MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Russia’s veteran Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has pledged to suppress any attempts to give Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin another resting place.
Lenin’s preserved body has been on public display in the Mausoleum on Red Square for over 90 years despite numerous calls for his proper burial. His interment remains an issue of heated debate since the time of Perestroika.
Speaking at a TASS press conference on Monday, Zyuganov said the decision to embalm Lenin in 1924 was endorsed by the supreme government body, the Congress, and confirmed by all federal Russian subjects. "This decision is in line with global and Orthodox practice."
"Today there is about a hundred burials of Mausoleum type on the planet," Zyuganov said, giving as an example the tomb of the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln.
Zyuganov also stressed that any attempts to find another resting place for Soviet public figures, who are buried near the Kremlin wall, without the consent of their relatives will be quashed.
"Calm down, no one will touch anyone, there will be no diggings there (on Red Square). If someone tries to do this, we will chase them away from there. We will act friendly and energetically," he said.
Under the current Russian legislation, any decision on reburial should be agreed with the relatives, Zyuganov pointed out.
"We met with the relatives of all those, who were buried on the Red Square. All members of the families buried there said they are absolutely against any reburials and any diggings," he said.