Lenin Mausoleum to Close for Military Parade

Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square will be temporarily closed to the public in early November for celebrations to commemorate a Soviet-era military parade.

The building housing the corpse of the Bolshevik revolutionary will be off-limits to tourists between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7, when the city celebrates the 76th anniversary of the Day of Military Honor military parade, the Interfax news agency reports. 

The march, held on Nov. 7, 1941, is famous for Josef Stalin’s speech to soldiers who went to frontlines outside Moscow, where many perished.

This year, the day will also mark 100 years since the October Revolution, when the Bolsheviks seized power.

The centennial of the October Revolution has raised questions about how to commemorate the Soviet era in contemporary Russia, including a discussion about the continued display of Lenin’s body on Red Square. 

In an interview with the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko said she is certain that Lenin’s body would be reburied at some point in the future, but that there is still “an entire generation for whom Lenin means a lot.”

She suggested there could be a referendum on the topic, “but this will not be today and not tomorrow."

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