Postcard made in the Soviet Union with the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. Lenin’s Mausoleum, also known as Lenin’s Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, is a mausoleum that serves as the resting place of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. His preserved body has been on public display there since shortly after his death in 1924, with rare exceptions in wartime. Alexey Shchusev’s monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid, the Tomb of Cyrus the Great and, to some degree, the Temple of the Inscriptions.
Lenin died on 21 January 1924. Two days later, architect Alexey Shchusev was tasked with building a structure suitable for viewing of the body by mourners. A wooden tomb, in Red Square by the Moscow Kremlin Wall, was ready on January 27, and later that day Lenin’s coffin was placed in it. More than 100,000 people visited the tomb in the next six weeks.mBy August 1924, Shchusev had replaced the tomb with a larger one, and Lenin’s body was transferred to a sarcophagus designed by architect Konstantin Melnikov.