Lenin's niece dies in Moscow

MOSCOW, March 28 (UPI) -- Olga Ulyanova, the niece of Vladimir Lenin, died in Moscow, officials said. She was 89.

Ulyanova was the daughter of Lenin's younger brother, Dmitry Ulayov, a founding member of the Bolshevik party, RIA Novosti reported Monday. She died Friday.

She was a chemist and writer and published several books about Lenin, the father of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

She opposed plans to remove Lenin's body from its Red Square mausoleum in Moscow but also said in 2008 it was a "mistake" to turn him into an icon for the Communist party.