Lenin led the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917 which cemented Communist rule in Russia and the Soviet Union for the next 74 years.

His successors allowed him to lie in state in Red Square - although opponents point out that he founded the state which oppressed hundreds of millions in central and eastern Europe and accuse him of being a mass murderer.

Vladimir Kozhin, the Kremlin administrator in charge of its property portfolio, including Red Square, said: "We have only just moved away from revolutions, from turbulent political battles.

"The country wants to live normally, to work, to be rich."

Russia's first post-Soviet leader, Boris Yeltsin, spoke in favour of removing the mausoleum from Red Square on several occasions.

But strong pro-Communist sentiment in the country prevented him from doing so.

President Vladimir Putin has brought relative stability to Russia since he came to power in 2000 after the chaotic post-Soviet 1990s.

Cash from oil and gas revenues has underpinned that stability and propelled a resurgence in Russian national pride.

Doctors embalmed Lenin's body days after he died and laid him out in the mausoleum. Lines of waiting tourists - both domestic and foreign - stretch around the Kremlin's walls as they wait to file past his body for the few minutes the guards allow.

Mr Kozhin added: "Of course, having this necropolis at the centre of the city is nonsense.

"And if 80% of the people say that Lenin should be moved and buried then it is up to us to act on that decision."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1287817,00.html