15.09.2020, Moscow.
The opponents of the current regime are responsible for the attacks against the Lenin’s Mausoleum, historian and educator Aleksey Goncharov said on September 15 in an interview to a correspondent of the Rossa Primavera News Agency.
The expert spoke about his vision of Union of Architects’ attempts to promote “re-use” of the Lenin’s Mausoleum. After a wide public discontent arose, the architects hastily cancelled the contest they had announced.
“Opponents of the current state regime, the regime of Vladimir Putin, use this issue to discredit it. On the one hand, this is aimed at destroying our Soviet past; on the other hand, this is an attempt to drop Putin’s poll numbers,” Goncharov said.
The initiative of “re-using” the Mausoleum looks like an attempt to split the Russian society, the historian believes. If architects’ proposals had found support at the top level, this would have initiated another wave of people’s discontent with the authorities. The interested parties may include anti-state forces fighting for the political stardom, the educator believes.
“We have blatantly anti-communist and liberal forces that oppose the current government.” the educator explained.
At the same time, both at power and in the public there are people who hate our Soviet past, the expert noted. They can hardly dare to dismantle the Mausoleum itself, but they are quite likely to remove Lenin’s body and transform the place of worship into another “Yeltsin Center,” the expert warned.
Certain counter-trends are also taking place. “Left-wing sentiments in our society are obviously on the rise today, because the capitalist system is in crisis both in Russia and globally. It is not surprising therefore that left-wing, communist ideas and the Soviet past find more and more support. This must be a concern for our domestic anti-communists, and they are making attempts to counter it,” the historian said.
The public and the left-wing patriotic communities should organize a wide information campaign to defend Vladimir Lenin, Goncharov believes. “The Mausoleum is a symbol. This is a lighthouse and a hope that some day a good world order and society model in our country will become a historical reality,” the educator stressed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
