How Russia celebrated Vladimir Lenin’s 150th birthday 🎂

April 22 marked the 150th birthday of the revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Here's how Russia marked this glorious occasion.

Komsomolskaya Pravda “resurrects” Lenin

Today's trying times demand a frank discussion about sex, collapsing oil prices, the global economic crisis, and of course Ukraine. In other words, reasoned Komsomolskaya Pravda, we need to talk to Vladimir Lenin, so the newspaper “resurrected” him for an exclusive interview.

The tabloid’s journalists came up with the questions themselves, but the answers were pulled from a variety of Lenin’s works, reports, and letters. Here’s a small sample:

KP: You promoted divorces in this country [...] Are you actually calling for depravity? Aren’t you destroying the institution of the family?

Lenin: As a bourgeois institution, the family has completely outlived itself. We need to talk to the workers about this. And not just the family. All prohibitions relating to sexuality should be lifted...We have something to learn from the suffragettes: even the ban on same-sex love should be lifted.

RT throws Lenin a lonely birthday party

The state television network RT (formerly “Russia Today”) filmed several short videos showing how Lenin might celebrate his birthday in — you guessed it — Russia today.

In one of the clips, he is seen dragging logs alone. With everyone self-isolating at home because of the coronavirus, apparently there's no one to help him. Then, sighing sadly, Lenin blows into a party horn. The video ends with an uplifting message: “All except essential work has stopped. Put off the improvements until later. We will be larger than life!”

In the other clips, Lenin — clearly sick of waiting for his guests — eats cake alone with a spoon (RT asks for his forgiveness: “Sorry Ilyich! We are in self-isolation”), sadly burns sparklers in the mausoleum, and climbs onto an armored car with a giant “150” mylar balloon.

“Which Lenin are you today?”

St. Petersburg’s Nevskaya Zastava Museum offered “fortunes” in an Instagram story comprising famous quotes from Lenin. The museum also urged its social media followers to rate portraits of Lenin drawn in sidewalk chalk, created by participants in its “Street Festival” contest.

Communists hang a Lenin banner that reads “How's life under capitalism?”

Communist Party deputies in the Saratov regional parliament hung a banner with Lenin's portrait. Needless to say, this broke some rules, but they refused to take it down, even after their fellow deputies complained.

The Communists also broadcast the Soviet patriotic song “And Lenin Is So Young” through a megaphone. They only switched it off after the session began.

Adygea’s Komsomol flash mob (that wasn’t?)

Members of the Communist Youth League in the Adygea Republic (located in Russia's North Caucasus) supposedly planned a flashmob, which entailed taking to balconies with stereos and Soviet flags, and blasting the aforementioned classic “And Lenin Is So Young."

We didn’t manage to find any photos or videos of the event on social networks. As Bane once told Batman, “You'll just have to imagine the fire.”

Bonus!

If all of that has left you wanting more, you can watch Ksenia Sobchak’s 40-minute interview with Lenin — a timeless classic that aired in 2019.

Text by Maxim Ivanov

Translation by Eilish Hart