At this year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy, the Korean pavilion has a curious exhibit called “Commissions for Utopia”. It includes renderings from North Korea’s top architects and artists (all anonymous), many of whom studied at the Paekho Institute of Architecture, North Korea’s state-run architectural college, and none of whom have ever left the country. They were asked to create a vision of North Korea’s future sustainable architecture for its expanding tourism industry. Their final products are a glimpse into what it would be like to envision the future after being entirely cut off from the present for almost 70 years. (Photo by Nick Bonner/Kyle Vanhemert/Venice Architecture Biennale)

Singer Taylor Swift poses backstage with her awards for Top Artist, Billboard Chart Achievement Award, Top Female Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Digital Songs Artist, Top Streaming Song (Video) for “Shake it Off” and Top Billboard 200 Album for “1989” during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada May 17, 2015. (Photo by L. E. Baskow/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.

A professional training in explosive disposal is held in Nanning, Guangxi, China on 18th February, 2021. (Photo by Top Photo Corporation/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Police take part in a role play exercise as they clear a protest on top of a train during training on March 6, 2012 in Oxenhope, England. A new team of specialist officers set up to deal with searches and policing at a height, such as on top of a train, undergo training exercise in Oxenhope, West Yorkshire. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian heads out in Miami wearing a see-through nude color top on September 17, 2016. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

A woman wearing cut-off jeans and a halter-neck sun top in St Tropez, 1972. (Photo by Roy Jones)

Wearing a satin and lastex top and a skirt made of fishnet Ann Evors, a Paramount player, poses for the cameramen on the beach, circa 1928. (Photo by Central Press)