Lenin May Lose a City
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MOSCOW — Reformers would bury his body and already have toppled his statues, but the worst may be yet to come for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin--Leningrad residents soon will vote on whether to keep his name.
The City Council decided Friday to put the question of renaming Leningrad on a ballot, the Interfax news agency reported. Many residents want to return to the city’s historic name--St. Petersburg. Others prefer Petrograd, used from World War I until 1924, when Lenin died and the city took his name.
Lenin’s memory has suffered frequent indignities since communism began to fall. Some reformers even suggested burying Lenin’s preserved body, which is displayed in a glass case in a Red Square mausoleum. That seems unlikely.
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