If all the official data and reports are correct, neither the bullet nor the operation caused Lenin’s death. It is not too late to examine Lenin’s left carotid artery and discover whether Lenin underwent an operation deeper in the neck in search of the second bullet. The dictator’s embalmed body, ninety years after his death, is on public display in his mausoleum in Red Square and, thanks to a monthly bath in chemicals to combat a persistent fungal infection, is still in reasonable condition. And, all being well, Fanya Kaplan’s bullet should still be in there too.
