Happy Birthday, Mr Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was born 141 years ago today. Communists – pensioners, for the most part – are gathering around town to mark the event. Yesterday, pollster Levada Center released new research showing that most Russians think the Soviet Union’s founder will fade away from the public consciousness.

According to the poll, which asked 1,600 Russians “How do you think this person will be remembered in 40-50 years?”, the most – 39 percent – think no one but historians will remember him. That’s up from 25 percent in 1995, but down from 45 percent the last time the poll was held in 2007.

Twenty-seven percent said they thought he would be remembered as the founder of the USSR. Nineteen percent said they thought he’d be remembered as a leader who put the interests of the workers first. Then came 12 percent who said he’d be remembered as “a great thinker who correctly predicted the future.” Followed by 10 percent who said he’d be remembered as a “prudent politician, who knew how to impose his will on a huge country.” The negatives only come at the bottom of the list – six percent said he’d be remembered as a “lucky political adventurist,” five percent as a “cruel dictator, ready to sacrifice the lives of millions” and three percent said as “a person who didn’t understand or love Russia.”

As Russia Today put it: “In other words, although many people will not be able to recall the name and deeds of a fiery revolutionary named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in a short 50 years, those who do – essentially the historians – may have a positive image of him.” I would say: In other words, according to this poll, pretty soon we’ll all be Donny from the Big Lebowski.

Side note: in researching this blog post, I stumbled upon a heretofore unknown (to me) conspiracy theory – did you know that the dirty Commies otherwise known as environmentalists chose April 22 for Earth Day just because it’s Lenin’s birthday? The Internet says so.