Lenin was a mushroom
{{Short description|1991 Soviet television hoax}}
{{Expand language|topic=culture|langcode=ru|otherarticle=Ленин — гриб|date=April 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}
Lenin was a mushroom ({{langx|ru|Ленин — гриб}}) was a highly influential televised hoax by Soviet musician Sergey Kuryokhin and reporter Sergey Sholokhov. It was first broadcast on 17 May 1991 on Leningrad Television.{{Cite journal |last=Yurchak |first=Alexei |author-link=Alexei Yurchak |date=Summer 2011 |title=A Parasite from Outer Space: How Sergei Kurekhin Proved That Lenin Was a Mushroom |journal=Slavic Review |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=307–333 |doi=10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307 |issn=0037-6779 |jstor=10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307 |s2cid=121200139}}{{Cite web |last=Anatoly |first=Baranov |date=2011-01-17 |title=Десакрализация образа власти |trans-title=Desacralization of the image of power |url=http://forum-msk.org/material/politic/5261278.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110118030008/http://forum-msk.org/material/politic/5261278.html |archive-date=2011-01-18 |accessdate=2018-06-20 |website=MSK |language=ru}}{{Cite web |title=Дневники за 1991-й год |trans-title=Diaries for 1991 |url=https://juan-gandhi.dreamwidth.org/1991/01/18/ |website=Dreamwidth |language=ru}}
Hoax
The hoax took the form of an interview on the television program Pyatoe Koleso (The Fifth Wheel). In the interview, Kuryokhin, impersonating a historian, narrated his supposed findings that Vladimir Lenin consumed large quantities of psychedelic mushrooms and eventually became a mushroom and a radio wave. Kuryokhin arrived at his conclusion through a long series of logical fallacies and appeals to the authority of various "sources" (such as Carlos Castaneda, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky), creating the illusion of a reasoned and plausible logical chain.
The timing of the hoax played a large role in its success, coming as it did during the glasnost period when the ebbing of censorship in the Soviet Union led to many revelations about the country's history, often presented in sensational form.{{cite web |first=Eric |last=Grundhauser |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/lenin-mushroom-hoax-russia? |title=How Vladimir Lenin Became a Mushroom |website=Atlas Obscura |date=5 December 2017 }} Furthermore, Soviet television had, up to that point, been regarded by its audience as conservative in style and content. As a result, a large number of Soviet citizens (one estimate{{Cite web |author=D. |first=Ioffe |date=2004-03-12 |title=Диалоги с Сергеем Жариковым на исходе лета |trans-title=Dialogues with Sergey Zharkov at the end of summer |url=http://new.topos.ru/article/2139 |accessdate=2018-09-19 |publisher=Topos |language=ru}} puts the number at 11.3 million audience members) took the deadpan "interview" at face value, in spite of the absurd claims presented.
Sholokhov has said that perhaps the most notable result of the show was an appeal by a group of party members to the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU to clarify the veracity of Kuryokhin's claim. According to Sholokhov, in response to the request one of the top regional functionaries stated that "Lenin could not have been a mushroom" because "a mammal cannot be a plant."{{cite web|last=Mishenin|first=Dmitry |script-title=ru:Тихий Шолохов |trans-title=Quiet flows the Sholokhov |type=Interview of S. Sholokhov with Krestyanka magazine|url=http://www.krestyanka.ru/archive/year2008/dec/dec_349.html|date=December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214123744/http://krestyanka.ru/archive/year2008/dec/dec_349.html|archive-date=14 December 2008 |language=ru}} Modern taxonomy classifies mushrooms as fungi, a separate kingdom from plants.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite web |first=Dmitry |last=Mishenin |script-title=ru:ЦЕННЫЕ БУМАГИ. ШОЛОХОВ - КЛАССИК РУССКОГО ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЯ |trans-title=SECURITIES. SHOLOKHOV - CLASSIC RUSSIAN TELEVISION |date=2008 |url=http://www.peremeny.ru/column/view/873 |website=Перемены |language=ru}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cs8QLnxlU Part 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXDxpBFFR0 Part 2] of a subtitled, shortened version of the video
- [http://www.skeptik.net/prikol/lenin_gr.htm Partial transcript] {{in lang|ru}}
- [http://www.teterin.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=323&Itemid=158 Full program] {{in lang|ru}}
{{Urban legends}}
Category:1991 in the Soviet Union
Category:Cultural depictions of Vladimir Lenin