Russians remain split over whether the country should finally bury the remains of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, which has been on display in a mausoleum in Red Square since his death in 1924.
Fifty percent of Russians polled by the ROMIR opinion research group said the late Bolshevik leader should be laid to rest once and for all, while the other half opposed such a move.
Young, educated, urban Russians tended to favour evicting the Communist icon from Moscow's central square overlooked by the Kremlin, while the elderly and Communist supporters resisted the idea, ROMIR said.
Russia's State Duma, or lower house of parliament, had been due to vote on burying Lenin's remains last December, after liberal deputies tabled a motion.
But the proposal provoked such fury among the Communists that the liberals eventually backed down.
The Soviet leader's body was embalmed and laid out in the marble mausoleum on Red Square after his death in 1924 and has since become a key attraction for millions of tourists – MOSCOW (AFP)
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