Amid burial speculation, lines form at Lenin's tomb

Los Angeles Times

MOSCOW -- The line snakes from the lower end of Moscow's Red Square in a long, untidy loop, and, just as in Soviet times, people stop to ask what could be worth such a wait. Their faces contract in surprise at the answer: Lenin's mausoleum.

After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the few Russians who still wanted to see V.I. Lenin's preserved corpse could walk right in without a wait. Eight years on, can the line really be back?Since President Boris Yeltsin reignited speculation recently that Lenin would be buried and the mausoleum removed, Russians have been lining up, waiting for up to an hour to see the remains of the Bolshevik leader. The president said Lenin certainly would be buried, but he didn't say when.

A year ago, polls showed that 55 percent to 60 percent of the population favored Lenin's burial, with 30 percent opposed. But a poll this month by the Public Opinion Foundation found 41 percent in favor and 41 percent against.

The possibility that Lenin might disappear suddenly from Red Square -- like the mausoleum's goose-stepping honor guard, which was banished abruptly in October 1993 -- wasn't the main motive for those lining up one recent summer day. Many were regular visitors, others were showing friends and relatives around, some were provincial Russians who felt that no visit to the capital was complete without seeing Lenin, and there was a handful of foreign visitors.

For the foreigners, the mausoleum offers the complete Soviet experience with surly guards who search bags for cameras, guns and mobile phones. They run metal detectors over visitors, loudly shush anyone who makes a sound inside the mausoleum and blow whistles at any visitor who steps out of line outside it.

After the long wait, visitors enter the black marble mausoleum, eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness, and shuffle cautiously forward. In the inner sanctum an eerie light throws a fluorescent pinkish glow on the leader in his glass case, and the guards rush forward to hustle along anyone who stops for even a moment to gawk at the spots on Lenin's tie.

Yeltsin's comments on Lenin's burial set Moscow's creaky rumor mill whirring, with conspiracy theorists convinced Lenin's removal would spark riots, giving the president a chance to declare a state of emergency and cancel upcoming elections. Yeltsin has since promised there will be no state of emergency and the elections will be held on time.

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