Lenin’s Mausoleum

V. I. Lenin, one of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917, and the founder of the Soviet State, died on January 21, 1924.   Professor Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov, a prominent Russian pathologist and anatomist at the time, embalmed the body so that it could be displayed to the public.  It is still being displayed to this day. 

A wooden tomb was designed and built by architect Aleksey Shchusev, and the tomb was placed in Red Square by the Kremlin Wall on January 27 so that the Russian people could visit the tomb. The architect Konstatin Melnikov designed the first sarcophagus. 

In 1929 the wooden mausoleum was changed to one made of stone.  A new sarcophagus was designed in 1973 by sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. 

Tens of millions of  people have visited Lenin’s tomb since 1924.  It is still a major attraction in Moscow and visitors wait in long lines to view Lenin’s body.  Photos and videos are forbidden, as is talking in the tomb.