The Feast in Mausoleum

Lenin is alive!

Here he is, he's even more alive than you and me; he looks at us from Komsomol plaques attached to some public buildings. He looks with cunning half-closed eyes. Mr.Lenin was lucky enough: he passed away before Komsomol and party leaders were shot dead. But for an early dementia and a heaven-sent death, he might have been shot dead in 10-15 years, and his portrait could have been wiped away from the Komsomol stamp. And now, at least, it has remained on the stamp. And in the Mausoleum, of course.

And now the country celebrates the 100th anniversary of Komsomol. It became the history thirty years ago, but it is still celebrated. And it has a substantial financial support; poster with Komsomol signs are waving in the wind, as well as slogans "Komsomol is our bright future" on every wall of buildings. Schools hold special information classes, and children are told about the Komsomol, and senior students, as grave as an owl, are carrying red-green ties from classroom to classroom.

Clubs announce USSR-style parties, students are ordered to appear at "festive events" of Gigin-style, normal people could appear at only by a court decision. And they are also ordered to write an essay about the exhibition "The Infancy of Komsomol". By the way, the exhibition is hold not in a district Palace of Culture or a collective farm club, but in the National Museum of Art. Students who ignore it and do not write the essay do not pass the test on history.

The entire country has turned into one big ugly mausoleum: corpses are all around and a pretended sorrow on the dearly departed in spite of enemies who did not manage to kill and escaped with the tail between the legs. Speakers say that Komsomol is alive, because the BRYU - dear child, custodian of traditions, keeper of the keys - still operates. Now it deals with a patriotic education of the young and offers discounts for parties for entering the club, and promises a great career. These who resist are severely punished. It organizes revels and kayak trips, these who are against - a perspective of construction sites and wood felling. However, the collapsed Komsomol and still alive BRYU are relatives. Let them celebrate behind the closed doors, in the Mausoleum. But they are enthusiastic about involving the entire country in its feasts.

My acquaintance - wise person - surprised me the other day. He told "anyway, we all were a part of it, participated in all events. It was fun." Well, we can remember drunk freshman Sidorov drunk and lying in a campfire, and the way he was taken out of it. It can be done at the college reunion, birthday or private party. But why does the entire country have to celebrate it, especially at public expense?

Because it's not the past, but the future. All minds of the state dream of the young walking in column and singing, voting early and unanimously, obedient and easy-going. We need them. It's the guarantee of long and lush life. There's a reason for Minister of Education Karpenka to say: "Komsomol is a firm ground for the young could rely on and be positive about the future of the country."

By the way, he voiced it during the festive issue of the stamp "100 years of Komsomol". It seems they will soon hold an official ceremony of slaking. There wll be a banquet. To make the holiday eternal.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org