Moscow Guide
Red Square
Lenin's Mausoleum
Opening time: 10am–1pm; closed Mon & Fri
For nearly seventy years, the Soviet state venerated its founder by acts of homage at the Lenin Mausoleum (Mavzoley V.I. Lenina) – an image associated with Soviet Communism the world over. When Lenin died on January 21, 1924, a crude wooden mausoleum was hastily erected on Red Square for mourners to pay their respects, and the Party leadership decided to preserve his body for posterity. In the Orthodox tradition, an un-decayed corpse is proof of sainthood; and Stalin – a former seminarian – made Lenin's cult a secular religion.
The embalming was carried out by biochemist Boris Zbarsky and anatomist Vladimir Vorybov, who overcame the problem that Lenin's veins (the usual conduit for embalming fluid) had been removed at the autopsy, by bathing the corpse in a vat of preservatives and making cuts in the body to help the chemicals penetrate. By August 1924 the body was fit to be viewed in a newly built wooden mausoleum, which was replaced by a permanent stone one in 1930, once it became clear that the embalming process had been successful.
Designed by Alexei Shchusev, the mausoleum is a step-pyramid of cubes, a form revered by Russian avant-gardists that was also fashionable for its association with ancient Egyptian architecture. Faced with red granite and black labradorite, it bears the simple inscription Lenin above its bronze doors, which were traditionally flanked by a guard of honour (changed every hour, as the Saviour Tower clock chimed). After Stalin's death in 1953 he too was displayed in what became the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum, but in 1961 it reverted to its old title after Stalin's body was spirited away one night and reburied by the Kremlin wall.
Note that official opening hours may be suspended at short notice, and the mausoleum shuts for six weeks every eighteen months while Lenin gets the full treatment.