http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=27&si=1112133&issue_id=10333

Lenin corpse gets clean bill of health for another 100 years

EIGHTY years to the day after his death, Lenin's embalmers gave him a clean bill of health yesterday and said his preserved corpse could last at least another century.

But the reopening of his mausoleum on Red Square, shut since November for "rejuvenation," has revived debate on the Bolshevik leader's role and whether he should be buried.

"We guarantee the body of Lenin can be preserved as it looks now for an indefinite length of time," said Valeri Bykov, head of the Biomedical Technology Centre, which treats his corpse every 18 months in a special biochemical bath and changes his clothes every three years. "More specifically, the body could be preserved for at least 100 years or longer."

During Soviet times, the red granite mausoleum was one of Moscow's star attractions and thousands queued daily to view his waxen body. Today, it attracts only a handful of tourists.

Yet, even 13 years after the Soviet Union's collapse, many Russians maintain a certain reverence for Lenin. A recent poll showed almost 65pc assess his contribution to Russian history positively.

President Yeltsin first proposed burying his remains and tearing down the mausoleum in 1997. But President Putin, his successor, has shelved the idea and reintroduced a 24-hour guard.

The Communist Party insists that Lenin is an invaluable part of Russia's heritage. "Many of his ideas and forecasts are still true today," Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party, said.

Critics say that the mummy is a grotesque reminder of a brutal and repressive regime.

[more at site...and changing Lenin's clothes every three years sounds like a luvverly job!]