The mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, who was the first leader of the Soviet country, is at the wall of the Moscow Kremlin in the center of the Red Square. As in ancient times, the mausoleum is the burial vault for the body of the Communist leader, which it was decided not to bury in a Christian way but to embalm and put in a mausoleum, which would be open for visiting.
The first wooden building of the mausoleum by the Kremlin Wall was erected on January, 27 1924. The architect Shchusev designed the mausoleum as a four-stepped Babylonian ziggurat (burial vault).
However, the same year Shchusev erected a second building, which was also wooden but of much more complicated design. It had columns, pilasters and a tribune. But this building also lasted only 5 years until 1929-30 when the same architect Shchusev built the today Lenin Mausoleum of reinforced concrete paneled with granite, porphyry and marble. The tribune where the Soviet leaders stood during parades and demonstrations are on the mausoleum. The enclosed spaces for the common people are on both sides of the mausoleum.
The mourning hall of 100 m2 is in the center of the mausoleum. The sarcophagus with the embalmed body of the proletarian leader is in the hall. The mausoleum is open for visiting before noon every day of the week excepting Monday and Friday.
After Stalin`s death in 1953, he was also placed in a mausoleum next to Lenin, but on October 30, 1961, the Congress of the CPSU Central Committee decided to bury Stalin`s body. This decision was implemented just the next day - on October 31, 1961, Stalin`s body was buried next to the Mausoleum near the Kremlin wall.
