There’s a stepped pyramid structure at the center of Kremlin under the Kremlin’s walls which keeps the corpse of one of the most influential persons of Russia in the 20th century. Vladimir Lenin died on January 21st, 1924 and made Soviet leaders struggled to find an appropriate resting place for him.
After Vladimir Lenin died, the Soviet’s high-ranks needed a respectful way to display the corpse of one of the most important members of the communist party to the people, so they assigned Alexei Shchusev to immediately design a temporary mausoleum for Lenin inside the Red Square. Shchusev was inspired by the Temple of Inscriptions and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, and with that inspiration in mind, he designed a wooden stepped pyramid in less than seven days and constructed it at the center of the square.
The Soviet leaders understood that if they want to display the corpse, they have to keep the body intact, so they assigned Alexei Abrikosov to embalm the corpse of Lenin, and placed it in the mausoleum that Shchusev built, on January 27th. More than 100,000 people visited the mausoleum within the first six weeks.
Around five years after Lenin died, the Soviet officials realized that they might be able to keep the body in the public display longer than they had expected. For that reason, Shchusev and two other Soviet architects redesigned the mausoleum larger. They’ve also used marble and granite to build the new mausoleum.
The mausoleum's name changed to Lenin and Stalin’s Mausoleum in 1959 when Joseph Stalin died, and his mummified body placed next to the Lenin’s embalmed body, but it changed back to Lenin’s Mausoleum in 1961 due to De-Stalinization that happened following his death. Stalin’s body removed to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis outside Kremlin.
Between the time of Lenin’s death to 1972, around ten million people visited his embalmed corpse. It was only during the Second World War, and the threat of Moscow’s capture by the Nazi army when the corpse transported to Siberia and transported back after the war was finished. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the idea of demolishing the Mausoleum discussed several times, but each time it ended with the mausoleum remained intact on the Red Square.
The stepped pyramid mausoleum that Shchusev designed looked small on the Red Square, but it has two underground floors which made room for visitors to observe the corpse easier. The mausoleum was also used as a platform for Soviet officials to observe the parades and military events on Red Square.
There are several rules you should follow if you want to visit the mausoleum. However currently there is no long waiting line like the old days, but still, you need to wait a while in line to enter the mausoleum. There’s no entering fee for the mausoleum, but before you get in, if you have camera or phone with a camera, you need to hand them over to the guards since photography inside the mausoleum is utterly prohibited. After that, you will enter the tomb within a line, and you'll have only a few minutes to observe the Lenin’s corpse before the guards force you out. During your visit to the mausoleum, there are no talking or keeping your hands in your pocket allowed since these acts considered to be disrespectful. Men are also forbidden to put a hat on inside the mausoleum, but the rule does not apply to women.
The Lenin’s Mausoleum is exactly at the center of the Red Square in front of The Gum Mall. The mausoleum is closed on Mondays, Fridays, and the official holidays. The Lenin’s Mausoleum and the Tsars’ tombs inside the Cathedral of Archangel in Kremlin are the famous burial places of Moscow. The similar famous burial places in St. Petersburg would be the St. Peter Cathedral inside the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra at the end of the Nevsky street.
Visiting these imperial burial places in your travel to Russia can teach you about the history of Russia and how its rulers ended up like that, they also are quite fascinating places with heavy atmosphere. It is extremely recommended to include at least one of these places in your Russia tour programs.
