Tourists walk as others relax on the beach in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egypt, July 17, 2017. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

A man pushes her daughter on a cart as they shop at a market in Seoul, South Korea, July 26, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A man washes his horse as a woman bathes her son at concrete water pens under a flyover in a slum area in Kolkata, India October 21, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/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.

Tour guides wearing traditional Chinese dress practice smiling by biting chopsticks at Qingming Grand-River Park in Kaifeng, central China's Henan Province on March 2, 2017, aiming to provide better service for visitors. (Photo by IPA Asia via ZUMA Wire)

Teenagers on roller skates hold on to each other as they are pulled by a vintage car to move along a street in Havana, Cuba March 19, 2016. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A combination photo shows various popular street foods under $6 from various hawker food stalls and eateries in Singapore, taken between July 28 to 31, 2016. Top row (L to R) bak chor mee, soya sauce chicken; Middle row (L to R) laksa, hokkien mee, nasi lemak, ice kachang; Bottom row (L to R) rojak, roti prata and satay. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)