The Discreet Charm of Lenin

Abstract This article takes two postcards of L enin as their point of departure to ask about articulations of Soviet history as image and kitsch. I am especially interested in the ways in which the dead body or mummy of L enin comes to symbolize an imagined social coherence that accrues specific political significance after the demise of the Soviet Union. In looking at L enin's mummy as a site of memory and key to understanding contemporary …