Paul Goble
Staunton, July 1 – Many Russians and especially Russian Orthodox Christians view the Mausoleum on Red Square and Lenin’s body in it as alien to their country and its culture, Alyaksey Dzermant say; but in fact, they have both become important symbols of the country and its culture.
The Belarusian Eurasianist argues that the chief idea behind the erection of the mausoleum and the mumification of Lenin was “the idea of immortality,” an essential element of the Russian tradition advanced by Aleksandr Bogdanov and Nikolay Fyodorov (gumilev-center.ru/mavzolejj-bessmertiya-russkojj-civilizacii/3392).
“The mausoleum is mistakenly compared to the ziggurat temples of Mesopotamia,” but in fact it is “an architectural embodiment of the desire for immortality and is a universal of human culture,” far closer to the Scythian burial mounds in its significance and meaning for Russians, Dzermant continues.
Thus, the mausoleum with Lenin’s body inside it must be celebrated and maintained for all times because of the way it combines the three most important elements of Russian culture: a religious concern with immortality, the power of the state, and the readiness of Russians to serve the state.
What makes Dzermant’s argument important is that it positions the mausoleum within Putin’s idea about a single stream of Russian history, a move that makes it ever less likely that Putin or even his successors will bury Lenin and demolish the mausoleum as many Russian Christians have urged.
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