Vladimir Lenin's Mausoleum

The Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square has held the embalmed body of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin since January 1924. Architect Alexey Shchusev first put up a wooden provisional structure, replaced in 1930 by the present stepped tomb of dark Labrador granite and red porphyry, styled as a Constructivist ziggurat. From 1953 to 1961 Stalin's body lay beside Lenin's; during de-Stalinisation it was quietly removed and reburied at the Kremlin Wall. A state-funded laboratory still maintains the corpse with regular re-embalming baths. The building served Soviet leaders as a tribune for the May Day and November 7 military parades. Until 2027 the mausoleum is closed for extensive restoration; visits to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis with the graves of Gagarin, Brezhnev and Andropov remain possible.