MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - The...

Lenin's mausoleum, a major tourist attraction in the heart of Moscow, closes periodically to give Lenin a bath in a special embalming compound and change his clothes. The mausoleum last closed on February 18 last year.

Regular checks are carried out of Lenin's body and the cost of preserving the body is several millions of rubles a year. Russian scientists say he could be preserved for another 100 years.

"We have retained our unique methods and know-how," said Valery Bykov, the director of the Scientific Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Herbs. "The West has only temporary embalmment."

The body of the Russian communist leader has been on public display in a glass case since his death in 1924, although his organs, including his brain, were removed during the autopsy.

An opinion poll has shown that two-thirds of Russians believe that the embalmed body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution should be removed from its mausoleum on Red Square

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