JOIN US Eighty-eight years after Vladimir Lenin's death, Russia may bury the embalmed corpse of the founder of the Soviet Union.
The revolutionary's body remains on public display in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square, more than two decades after the break-up of the former USSR.
Describing it as absurd that Lenin had not been laid to rest after his death in 1924 at the age of 53, Russia's new culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, who is seen close to President Vladimir Putin, suggested that Lenin should be given a send-off that recognised his role as a state figure, the Daily Mail reported.
Calling for him to be buried in a normal grave, as Lenin himself had requested, Medinsky said: "Maybe something would change for the better in our lives then."
"I would follow all the necessary rituals in order to avoid judging (Lenin) after death," he said, adding that he also believes that Lenin should be buried with all the required state honours – such as military fireworks – and in a well-respected place.
He said the mausoleum could be turned into Soviet history museum.
His comments indicate the Kremlin is getting ready for a burial, probably alongside Lenin's mother in St Petersburg.
The Bolshevik leader's remains were embalmed on Stalin's orders when he died aged 53 and kept on display in Moscow apart from a period in the Second World War.
Putin has repeatedly postponed a decision on burial, arguing that Lenin remained an icon for many elderly Russians.