It takes a lot of capitalism to maintain a Communist symbol.
Vladimir Lenin’s body is nearly 146 years old, but it doesn’t look a day over 53.
Russian scientists have kept the Soviet leader, whose embalmed body is on display in a mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square, carefully preserved since his death in 1924. In 2016, the Russian government has spent up to 13 million rubles of federal funds, or about $211,770, to maintain the Communist mummy, that's according to a notice published Tuesday on the country’s procurement agency’s website.
In true Communist spirit the admission to the mausoleum is free of charge, so that means that the Russian authorities have spent tens of millions of dollars over the years preserving the body of the dead Communist dictator.
Russian scientists have spent 94 years keeping Lenin’s body in good shape, adding a fresh coat of embalming fluids every other year, according to "Scientific American’s" Jeremy Hsu, a weeks-long “process that involves submerging the body in separate solutions of glycerol solution baths, formaldehyde, potassium acetate, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid solution and acetic sodium.” Lenin's mummy has been showcased at the same spot for nearly 93 years, with the exception of 1,360 days during World War II, when it was shipped to Tyumen (Siberia) in light of the German forces' advance on Moscow.
The body was supposed to have been buried in 2016 after a poll conducted by the Russian government indicated that 58% would like to see him buried, however, to this day, Lenin's body, or Communism's mummy, is still very much on display and open for the public to gawk at.