At least 58 percent of Russians think Lenin’s body should be taken from the Red Square Mausoleum and properly buried, though the majority don’t want the monument to the Bolshevik leader to be removed from Moscow’s main square, a new poll indicates.

The poll was conducted by the Levada Center, a Russian non-governmental polling and sociological research group, Interfax reported. It was released on the eve of the Bolshevik leader’s birthday (April 22).

Around 1,600 people from 137 Russian cities and towns took part in the poll between March 31 and April 3.

According to the survey, 32 percent of those who agreed the body of the communist revolutionary leader should be moved from Red Square want to bury him near the Kremlin walls.

Another 26 percent want to bury Lenin in Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg, where many artists, musicians, and politicians were laid to rest. Lenin’s mother and sister are also buried there.

The majority of respondents, 78 percent, said they were against removing Lenin’s monument from Red Square.
According to the poll, the proportion of Russians positively disposed towards Lenin’s policies jumped from 40 percent in 2006 to 56 percent.

The pollsters also asked the respondents to evaluate the role of the Bolshevik leader in the history of Russia, and 26 percent said that Lenin will live on in people’s memory but no one will follow in his path. Another 23 percent said that Lenin led the country to progress and equality, while 21 percent answered that his ideas were distorted by his followers.