Alluvial Fan, China. A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province. Image taken by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 2nd, 2002. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/USGS EROS Data Center)

British professional tennis player Emma Raducanu after she was made a MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by King Charles III at Windsor Castle on November 29, 2022 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Andrew Matthews – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

“The Curiosity Mars rover has imaged a small metallic-looking protuberance on a rock. Visible (in the image below the green lines point to it), the protuberance appears to have a high albedo and even projects a shadow on the rock below...”

The photography of Art Wolfe covers the globe, capturing landscapes, wildlife, and cultures from every continent; here he talks through a selection of his favourite images. Art Wolfe is an American photographer and conservationist. His photographs have been noted by environmental advocacy groups for their “stunning” visual impact. Here: Snowy owlets (Bubo scandiacus), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA. (Photo by Art Wolfe/Art Wolfe Stock)

A woman poses as she has her picture taken amid 1600 panda bear sculptures in Berlin August 5, 2013. Marking the 50th anniversary of its existence, on Monday the German branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) environmental conservation organisation placed 1600 panda bear sculptures on front of Berlin's main train station to draw attention to the plight of the endangered species that serves as the NGO's mascot. There are currently 1600 panda bears alive in the wild, the organisation said in a press release. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A reveller holds a sign reading “2020BYE” as a small number of people begin celebrating New Year's Eve at the Sydney Harbour waterfront amidst tightened COVID-19 regulations in Sydney, Australia, December 31, 2020. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Reuters)

Photo: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 – 1924) lying in state in the Kremlin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1924

Important! For the same article in Russian language click here.

Something quite intriguing is happening within Russian-speaking internet during the last few – should you type a fully academic inquiry (at least, according to Russian academic requirements) in national search engines for "Lenin's mausoleum" – the first thing you get (even in top 10 searches) is website pages talking about black magic and occult. Website authors view this construction differently, but unconditionally agree on one thing: the mausoleum of the "leader of the world proletariat” – the essence of a magical artifact, a sort of “energy vampire”. It was built with a certain purpose: to drain the energy out of miserable Soviet citizens on one hand; and to poison the anthroposphere of one-sixth part of the earth with its vibes (the exact territory that was occupied by the former Soviet Union), depriving the Russian people of will to resist on the other hand. Complete nonsense? No doubt. Nevertheless, an intriguing one. Well, probably because some oddities do exist in mausoleum's history. These oddities are the thing we are going to discuss this time. First, let me refresh you memory on the subject.

Breath of an Arctic fox by Marco Gaiotti, Italy. Marco was watching this little Arctic fox as it incessantly called another nearby. Gradually he noticed the fox’s wet breath was quickly freezing in the air after each call. It was late winter in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and the air was -35C (-31F). Photographing Arctic foxes is often frustrating, as they are normally running around fast in search of food, but this one was very relaxed and let Marco get close enough to focus on it, with the light glowing perfectly in the background. (Photo by Marco Gaiotti/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)