21 January 2005 -- A curator at Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow says the Soviet leader's embalmed body should last another 100 years.
Lenin's body has lain in state beneath the Kremlin walls on Red Square since his death 81 years ago today, in 1924.
The mausoleum remains a major tourist attraction. Demands to remove the body from public view, which surfaced at the end of the Soviet Union, have faded.
Yuri Denisov-Nikolskii, one of the experts who cares for the corpse, told ITAR-TASS today that the mausoleum will soon close while experts touch up the remains, which many people believe are artificial substances, perhaps even wax.
He said they will not change Lenin's appearance but may, "change the suit of the leader of the world proletariat."
(Reuters)
The mausoleum remains a major tourist attraction. Demands to remove the body from public view, which surfaced at the end of the Soviet Union, have faded.
Yuri Denisov-Nikolskii, one of the experts who cares for the corpse, told ITAR-TASS today that the mausoleum will soon close while experts touch up the remains, which many people believe are artificial substances, perhaps even wax.
He said they will not change Lenin's appearance but may, "change the suit of the leader of the world proletariat."
(Reuters)