A group of kindergarten children led by their teacher goes into the forest of the Soviet Union, where the group spots a porcupine and freezes.

"Oh look children, do you know who that is?"

The children wag their heads side-to-side. "No."

"Oh come now, children. We told so many stories about him. Don't you remember him? See there, the bristles on his back? Don't you know?"

Still no answer.

"Children, don't you remember all the songs we sang about him in class?"

Then a child stepped forward smiling, "Oh, I know, it's comrade Lenin!"

Sardonic intellectuals opposing all politics tell this story in Russia, because it's supposedly about brain-washing, but MIM found it funny too. Today, people who think Lenin was a porcupine are in charge of the former Soviet Union. The people in their 40s and 50s today will go down in history as one of the most depoliticized and politically ignorant generations of history.

The good news is that we Leninists are having the last laugh. In a previous story in MIM NOTES #330, we reported that Gazprom's moves with regard to ex-Soviet countries evoked cries of "imperialism" from the Russian Liberals who think Lenin was a porcupine. Since our story, the discussion in Russia has become deeper.

We found six Russian websites discussing imperialism thanks to Gazprom. The Limonov website is not too surprising, but we also have the semi-fascist zavtra.ru, the news website ytro.ru, the liberal website nezavisimaya.ru, gareta.ru and the Liberal yabloko.ru all discussing this "imperialism" thing.

Gasp, gasp, a monopoly capitalist company formed and now has the government's aid in playing hardball with other countries, who then whine and complain about things like "sovereignty" and "exploitation." With utter astonishment, since they did not read Lenin during Soviet times, the Liberals now have to read what Lenin said about imperialism, and worse, read it and acknowledge it is all coming true right in Russia.

Of course, we should admit, in the united $tates, the oil companies own the government. In Russia, the government owns the oil companies.

We asked our in-house Theory Department if there is a difference between Russian imperialism and Amerikan imperialism and here is the answer we got back : "Yes, it depends on the age of executives. If they're 80, there's a big difference. If they're younger, they may get a chance to rotate offices between business and the government, and then there is no difference." Yes, your head is supposed to spin.

Anyway, the discussion by the Liberals is already laughable as we explained before. Yet Russia never ceases to amuse, not with so many people who think Lenin is a porcupine around. It is well-known now that the Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed a great resurgence, as a Russian national symbol, especially among mafia bosses killing people during the week and atoning for sins in church on weekends.

The red-brown people of zavtra.ru --are they worse than Limonov and is that possible? -- say they now just broke with the Russian Orthodox Church after supporting it thus far. It seems that the Russian Orthodox Church signed on to a petition to raze the Lenin Mausoleum to the ground and bury Lenin the proper Christian way.

Yikes, the Mausoleum is a good history museum--not a good idea to raze it. But even if Lenin did get his last wish to be buried, at the moment, it would be a burial in the spirit of the Russian Orthodox Church! It would not be a fitting red atheist moment in history. So forget what Lenin wanted, rebellion is keeping the mummy.

With Stalin passing 50% in popularity and being the most recent ruler of the ex-Soviet Union to have that high an approval rating, this was not a smart move by the Russian Orthodox Church. So zavtra.ru turned the petition into a political event. Perhaps if Lenin had known his body would spark a political split between Christianity and an emerging political organization he would have approved of being placed in a vacuum tube for posterity to await such a moment.