Yeltsin ordered to bury Lenin's body, 'demolish Mausoleum,' Russia's former PM reveals

Source: RT.com
April 26, 2017

The embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin in the Mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow © Sputnik

Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, made a decision to “demolish Lenin's Mausoleum" in Red Square, former prime minister Sergey Stepashin has revealed. The politician claimed it was he who stopped the then Russian leader from doing so.

"Boris Nikolayevich [Yeltsin] ordered me to demolish the mausoleum. It was in 1998," said Stepashin, who at that particular time served as minister of interior affairs and later in 1999 was appointed PM, in an interview with Istorik (Historian) magazine.

He said he was summoned to Yeltsin's office, where the president told him he had "made a decision." When the minister asked what the role of his department in the planned demolition would be, he was told that it was to secure order during the process.

Boris Yeltsin in front of Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square, 1990. © Vladimir Vyatkin / Sputnik

Stepashin said he told Yeltsin it was not in his authority to contradict the "orders of commander-in-chief." He, however, warned the president that he "couldn't guarantee that after such an act" both of them would be able to keep their state positions. He then started to persuade Yeltsin not to demolish the structure.

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