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Rebooting Russia, finding a new format for cooperation with the Kremlin, and establishing novel security structures are the talk of the global village these days, with the ascendancy of Barack Obama and his Administration. How about having Russia take the first step in meeting these newly popular ideas, by… taking Lenin off display and giving him a proper burial.

Yes, symbols have great meaning in our day and time, as they have in the past, and likely will in days to come.

It makes me wonder, how is it that to this day there stands in Moscow, in the center of a great power’s capital, on its main square – a mausoleum.

With its very own Resident Mummy. With all sorts of revelry abounding in the neighborhood. Such as major military parades, to take just one example. Sponsored by the Russian state, a state that claims an old Orthodox Christian heritage and Slavic lineage.

Orthodox Christian tradition. Yeah, right.

How can Russia pay homage to Lenin and fellow criminal Stalin and others walled up on Red Square? To communists who destroyed more human beings in their time than Hitler and his minions?

If we’re to talk about a world safe and secure, then the starting point lies in burying Lenin’s mummy and moving the bodies of arch-criminals from our northeastern neighbor’s central square. By doing this, Russia would show by deeds, not words, that it accepts responsibility for the past, and that it does indeed embrace basic human values, and Christian values. Russia would also firm up its claim (expressed ad nauseam) to leader status in the Orthodox and Slavic worlds. The world would welcome such a step.

I expect that the Russian leadership will give Lenin a fitting birthday present for his next birthday – April 22, 2010 – by burying his mummy or body in accordance with his family’s stated wishes. Such a move will be in accord with European traditions.

It’s all just a thought, you know. Lenin’s birthday is today, as they taught me so well in my school years…

Ilko Kucheriv is the Director of Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a Kyiv-based non-government organization. He can be reached by email at ilko@dif.org.ua