March 1985, 1; Smith, Lenin For Sale, 34-96; G. Mukhina, ed., V I. Lenin o ginsnosti
(Moscow, 1989); Moskovskii komsomolets, 22 April 1989, I.
iVfOSk016kii

komsomolets, 1 November 1989, 1; 23 April 1988,3.

*Gorbachev,quoted in Ooder and Branson, Gorbuchev, 117.

Kull, Burying Leriin, 46-47; Smith, Lenin For Sale, 34-39, 55-57,64-69, 88-92.
OMoskovskii kornsomolets, 18 May 1985; 2 October 1987; 16 September 1988; How a True Leninist
Exposed the Anti-Christ,Moscow Times, 25 January 1995, 9.

THEHISTORIAN

328

Despite his championship of Lenins memory, Gorbachev unwittingly issued the

cult a death scntence through his reforms. Gorbachev intended to prove that the
current plight o f the Soviet Union stemmed not from Leninist doctrine and communist ideology but from abuses that had been committed in the name of Lenin
and the Party. lo this end, he allowed a cautious, yet frank, public reevaluation of
thc past and even limited criticism of the Party itself. What Gorbachev did not reali7.c, however, was that his reforms, once set in motion, could not be controlled. The
cult of Lenin was based on myths and lies and could only survive so long as the state
retLiined tight control over factual information. Accordingly, when Gorbachev
announced a drastic reduction in the states regulation of information and extended
unprecedented freedom to the media in March 1987, he paved the way for the cults
eventual destruction.
Imrncdiately after Gorbachev announced the relaxation of state control over the
media, the complexion of Soviet publications, radio broadcasts, and television programs began t o changc. Of particular relevance to the Lenin cult was the televising
of I.conid Pchelkins A Few Touches to Lenins Portrait, a four-episode mini-series
that had bee~ideemed politically incorrect shortly after completion in the late 1960s
and never aired. Pchelkins Lenin, unlike other screen versions of the vozhd (leader),
exhibited no traces of messianic omnipotence or omniscience, and he did not,
according to one Soviet historian, immediately, or even always, find the sole correct answers.?Though Lenin was still upheld as the founder and exemplar of communism, for the first time in decades some of the myths that shrouded his memory
were peeled away to provide a glimpse of the historical figure who lurked beneath.l3
This early phase of historical reevaluation was characterized by caution and
restraint, iis Soviet journalists and historians were too familiar with the nature of
thaws i l l state restrictions of social and cultural freedom and the freezes that
incvitably followed them to precipitously rewrite Russian history. This moderation
disappeared in November 1987 when Gorbachev publicly reaffirmed his commitment to historical reevaluation. Within five years, Gorbachevs thaw would turn
into a full-scale n ~ l t d o w n . ~
I kspite Gorbachevs assertion that there would be no more forbidden zones
i n history, Lenin did not come under fire immediately. Instead, historians and
f z ~ ~ c d 15
i i ~kib, r u n r y 1987; Smith,

Ltrrin For S d e , 29-34, 54-55, 66-hX. 107-1 1

1.eniii 1)ociidraiii:i Shown o n TV After LO-Year I)elay, Current Digest ofthe Soviet Press, 25 March
I Yti7,10.

L.cnnid Partenov, Oiiward lb Lrnin, copy of original, Novosti Collection, file 21.1.3, Special
Ilniversity Lihrary (Ottawa, Canada).

( ollccdion\,Carleton

t)rLwLI[[,3 Novcinber 1987.

THECOLLAPSE
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LENINPERSONALITY
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journalists looked to the more recent past to find answers to the nations problems.
One of the first to face the critics fire was former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
(1906-82). Brezhnev had been in his grave for only five years and his reign was still
fresh in the publics mind; thus, it was natural to single him out and saddle him with
a considerable amount of blame for the disastrous state of the USSR. Attention was
drawn to the corruption and inefficiency that had plagued Brezhnevs regime and
produced an era of tagn nation."'^ Reaction to the revelations about Brezhnev was
heated, and historical justice was quickly served. In early January 1988, Brezhnevs
name was stripped from a number of geographical locations, including the city of
Naberezhnie Chelny and Moscows Cheremushki borough. Predictably, criticism of
Brezhnev temporarily increased Lenins stature, as disillusioned writers and historians claimed that Brezhnev, like Stalin before him, had deviated from Leninist doctrine. It was essential to go back to Lenin, they argued, and to raise a generation of
active citizens of the land of Soviets who, letting go the last drops of servility, will
be the direct heirs of those whom Lenin reared.16
The next page of the new Soviet history was written by Gorbachev himself. On
5 February 1988, Gorbachev announced the posthumous exoneration of Nikolai
Bukharin and 19 other Old Bolsheviks who had been purged under Stalin.
Bukharins rehabilitation was of great tactical value for Gorbachev, as Bukharin had
been a leading proponent of Lenins New Economic Policy (NEP), which
Gorbachev claimed to be emulating through perestroika and glasnost. By removing
the stain of disrepute from Bukharin, Gorbachev conferred legitimacy on the policy that Bukharin had advocated. The rehabilitation of Bukharin and other purge
victims, part of Gorbachevs campaign to explain current problems by focusing on
past abuses, benefited the cult of Lenin initially as it focused attention on Stalins
crimes. Throughout 1988 and early 1989 newspapers and journals were filled with
articles revealing the atrocities committed by Stalin and his henchmen. Soviet citizens were horrified by Stalins crimes, and many concluded, as Gorbachev and the
Party hoped they would, that his policies had been terrible deviations from Leninist
ideology. Once people had time to absorb the new information, however, they
began to wonder: had Stalinism been such an aberration after all?

sBoris Vasilyev, [a zaviduio nashim vnukam, Izvestiia, 1 January 1988, 3.

Iblzvestiia, 7 January 1988, 1; Boris Vasilyev, la zaviduio nashim vnukam, quoted in Smith, Lenin
For Sale, 70-81.
7Pruvdu,10 December 1987; Kruglyi stol: sovetskii soiuz v 30-e gody, Voprosy istorii 12 (1988): 330; A. V. Antonov-Ovseenko, Stalin i ego vremia, Voprosy istorii (1989): 1-4, 6-10; Leon Trotsky,
Stalinskaia shkola falsitikatsii (extracts), Voprosy istorii (1989): 7-12.

THEHISTOKIAN

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For many Russians, Alexander Solzhenitsyns Gulag Archipelago provided startling insight into the roots of Stalinism. Although the Party had buried Gufagin the
early 1970s and tried to prevent its exhumation, Solzhenitsyns epic tale was published in installments in the journal Nnvyi Mir in 1989. The publication of Gulag
struck a serious blow against Lenins reputation, for while Stalin starred as the
books principal villain, Solzhenitsyn unmistakably identified Lenin as Stalins spiritual father. The myth that canonized Lenin as a great humanitarian, so tenderly
niirtiired for six decades, was seriously challenged for the first time. After all, would
a humanitarian have ordered the execution of conscripted peasant laborers who did
not remove snow from railroad tracks quickly enough? Would a man of the people
have aimed to purge the Kussian land of all kinds of harmful insects: referring,
among others, to members of the proletariat?Ix For many, the answer to such a
question was a resounding no.
More damning to the Lenin cult than Solzhenitsyns prose were Lenins own
writings. In late 1989 a large cache of previously unknown Lenin documents,
uncovered at the Central Party Archives in 1988, began to find their way into print.
The documents, carefully hidden from public scrutiny for seven decades, revealed a
side of Lenin that few Soviets had seen before: cruelty. The Soviet public was blitzed
by a wave of documents that implicated Lenin in countless acts of revolutionary terror and barbarity, including the aggressive war against the clergy and the bloody
campaign against the kulaks. Here was a Lenin who, far from being a friend of peasants and workers alike, admitted that we [the Bolsheviks] dont like peasants. . . .
[TIhey have fallen behind and are strong supporters of the land owners. It is necessary to take the attack to such people.19Documents showing that Lenins goodness
was a myth helped bridge the remaining chasm between Lenin and Stalin and convinced many that Lenin, in fact, was the true father of the Bolshevik concentration
camps, the executions, the mass terror, and the organs which stood above the
state.20As one startling revelation after another was made about Lenin, more and
more people began to believe, with historian I. D. Kovalchenko, that the negative
qualities of socialism arose not only because of the influence of Stalins personality

'*Alexander Sol7henitsyn, The Gulag Arcliipelago (New York, 1973), 27-30; l.cnin, Polrioe Sobrunie
Sor I r i r w n i i . vol. 15 (Moscow, 1974), 204.

YI;

Vladimir Melnichenku, Ilrcirnu Leninu nu iskhde veka (Moscow, 1992), 7; Novoe vremia 44 (1991):
Izvestiin, 21 April 1992.3.
2l)initri\olkogonov, L m i t i : Life atid Legacy (London, 1994), 235.

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cult and his administrative-bureaucratic system, as has been officially declared, but
had already developed in the activities of Lenin.21Instead of being the most
humanitarian of all people, Lenin became the most humanitarian man with a
gun .22
The disintegration of Lenins cult myths was paralleled by a decline in the states
authority and popular support for the political apparatus, as Lenin and the state
were intimately linked. For more than 50 years the Soviet regime had proclaimed,
We say Lenin and we imply Party-We say Party and we imply Lenin.23
Accordingly, when Soviet citizens began to doubt Lenin, they began to question the
legitimacy of his party and state. They also lost faith in the ability of Lenins heirs,
including Gorbachev, to solve their problems. Because Gorbachev had refused to
foster his own personality cult, he possessed none of the infallibility of his predecessors. When it became obvious, therefore, that his policies were not working as
had been anticipated, blame was not deflected to his subordinates, as had often been
the case with his predecessors; instead, it was placed squarely on his shoulders.24
By 1990, open criticism of Gorbachev and the Party led many to conclude that
the Soviet system and Leninism simply did not work, and millions of members
defected from the Party. The mass rejection of Leninist ideology resulted in the
pruning and eventual abandonment of military parades and other state pageantry
that had played such a crucial role in building Soviet myths. For decades, elaborate
military parades on 1 May (May Day) and 7 November (Bolshevik Revolution of
1917) had supported the Soviet Unions image of vitality and strength. By 1990,
however, Gorbachev recognized that attempting to maintain the facade of wellness
through state pageantry was futile and decreed that public participation in May Day
and 7 November celebrations was no longer compulsory. The nation was collapsing
from within, and one or two empty demonstrations a year could not disguise the
fact.25
Declining support for the political apparatus was manifested publicly on May
Day 1990, when pro-democracy demonstrators carried placards and banners before
Lenins tomb that read Communists: have no illusions. You are bankrupt and
Down with the Cult of Lenin. Such public exhibitions of discontent compelled
zI. Kovalchenko, Problemyi metodologii istorii, Novuin i noveishaia istoriia 5 (1991): 6.
z2LeonidApraksin, Samyi gumanitarnyi chelovek s ruzhem, Novoe vremin 37 (1992): 48.

From a political poster in N. I. Baburina, Hossiin-xx

vek: istoriiu struny v plakate (Moscow, 1993),

105.

24MariaRorazonova, Betrayal, Novoe vremia 31 (1993): 50; Smith, Lenin For Sale, 8-1 1,34-96.

Lilzvestiin,1 October 1991.

THFHISTORIAN

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Gorbachev to accept, in the spring of 1990, that it was high time to put an end to
the absurd idolization of Lenin.26This resolution, a drastic departure from 70 years
of Party dogma, simply confirmed officially what was already happening; the cult of
Lenin was staggering toward extinction, a fact that Gorbachev and the Communist
Party could no longer deny.
Still, a few ardent Leninist disciples tried to downplay the significance of recent
historical revelations. Some, including Natalia Morozova of Moscow, argued that
in their proper context, the horrors [committed by Lenin] do not make such a terrible impact as when they are distorted beforehand and thrown together in a
bunch.27Such attempts to prop up the sagging cult failed miserably as Lenins apologists were attacked and condemned by those who could find no justification for
his actions. For example, Morozovas request that people look at Lenins horrors
in their historical context was slammed by another Muscovite, Tatiana Ivanova.
Consider this in context, Ivanova demanded:
I t is nighttime. There is a dark house; frightened children; a quivering woman who

clutches at the boots of the executioners, prepared for personal humiliation. There is
the old mother; and there is the mail-suspected of conspiring with an SR [Socialist
I<evolutionary].How do they shoot him? In the back? In the heart? In the forehead?
What did he say, what did he think just before death? What would become of his children?

lvanova concluded her impassioned invective against Morozova by stating: You are
one of those who attempt to convince us of how democratic, freedom loving and
hunianitarian Lenin was. But I am one of those who knows a different Lenin.28
The destruction of Lenin myths that began in 1987 was soon paralleled by a corresponding rcduction in the cults physical props. As history transformed Lenin
from a deified cult leader into an antichrist, his shrines became unwelcome
reminders of the Soviet peoples misplaced devotion. Accordingly, monuments and
incmorials to Lenin began to fall like dominoes. Place names associated with Lenin
were amongst the first cult tributes to be discarded. Since, as journalist Anatoly
Yershev has noted, place names reflect history and shape the national memory,29

IRobert Kaiser, Why (hrbachev Huppened: f f i s Triumphs and his Friilrrres (Toronto, 1991), 41 I .
..Melnichenko, Ilrurrra, 19; Natalia Morozova, Polernika,Novoe vrrwria 5 (1991 ): 37.
H l i t i a n a Ivanova, quoted in Morozova, Polernika, 38.
q/zvestllu,27

Lkcernber 1Y90; Restore the Citys Name, Izvustiiu, 8 May 1991, 3.

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cities that had been named for Lenin rushed to dissociate themselves from him.
Such was the reasoning of the people of Leningrad, who chose to restore the historical name St. Petersburg to their northern city. St. Petersburg, a city intimately
connected with Lenin, was renamed just days after his death in 1924 as the workers
of the revolutionary capital sought to give Lenin the best we had. By the spring of
1991, however, the affection felt by Leningraders for their states founder had waned
exponentially and many, including Mayor Anatolii Sobchak, were campaigning vigorously to rescind that honor. In a referendum on the issue, 55 percent of residents
voted in favor of restoring the name St. P e t e r ~ b u r g . ~ ~
In August 1991, communist hardliners staged a military coup against Gorbachev.
While unsuccessful, the event became the catalyst for Gorbachevs resignation and
the dissolution of the USSR the following December. As the Soviet state continued
to crumble, institutions and organizations continued to dissociate themselves from
Lenin. One of the most notable purges of Lenins name came in 1992 when the
Lenin State Library of the USSR changed its name to the Russian State Library.
While the Lenin Library had faithfully propagated the cult of Lenin for six decades,
just days after the August 1991 coup, library director Igor Filipov ruled that the
library was not a political arena and thus should not promote one ideology above
any other. To express the librarys commitment to objective and free research, the
library should shed Lenins name. Filipovs decision received official state approval
on 22 January 1992.31
Filipov did not attempt to purge the librarys shelves of Leninist texts, however,
acknowledging the right of Leninist ideology to exist within the library. As
expressed by Lutfia Arifulova, Filipovs secretary, Vladimir Ilich is no longer the
main ideologue in our lives, but he has joined the ranks of other philosophers, and
historical-political figures who played a role in our countrys past.32Formerly the
god of the entire communist world, by the 1990s Lenin had become merely a historical figure in his nations saga.
Not all were as tolerant of Lenins continued presence as the Lenin Library. As
popular discontent and disillusionment increased among the Soviet citizenry,
Lenins public monuments began to disappear. In August 1991 the gigantic statue of
Lenin in Kievs central square came down, and in June 1992 the ten-story high
bronze statue of Lenin in Tashkent was toppled during the night. Most significantly,
in October 1994 the black marble statue of Lenin in the Kremlin courtyard was
3oPravda,29 July 1990; Izvestiia, 14 June 1991
3Smith, Lenin For Sale, 177; Lutfi Arifulova, Academic Secretary, Russian State Library, interview by
author, tape recording, Moscow, 23 February 1995.
3ZIbid.

334

stattie in a pliice of' honor at Moscow State University betokens the high rsterm in
w l d i hefimrrerly was held.

Leriiri's

whisked away, an ironic symbol of the expulsion of Leninist ideology from Russian
poIitics.j'
'l'he manner in which Lcnin's statue was removed from the Kremlin is significant. It was not removed outright; rather, a tall wooden fence was erected around
the statue onc Saturday cvcning and it was officially explained that the monument
was under rcpair. Three months later, the fence still stood and no signs of ongoing
renovation were evident. After much prodding, and a sizable donation to a Kremlin
guard, the author learned that the statue had been taken to Lenin's former estate at
Leninskii-Gorki in October. The fence, the guard explained, was simply a device to
ease the transition and to prevent public outcry. It would remain until it became a
familiar fixture. When it eventually came down people would care that the eyesore
fence, not the statue, was gone.
l'he practice of removing Lenin monuments in stages in order to limit criticism
and opposition was used extensively throughout the Soviet Union in the early
1990s. Soviet history professor Maria Zezina explained how this gradual purge of

"lzvesfrirr,27 August 1991, 8 1une 1992.

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For sale grafito on rear of the same statue, probably written by a Russian student.
English-language grafiti is increasingly common in post-Soviet Russia, particularly in the
university community. Both the irreverent graffito and the fact that it was allowed to
remain testify to Lenins declining status.

THEHISTOKIAN

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Lenin monuments was carried out at the states leading postsecondary institution,
Moscow State University (MGU). If a bust of Lenin stood in the center of a hall,
Zezina recalled with amusement, it would be moved to the side at first. A little
whilc later, it would be moved again, this time a little closer to the door. When it was
finally removed altogether, no one really noticed. [The removal] was a gradual
process and thus no one complained very loudly.34
Few protested when Lenin museums also began to close. Between the summer of
1991 and the fall of 1994 dozens of museums throughout the former Soviet Union
shut their doors. The most significant closure was that of the Central Lenin
Museum in Moscow, foremost of the Lenin museums. In August 1991, Moscow
Mayor Gavriil Popov suggested that the Lenin Museum be relocated to allow the
City Soviet (city council) to occupy the building. Museum director Vladimir
Melnichenko and his staff, realizing that the proposed relocation would be a move
from somewhere to nowhere, bitterly opposed the mayors proposal.35 While their
efforts won the museum a temporary reprieve, in October 1993 the museum was
issued another eviction notice, this time by new Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Melnichenko chastised those who supported the closure, claiming that not a single
civilized country would allow itself to liquidate the museum to the man who
founded that state. This is absurd.j6
Unfortunately for Melnichenko and other supporters of the museum, their cries
fell on deaf ears. Most Muscovites were too absorbed in their personal struggles for
survival in the new post-Soviet Russia to concern themselves with the fate of Lenins
museum. Others, including one man who firebombed the museum on the night of
6 October 1993, actively supported the closure, seeing it as a measure of retribution
against the man who had placed their nation on the wrong road to a glorious future
70 years earlier. Whatever the reason, on 7 October the museum was closed down
for il week, and like the statues at MGU that were slowly pushed out of a room, the
museum was gradually liquidated. In early 1994, the doors of the museum closed
for the final time.37
With the closure of the Lenin Museum in Moscow notice was given that n o
Lenin artifact was sacred anymore. This became unmistakably clear in 1994 when
an all-out attack was launched against the holiest relic of the Lenin cult-the
Lenin mausoleum, which contained his preserved remains. For nearly 70 years pil-

Maria Zezina, interview hy author, tape recording, Moscow, 2 February 1995.

Melnichenko, Drama, 41; V. Melnichenko, Mtrzei ne stavshii
hhlelnicht~nko,
Mtizei, 12.

-hid., 9, 24; N. Verrtost 3 (1995), 1 .

WI

koleni (Moscow, 1993), 2, 13.

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grims had flocked to the mausoleum in dizzying numbers. As Lenins heroic

mythology was dispelled, however, the line before the tomb dwindled steadily, and
by 1992 it had disappeared altogether. Anti-Leninist crusaders seized on the mausoleums declining popularity to repeatedly demand its closure and burial of
Lenins body. The mausoleums hours of operation were reduced; and on 6
October 1993, Post #1, the honor guard that had maintained a 24-hour vigil over
Lenin since his death, was abolished. Lenins tomb, however, did not go down
without a fight. When Itar-tass reported that a presidential decree was in the making that would lead to Lenins burial, outraged communists flocked to Red Square.
Fearing that Lenins body would be removed under cover of darkness, as some of
his statues had been, the demonstrators held a 24-hour vigil for several weeks in
order to prevent s a ~ r i l e g e . ~ ~
While Lenins body was left on display in Red Square, anti-Leninists continued
to undermine his legend. Realizing that the popularity of Lenins mummy was
partly attributable to the mystery that shrouded it, they began to strip away
Lenins mystique with scientific evidence, beginning with Lenins brain. Under
microscopic scrutiny at Moscows Institute of Brain since 1924, Lenins gray matter had long been touted by Soviet scientists as vastly superior to other great
minds on a cellular level. In January 1994 this facade was dropped. The director
of the Institute admitted that although scientists had sliced Lenins gray matter
into 30,963 pieces, they had found no evidence to suggest that Lenin had been a
mental superman. Indeed, the director conceded, Lenins brain had been slightly
smaller than average.39
Lenins body came under similar scientific scrutiny. For decades scientists at
Moscows Institute of Biological Structures who attended Lenins corpse had jealously guarded the methods used to preserve Lenins tissues. Such secrecy spawned
rumors that Lenins mummy was actually a wax dummy, but it also allowed the
state to foster the notion of the incorruptibility of Lenins remains. That the body
in the tomb was real and subject to decay was confirmed by the Moscow weekly
Argumenty i Fakty in January 1994 when it published a grid map used by Lenins
caretakers to maintain Lenins appearance. The grid contained 40 drawings of
Lenins head and hands, each square focusing on a specific anatomical detail. A
brief caption explained that a whole series of photographs, based on the grid pattern, was taken every time the body was washed with the preservative solution. The
3XPost#l, Moscow Nezavisimaia gazeta, 10 October 1993, 2; Lenins Mummy May Become a
Corpse, Moscow Weekly 2 (1994): 12.

391zvestiin,21 October 1993, I; Pave1 Knyishevskii, Genetics on the War Path, Novoe vremia 38
(1994): 37-39; Volkogonov, 447.

THEHISTORIAN

338

photographs were then compared with those from the previous treatment to
enslire that the God I l i c h did not undergo noticeable external ~ h a n g e . ~
The final assault on the secrecy surrounding Lenins corpse began in January
1995. Three days before the 71st anniversary of Lenins death, Izvestiia published a
letter by the late Boris Khomutov, a doctor of biological science who had attended
Lenins corpse for more than 30 years. Breaking the silence observed by generations
of Soviet scientists, Khomutov described in detail the history of Lenins mummy,
including the composition of the basic chemical formula used to preserve it. More
startling was his revelation that as it turns out, the methods of [preservation] not
only do not work, but have actually advanced the processes of [tissue] destruction.
Harsh chemicals in the embalming fluid and the bodys storage in an oxygen atmosphere at too high a temperature had caused considerable damage to the body i n the
first decade of preservation. The result, Khomutov confirmed, was the destruction
of the bodys tissues (the main one being the skin!) and the gradual change [in the
corpses] a p p e a r a n ~ e . ~ ~
For decades Soviet scientists, unwilling to face the wrath of the Party, covered up
signs of the mummys degeneration. The unstoppable withering of Lenins skin was
masked with injections of paraffin, glycerin, and carotin, while the unnatural texture and color of the dead flesh were disguised with ultraviolet light and filtered
glass. Khomutov denounced the claims of fellow scientists that Lenins body could
be preserved unchanged for an indefinite period of time, insisting that one look at
the [object] inside the sarcophagus without its special rubber [protective undergarments] would be enough to sway anyone to his point of view. Khomutov concluded that the corpse had degenerated to the point that it is absolutely absurd and
even immoral to preserve the body of Lenin any longer.42
Others, including Leningradht. Petersburg Mayor Sobchak, also insisted that
Lenins body should be interred in his familial plot at Volkova Cemetery in St.
Petersburg, in accordance with Christian tradition. Sobchaks reference to religion,
that opium of the Russian people against which Lenin had campaigned so avidly,
was not an isolated incident. By the early 1990s Russia was experiencing a major
religious revival. Free of the fear of religious persecution, closet Christians flooded
into the church. Increased tolerance of religion seriously undermined Lenins cult,
as the god of Bolshevism could not compete on an even playing field with the God

Alcxei iinokyrov, The End of One Myth, Novoe vremiu 42 (1993): 17; Nina Tumarkin, Lenin
Livt.,! 7hr / , t w i n (hit in Soviet Russia (Cambridge, 1983). 5 ; Arguftienty ifaktv, 2-3 January 1994, 5.

Chto proiskhodit v mavzolee, Izvestiia, 18 January 1995.

Koffisoffici/~kaiii
pruvdu,

17 February 1995; Izvestiia, 18 January 1995.

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of Christianity and Judaism. As people began to recognize the true nature of the
Bolshevik deity and the bankruptcy of the communist faith, the exodus from the
Lenin cult into the arms of religion began in earnest.43
Scientific and historical revelations about Lenin, together with religious revivalism, caused all but a tiny vanguard of diehard disciples to forsake the Lenin cult.
Even the arch-conservative Yegor Ligachev, a hardliner in the Politburo until he was
forced to retire in 1990, was compelled to admit in 1991 that Vladimir Ilich was a
man, not a
There can be no doubt that the cult of Lenin has ceased to exist in former Soviet
Russia, as anyone who attended the 71st anniversary memorial in Moscow to mark
the occasion of Lenins death can testify. The event, attended by fewer than 100 people, was a fiasco. A small core of demonstrators, barred from congregating in Red
Square by presidential decree, huddled together in neighboring Ploshchad
Revoliutsii (Revolution Square) to sing Lenins praises. Although their words were
sincere and their intentions genuine, their demonstration was undermined by the
hulking skeleton of the former Lenin Museum that towered over the square. The
darkened windows stared out emptily at the somber gathering, betraying no traces
of the vital cult temple that had once operated within. A Coca-Cola stand provided
an incongruously capitalist means of refreshment, and Alexander Koklenkov, a
Lenin impersonator, circulated through the crowd offering people the opportunity
to have a Polaroid taken with the immortal Lenin for a mere 15,000 rubles. None of
the demonstrators were under the age of 40. No movement can survive without
youth, and the collapse of the Lenin cult in the classroom, a central pillar of the cult,
the failure of communist youth organizations, and the enthusiasm with which most
young people greeted capitalism in Russia have combined to deprive the Lenin cult
of future recruits.45
Finally, while the procession to Lenins tomb had been scheduled for 6:50 P.M.,
the exact time that the heart of the earths greatest son stopped beating,46by 5: 15
the demonstrators were growing restless and the procession had to be moved up. At
5:30, the demonstrators passed into Red Square and gathered before the tomb.
Flowers were placed on the mausoleums steps and a minute of silence was

43Argumentyifakty, 11-17 August 1990,8, 11; Prisoners Lose Lenin, Gain Jesus: Moscow Times, 28
October 1994, 8; Smith, Lenin For Sale, 9,28-34, 191-93.
44Quoted in David Remnick, Lenins Tomb: The Last Days ofthe Soviet Empire (New York, 1993), 7277.
45Smith,Lenin For Sale, 106-42, 195-200.

46Gol~s
kommunisra (Moscow), 19 January 1995.

340

THF,HISIOKIAN

Lcriiri inipersoiiutor Alexnnder Koklendov oflirs to pose for pictures at the 71st unniversury
mcriiorial of 1.cnins deuth. W i e n asked to corrirrient on the irony of Lenin selling his
i n i qc, Kuklcnkov ugreed to discuss the srrbjcct oidy ifpuid his 15,000 ruble fee.

observed, after which the disciples of Lenin quickly turned and hurried from the
square. It was too cold, everyone agreed, to stand around any longer.
A t o u r o f former hot spots of the Lenin cult confirms that the lack of enthusiasm for Lenin displayed on the anniversary of his death was not an isolated incident. During a visit to Lenins house museum at Leninskii-Gorki in November
1994, the author was the museums only visitor of the day; actually, according to
curator Alexandra Grigorevna, the only visitor in the last three days. A similar situation arose several months later during a visit to the estates huge political museum,
formerly a museum to Lenin. Lenin still dominates, despite the museums name
change, but he plays to an empty house. The lights were shut off when I entered the
building; the cash-strapped museum, explained curator Sergei Chipkov, was trying
to save money. No one had visited in the last two days anyway, so why bother illumiiiating the cavernous halls? The niuseum had drawn more than 350,000 visitors
in 1987, but in the first two months of 1995, less than 1,000 people made the trek
to kninskii-Gorki. The only other surviving Lenin museum, the huge memorial

THECOLIAPSE

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341

complex at Ulianovsk, is in a similar plight: attendance has fallen by more than 85

percent since 1990.47
The barren halls at Leninskii-Gorki are not the only signs that the Lenin cult has
been trivialized. Everywhere in Moscows Izmailovskii Park, Lenins image stares out
at consumers. His face appears on T-shirts, crowned by a familiar set of rabbit ears,
or encased between the golden arches of McLenins. Like toy soldiers, his busts line
table after table and can be fetched for about the same price as a Big Mac at the
nations new capitalist mecca. Beautiful silk flags and banners with his image emblazoned on them flap loudly in the wind, week after week, as few people, western or
Russian, want to take Lenin home with them.
The irreverence accorded Lenin by many today begs the question: did people
ever really worship Lenin or did the population simply pay lip service to the Lenin
cult to avoid incurring the suspicion of the Communist Party? There is evidence
that most Soviet citizens did believe Lenins cult myths. The mythological Lenin was
a welcome father figure who embodied all things noble. Staggering attendance figures at Lenin museums, though somewhat deceptive owing to compulsory school
trips and other state-sponsored pilgrimages, testify to the respect people felt for
Lenin. Throughout the Soviet era, all the major cult sites to Lenin were hives of
a~tivity.~
Although most Soviet citizens today deny that they ever worshipped Lenin and
strongly criticize him, it is likely that for many of them disdain for Lenin is a facade
to hide their embarrassment or disillusionment. That this is the case for at least
some Russians was demonstrated by a successful young construction worker,
Zhenia, in St. Petersburg on the 77th anniversary of the October Revolution. Zhenia
spent the entire day trying to convince his Canadian friends, the author among
them, that he had never bowed before Lenin. Why, he asked, would anyone worship
a man who strangled rabbits? However, as the night wore on and Zhenias tongue
was loosened by vodka, he revealed that he had been a Pioneer (communist youth
organization) leader, orchestrated a Lenin evening in his school, and made a special
pilgrimage to Moscow with his family to view Lenins body when he was 15. Zhenia
even went so far as to invoke the prayer of the Lenin cult, If only Lenin had lived a
little longer.
Russian journalist Maria Rozonova agrees that more people revered Lenin than
currently own up to it. When discussing the claims by many that there had never been
genuine cult worship of Lenin, she asked: [Blut if there was nothing, if there was not
a saint for millions of contemporaries who were filled with belief, hope and love for
Lenins Legend Barely Alive in Hometown Museum: Moscow Tribune, 2 2 November 1994
Daniel Ficld, Rebels in the Name ofthe Tsar (Boston, 1989), chapter 1.

T H ~HISIOKIAN
:

342

A tfecuying riiural on the wall o f a toy factory

C . O ~ ~ U oftlie
~SC

cult oflenin.

in Zagorsk, Russia, symbolizes the

THECOLLAPSL
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1985-1995

343

the words Lenin and revolution, then where did children get such strange names as
Vladlen (Vladimir Lenin), Vili (Vladimir Ilich), and Marlen (Marx-Lenir~)!~~
Although for most people in former Soviet Russia the cult of Lenin has lost its
influence, this is not to say that Lenin has lost all meaning in Russia or is an
immensely unpopular figure. Many people have a certain nostalgia for Lenin and
the Soviet era, a fact evidenced by the impressive resurgence of the Communist
Party. Considering the disastrous state of affairs in Russia today it is not surprising
that people look with fondness to what they now perceive as the stability and security of Soviet times. As described by one analyst, the Soviet system did not work
well, but at least it worked.50Nostalgia, however, is not the same as adulation and
deification; Lenin has rejoined the ranks of mere mortals.
Remnants of Lenins cult are still a highly visible part of society. Thousands of
monuments to the vozhd of the revolution remain. Many survive simply because no
one has bothered to take them down. Others, like a mural of Lenin on the wall of a
toy factory at Zagorsk, are no longer maintained and will eventually fall to ruin. Still
others are being restored and cared for, but only for their artistic and historical
value.
Artistic and historic value will not save Lenins mummy. More than 60 percent
of Russians believe that it is time to bury Lenin, an act many believe will put an end
to the misfortunes that continue to plague the nation. Soon, probably within the
next year, the doors of the mausoleum will close for the last time and Lenin will
finally be laid to rest, though for now he remains in his familiar position on Red
Square. His mausoleum, located at the very heart of Russia, no longer represents
eternity and immortality, two qualities its architects meant to imply. Rather, Lenins
tomb is a relic of a bygone era. Like the pyramids of Egypt or the Acropolis in
Athens, it is a symbol of the hopes and ambitions of proud people who mistakenly
thought they would rule the world forever.

4Rozonova, Betrayal, Novoe vremia 31 (1993): 50

5Moscow Times, 25 January 1995; Daniel Yergin, Russia 20JO and What it Meansfor the World (New
York, 1995), 64.