Abstract
The main issue of the paper is establishing the role and the circumstances of the great Soviet ruler embalmment, seen as a replacement for the religious relics in the Soviet anti-religious campaign and as an establishment of a new cult of personality. The idea of preserving Lenin’s body was presented as being the idea of the masses, while it was the idea of a small group of political leaders in order to impose a political symbol and to establish a new type of „relic” as a center for „political worship”, contributting to reshaping the mentality of the new-born „Soviet people” and their sense of new type of „spiritual membership” to the Soviet community. The burial issue of V. I. Lenin is analyzed throughout the decades, mentioning the main arguments in this ardent discussion with examples of the continuous burial issue. Another analyzed factor is the nowadays status of Lenin’s mausoleum in a context of Russian spiritual and national revival. The role of a Soviet proeminent political figure is still a matter for discussion in the nowadays Russian culture in search for the Russian spirit among the reminiscences of socialist and communist propaganda.

Keywords
V. I. Lenin, political relic, burial issue, mausoleum, Soviet symbol.