Why did not Lenin be buried immediately after his death? Opinions of historians

It is already 90 years ago that a man who has changed the course of Russian history in the last century died whom some people praise as a god and others - curse. This is VI Lenin. But still there are still arguments about why Lenin was not buried?

The present article is devoted to the fate of these disputes in Russian history.

Historical facts about Lenin's death

Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) died at the age of 53 in January 1924. Before his death, the leader of the young Soviet state was seriously ill and virtually paralyzed. She was courted by his wife - "a faithful friend and companion" (as historians will write later) - NK Krupskaya.

Death took place at the dacha of Lenin in Gorki (this is one of the suburbs). The year of Lenin's death coincided with the beginning of the redistribution of power between his comrades-in-arms, which ended with Stalin's unconditional victory.

Funeral ceremony

Two days after his death - January 23 - the body of the leader was brought to Moscow. The question of the funeral began to be decided.

As a result, on January 27, the embalmed body of Lenin was laid in a hastily created mausoleum. The reaction of contemporaries to such an unusual funeral was ambiguous.

Undoubtedly, Lenin himself repeatedly stated that the proletarian revolution will change all spheres of life: language, religion, family, traditions. It turns out that his unusual funeral was also part of the new system.

But more about everything.

Who decided to save Lenin's body?

The reminiscences of Lenin's companions tell us in different ways about who initiated this decision. So, Trotsky considers Stalin to them. He testifies that in 1923, at a meeting of the Politburo, Stalin spoke of the need to preserve the leader's body by the example of preserving the relics of saints in Orthodox Christianity.

Trotsky, Kamenev and Bukharin (according to the memoirs of Trotsky himself) then opposed this idea of Stalin.

However, if you take into account the fierce hatred of Lev Davidovich to expel him from the country Stalin, you need to be cautious about his statements on this issue.

It is unlikely that the credibility of some historians is that Stalin and Stalin were united by one idea: Stalin wanted to offer his people a new religion, where Lenin would become a god, and he would be a king.

There are some versions according to which the answer to the question why Lenin was not buried but embalmed is that among the Bolsheviks there were people who believed that science could soon find a way to resurrect people from the dead, that's why they helped To preserve the integrity of his leader's body.

Relations between Lenin's relatives and his embalming

The wife of the leader of the Bolsheviks - a prominent representative of this party - NK Krupskaya, judging by her own recollections, resisted such a way of burial of her husband.

She tried to prove the necessity of the usual burial. But no one heard the widow's words. Also, the protests of Lenin's brother and sisters, who also had weight in the Bolshevik party, were not heard.

Krupskaya was ordered to give out her husband's things, which she did with tears in her eyes.

Later, she could not go to the mausoleum. But it was decided by Dmitry's younger brother - Dmitry Ulyanov. However, for a long time he could not stand the sad spectacle, and when he saw Lenin's mausoleum inside, he left with tears. Dmitry Ilyich could not see his brother in the form of a lifeless doll.

Why Lenin was not buried: the version of the last will of the leader

In the late 80's. The last century, when Lenin's glory faded in the hearts of Soviet citizens, versions began to appear that he himself wished to be buried next to his mother - Maria Alexandrovna (now two unmarried sisters of Lenin are buried there).

The author of this version was the historian A. Artyunov. He believed that the Bolsheviks, in their own way, disposed of the leader's body, in fact violated the will of the dying person. The year of Lenin's death was hard for the country, in the press at that time many letters of "ordinary Soviet people" about the need to preserve the leader's body were published. However, the historian believed that it was not citizens, but Lenin himself had the right to decide whether to be embalmed or whether he would still be awarded the usual graveyard rest.

But today this version does not stand up to criticism because there were no written testimonies of either Lenin himself or his relatives who would make it clear that VI Ulyanov wanted to be buried with his mother.

Perhaps, being an atheist, Lenin did not attach importance to the place of his burial.

An unusual funeral as an element of creating the myth of Lenin

Immediately after the October Revolution, seizing the telegraph and the media, the Bolsheviks set themselves the task of broadly agitating their ideas. This activity was a success for them. Many people believed in communist dreams through an established system of propaganda.

Immediately, the press, which is part of the sphere of influence of party leaders, began to create an image of a formidable leader - the indestructible Vladimir Ilyich, a friend of the people and a courageous fighter for his freedom.

Such an exaltation of the image of Lenin continued throughout his life. Maxim Gorky is credited with saying that the new Soviet Russia needed a new faith, a new religion, and the image of Christ and took the image of Lenin, a fighter and sufferer for the people's happiness. Therefore, Lenin must be immortal, he must be able to rise from the dead.

Consciously or unconsciously, the members of the Bolshevik Party have done a lot to create the myth of the leader. When Lenin's body was not buried, the myth about him became stronger.

By the way, when many years later JV Stalin died, he was also embalmed and put in a mausoleum. True, Lenin and Stalin did not lie together for long: after Khrushchev's exposure, Stalin's body was secretly buried near the Kremlin wall.

Today, the mausoleum and the body of the leader lying in it still causes sharp controversy among contemporaries. Many of them already can not answer the question of why Lenin was not buried? But the very image of the Mausoleum irritates them. The other part of the country's population refers to the mausoleum with mixed feelings: from curiosity to expressing respect for the memory of the leader.

What will happen to the Mausoleum next? Whether Lenin finds the last rest in the earth or will forever be the object of visual acquaintance of onlookers and foreign tourists - it is difficult to say today.

Did the leader deserve such a fate? Also not entirely clear.

Wait and see. And nothing more can be added to these words.