Lenin's Mausoleum, Moscow Kremlin, Red Square

The Moscow Kremlin usually referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow. Grotesque it may be, but few visitors to Moscow can resist a peek at pickled remains of the father of Soviet Russia. The Lenin Mausoleum sits beneath the Kremlin's towers on Red Square. Its star exhibit was nearly shown the dustbin by Boris Yeltsin back in 1993. The blustering former president decided that it was no longer appropriate for the revolutionary to lie, as it were, in state, and removed the traditional honour guard from the doors. Lenin's corpse survived Yeltsin's attack, however, and can still be filed past by the curious, all shrunken and yellow and waxy. Queuing up is easier than it used to be years ago, when visitors had to queue up in files of two, take their hats off and keep their hands out of their pockets, even on the coldest Moscow day.

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