R.I.P., Lenin

There are few tourist activities in a major world city that involve the dead body of a man who's been deceased for decades (Beijing has this fine distinction as well). If you have a spare hour in central Moscow, one the most singularly bizarre and creepy things you can do is to visit the mausoleum of V.I. Lenin. Katya was too freaked out or indifferent to pay homage, so I did this one solo, and I must report to our readers what a strange experience it was.

As can be expected, security was extra tight. After two check points and metal detectors, visitors must leave all objects at the gate as well as read a sign explaining the dos and don'ts of Lenin-viewing (for example, no laughing is permitted). After a lot of waiting, I entered the mausoleum, which was erected in honor of the fallen leader in the mid-1920s.

As you enter the structure, a soldier standing underneath a massive hammer and sickle directs you to turn right, where you descend into the inner sanctum of the building and all lights go out. It is amazing how almost perfectly dark it is inside, and the American in me immediately started thinking about possible litigation as a result of falling down. Soldiers line the walls in the darkened hall, directing you forward and sometimes even pulling your arm to keep you moving in the right direction through a twisting series of corridors. The whole journey reminded me of a Halloween haunted house, with invisible hands guiding a line of people through the darkness. Without warning, you enter the central chamber, a blood-red marble rotunda with a beam of light shining down from the ceiling to illuminate the casket. Contrary to my expectations of a wax Madame Toussade's looking body, Lenin looked just like a real man, and it was chilling to think that this same flesh was once one of the most significant figures in the twentieth century. For a man who died in 1924, he looked amazingly life like - they refurbish the body every day to keep him in good shape, and his skin was the brightest source of light in the room, glowing away in the dark. Visitors walk on an elevated platform around the body before exiting into the light of day again.