Georgia Ready To Bury Stalin On Its Territory

MosNews: Georgia Ready to Bury Stalin — State Minister

29.09.2005



Georgia is ready to bury the remains of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on its territory if Russia removes his ashes outside the Kremlin, a Georgian minister said on Thursday. Soviet dictator Stalin, responsible for millions of deaths in his country, is buried along the Kremlin wall together with other Soviet leaders, war heroes and public figures. After his death in 1953, he was laid to rest in the Mausoleum where his predecessor Vladimir Lenin still lies, but in 1961 Stalin’s remains were removed. Stalin (real name Josef Dzhugashvili) was of Georgian origin and was born in the Georgian town of Poti.

Georgy Khaindrava was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying Russia should also bury Lenin. A place for a person after his or her death is underground, the minister said. “The sooner you bury Lenin, the better it will be for the Russian state,” he added.

Vladimir Putin said in 2001 he opposed removing Lenin’s body from its Red Square tomb so as not to disturb civil peace in the country.

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MosNews: Russian Communists Campaign Against Lenin Reburial

12.11.2005


Russia’s Communist Party on Saturday began gathering signatures for a petition demanding Lenin’s body be left in a mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square, and not removed for burial as some have demanded.

“This will be an indefinite protest action and will continue for as long as talks about reburial continue,” the head of the Communist Party’s governing body, Vladimir Kashin, told the Itar-Tass news agency.

In recent months, public figures such as Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko have pushed for Lenin to be moved, noting that Russia “is not Egypt” and thus not the place for mummified bodies. Last month, the president of the southern Russian republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, proposed putting up a million dollars to move Lenin, and his mausoleum, to Elista, the capital of his region.

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