Gorbachev Warns Against Haste Over Lenin

     Former President Mikhail Gorbachev warned the Kremlin against quickly burying the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, saying the nation isn't ready yet such a move, a news agency reported Tuesday.
     Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its 1991 collapse, said that Lenin's body eventually should be laid to rest at a proper moment in line with his own will, but added that "this moment has not come yet," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
     In what appeared to be the Kremlin's attempt to gauge public reaction to the divisive issue, Georgy Poltavchenko, a regional envoy of President Vladimir Putin, said last month the body should be taken out of its Red Square mausoleum and buried in a cemetery along with the remains of other Bolshevik dignitaries.
     Several senior lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled parliament followed up on his call, proposing to quickly bury Lenin's body.
     Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov warned last week that his party would stage a massive civil disobedience action if authorities try to bury Lenin's body.
     Putin said in 2001 that he opposed the removal of the body so as not to disturb civil peace in the country. His predecessor as president, Boris Yeltsin, strongly pushed for removing it, but was stopped by vigorous opposition from the Communist Party and others.
     Gorbachev said Tuesday the issue could be resolved only on the basis of public accord, but "a great deal is still to be done before stability develops into national accord."
      "This will happen in due time," he said, according to the ITAR-Tass. "Haste is unnecessary".

Associated Press, October 11, 2005