Origin of “Lenin Lurking”

“Lenin Lurking” was one of the first stories I wrote in my early 40’s when I’d decided that writing was on my bucket list.  I was really pleased with it and like many of my stories before or since the idea was triggered by a photo.  The photograph was posted on flickr.com by a man named “Sergey Mustafin” and was taken in a former Soviet-controlled country where someone had removed a statue of Lenin and kind of hidden it away in an alley nook (whether to obscure it or preserve it, I do not know).

I was intrigued to say the least.  Because of the shadow he almost looked real, peering out malevolently, like someone who might want to waylay you for thinking the wrong thoughts.  It was this image of Lenin as a kind of shadowy shade roaming the streets of Moscow that put the story in my head.  And what might that be like with the Soviet Union so recently toppled?  I’d been reading about the explosive growth of churches and monasteries being built and/or revitalized throughout Russia after the fall.  It was like Lenin’s work was unraveling at a rapid pace as Russia was waking up from an 80 year nightmare.

And then there’s the introduction of St. Tikhon of Moscow into the story (his name was “Vasily Ivanovich” prior to taking monastic vows) .  He had been a thorn in Lenin’s atheist-side and when he died his body was hidden away from the Communists to prevent it from being desecrated.  And while St. Tikhon’s body lay in some unknown location, Lenin’s body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum on Red Square for the masses to venerate in a kind of bizarre mockery of the Orthodox tradition of venerating the saints whose remains are often-times found to be incorrupt.

In the early 90’s while the Soviet Union was in full free fall the main church of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow caught on fire.  What appeared to be a tragic event turned providential when a secret crypt was discovered in the clean up process which contained the incorrupt remains of St. Tikhon hidden away for the past 70 years!

In 1998 I was in Moscow and a Russian friend took me to the Donskoy Monastery to visit and venerate the relics of St. Tikhon.  He is referred to as “Enlightener of North America” due to his missionary efforts here prior to being elevated to being the Patriarch of Moscow (and by extension all of Russia).  His icon sits in the far left of the iconostasis here at our little parish in Columbus, Ohio.  When we arrived at the wooden gates they were shutting them as the monastery was closing for the evening.  My friend begged the young monk to allow us in briefly but was politely turned away.  I felt dejected at that the moment, but in writing this short story 15 years later I was able to not only get into the monastery, but encountered St. Tikhon himself by way of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin!