Two years before the 100th anniversary of Lenin's death, the mausoleum in Moscow containing the revolutionary leader's body, which is popular with tourists, has been temporarily closed for maintenance work.
From Tuesday until the end of February, there will be no visiting opportunities, Russia's Federal Protective Service announced.
The mummified body of Communist Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who died in 1924, is being taken care of by the Russian Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.
The body is preserved using an embalming method developed by scientists. Such preservation work takes place every two years.
The not uncontroversial tourist attraction on Red Square is otherwise open from 10 am to 1 pm, except on Mondays and Fridays.
The Russian Orthodox Church has been demanding a funeral for Lenin for years. Many Russians are also bothered by the high cost of preserving the corpse.
Putin: 'Nothing should change'
The Communists are against closing the mausoleum because they venerate Lenin as a luminary.
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin once said that the body should not be touched.
There are still many people in Russia who associate a large part of their lives with Lenin and "certain achievements of the past, achievements of the Soviet Union." As long as that is the case, Putin said, nothing should change.
In the Russian capital alone there are several monuments to Lenin.
