Vladimir Lenin's body has been on public display in a glass case in downtown Moscow since his death on January 21, 1924 almost 85 years ago. His continuing presence in the heart of Moscow has been an ongoing source of controversy since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
According to the poll conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), some 38% of those who said Lenin should be buried at a cemetery urged the move be made as soon as possible. Another 28% said he could be buried after the Lenin generation has died.
The poll said 41% of Russians believe keeping Lenin's boy in the mausoleum is "wrong and unnatural." Meanwhile, 37% of respondents said they saw "nothing bad" in the fact that the mausoleum has become "an ordinary tourist attraction like other countries."
Only 15% of Russians said "the body of the people's leader had the right to stay in the mausoleum on the country's main square."
Demands to transfer the body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution to a regular cemetery have consistently been countered by Russian communists, who insist that the tomb on Red Square remain the Soviet leader's final resting place.
Lenin died at the age of 53. He said he wanted to be buried in Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg.
The opinion poll was conducted on November 8-9, 2008 in a total of 140 Russian cities and towns in 42 regions, and involved a sample of 1,600 respondents.
