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Lenin exhorts Shenzheners
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Wu Yan
VLADIMIR LENIN, founder of the Soviet Union, was spotted in Shenzhen the other day, standing on the old flight deck of the former Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk. Rather than explain why he was in our city when the latest reports had him dead and resting in Red Square in Moscow, he stood surrounded by Russian dancers, streched out his hand in his trademark pose, and intoned in a booming voice:
"We'll either die of nuclear pollution or of nuclear war, or we'll be conquered by imperialists. So we have to have a socialist republic including the world. Long live the socialist world republic! Long live the social revolution in the whole world!"
Further inquiries revealed that, in fact, the man on the Minsk was not Lenin, but an imitator named Anatoly Ivanovichy Koklenkov, 55. He works for a Russian performing team hired by the Minsk World theme park to entertain visitors. Ivanovichy's act is familiar to many people in Moscow, and he has even appeared in several Russian and even German films.
Here in Shenzhen, he poses, walks and talks just like the legendary Soviet leader, while around him performers cavort in traditional Russian dances. When he speaks, he brings in elements of the modern world which were unknown in Lenin's time, such as threats of nuclear war or radioactive pollution -- his mention of nuclear pollution, he explained later, refers to Chernobyl disaster.
"The more I play Lenin, the more I understand him," Koklenkov says. A miller and an amateur badminton coach before he found his calling in show business, Koklenkov loves Lenin and believes in socialism, which he says gives people more freedom and opportunities. He likes Shenzhen, particularly its beautiful buildings and fast-paced development. He also likes to cite China's status quo to prove the correctness of Lenin's theories. There's no word yet on whether Lenin would have liked having an imitator.
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