THOUSANDS filed past the embalmed body of Vladimir Ilich Lenin yesterday on the anniversary of his birth, but not all seemed to be motivated by the highest political ideals.
While many in the overwhelmingly elderly crowd were true believers, carrying red roses and banners, others came to prove their loyalty to a pro-communist organisation promising Moscow apartments for those who pay a million roubles (£110).
After walking through Lenin's mausoleum this group formed long lines in a throwback to Soviet times. The goal on this occasion was not cheap sausage but a register recording the names of those who had faithfully attended yesterday's celebration.
"We're trying to set up a communist-style system," Ms Kima Giirskaya, an official at the Youth Housing Co-operative, said.
"We're trying to find work and housing for people."
Claiming that 370 people had already received apartments, she denied the plan was a variant of the pyramid schemes that have flourished in Russia since the collapse of communism in 1991.
Inside Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square, next to the red-brick Kremlin walls, stern-faced guards enforce rules dating back to Soviet times. "Get your hands out of your pockets," they order visitors.
"Men, take off your hats."
Because of the frailty of many visitors the guards yesterday waived the usual demand that all entering the darkened tomb walk past the body at a brisk pace.
Some shuffled cautiously ahead, wiping away tears as they approached the hallowed place.
The Communist Party leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, led the faithful in laying flowers. (A few youths had tried unsuccessfully to lob tomatoes at him before he arrived at Red Square.)
Others used the occasion to lay flowers at other tombs of Soviet dignitaries behind Lenin's.
Stalin's grave overflowed with fresh roses. Just a few plastic flowers covered Brezhnev's.
Most people agreed that Lenin's body - which still receives regular infusions of chemicals to give it a fresh appearance should not be buried.
"Our forefathers decided not to bury him and we should maintain this tradition," said a plumber honoured with the Soviet-era title Hero of Socialist Labour.
A former major general who declined to give his surname said: "I served the Soviet army for 43 years and I am ready to serve again. We won't give up Lenin."
President Yeltsin last month raised the possibility of burying Lenin, whose preservation is now funded by private contributions, and floated the idea of a referendum on the issue. But Russia's communist-led parliament reacted angrily, passing a resolution to block the burial plan.