Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has sharply criticized Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky for his initiative to rebury Lenin's body.
"We're lingering over topics of various demolitions and transfers. But to threaten popular shrines is a very dangerous thing," Zyuganov says in his open letter titled "The Minister of Barbarism."
The Communist leader urged people to think what would happen if Muslims learned that the Ka’aba in Mecca was to be transferred to another place, or if Jews in Jerusalem found out that sportmen who had been crazed from big money decided to use the sacred Wailing Wall for training, or the recent example when the Orthodox Church, in response to desecration of its holy things, led about half a million believers to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on April 22.
"And for many citizens of our country both the Mausoleum and the Pantheon at the Kremlin wall have always been a shrine. Over 12 million citizens actively support the Communist Party by their actions and at elections. The majority of people share our key ideas and program provisions. Lenin's name is sacred for them," the letter reads.
According to some experts, the Mausoleum on Red Square in central Moscow is a copy of Sumerian ziggurats, where occult rituals were held. A pyramid is also an occult symbol of the Freemasons, and some specialists believe that the Soviets adopted some symbols and degrees of initiation from them.