Lenin: Keep him on display or bury him?

MOSCOW, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Russian politicians and activists used the 86th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's death to renew debate on whether to bury him or keep him above ground.

Lenin died Jan. 21, 1924, of a series of strokes. His embalmed body is displayed in Moscow's Red Square, a display that stirs controversy on the days of Lenin's birth and death, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

Russian Communists gathered Thursday to lay wreaths at the mausoleum on Red Square, where Lenin's embalmed body is displayed in a glass case.

"From the humane, human and religious points of view, a body should be committed to the earth. Keeping a coffin containing a dead body on Red Square is simply not good," Igor Lebedev, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in the Duma, the Russian parliament, said.

In a statement, the Communist Party of Russia said Lenin was buried properly, RIA Novosti said.

"His body rests 2 meters below the ground, just as it should be under Christian and Orthodox norms," the Communist Party said.

It has been suggested that Lenin's body could be buried in a new national military cemetery to be opened in 2011.