A man tried to break into the Vladimir Lenin mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow on Saturday, seeking “absolution” of his sins, according to Russian media reports.
The 28-year-old male, apparently suffering from a mental disorder, tried to breach the tomb early in the morning. The man behaved erratically and claimed he had an important spiritual matter to discuss with the late Soviet leader, a police source told TASS.
He “intended to enter the mausoleum, where, according to him, Vladimir Lenin was supposed to absolve him of his sins,” the source said. The redemption-seeker, however, was stopped by law enforcement before he could enter the tomb and handed over to medical personnel for psychiatric evaluation.
The bizarre incident comes just over a month after another man tried to breach the iconic landmark. On February 6, an intoxicated male attempted to get into the mausoleum while rambling about and “waking up” Lenin. The man was apprehended and admitted his intent to steal Lenin’s body from the tomb, but failed to provide a motive.
The red granite mausoleum was built in 1930 next to the Kremlin wall facing Red Square, replacing a temporary wooden tomb used to display the embalmed remains of the leader of the 1917 Communist revolution. Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the revolutionary died in 1924, shortly after the Soviet Union was founded.