Lenin Was a Ruthless Mushroom Jesus, pt 1

Happy Global Mushroom Day!

In his obituary for Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), the writer Maksim Gorky (Peshkov) relays this anecdote:

Listening to Beethoven’s sonatas played by Isai Dobrowein at the home of Y. P. Peshkova in Moscow one evening, Lenin remarked:

“I know of nothing better than the Appassionata and could listen to it every day. What astonishing, superhuman music! It always makes me proud, perhaps naively so, to think that people can work such miracles!”

Wrinkling up his eyes, he smiled rather sadly, adding:

“But I can’t listen to music very often, it affects my nerves. I want to say sweet, silly things and pat the heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty. One can’t pat anyone on the head nowadays, they might bite your hand off. They ought to be beaten on the head, beaten mercilessly, although ideally we are against doing any violence to people. Hm—what a hellishly difficult job!”

I like to imagine that these references to Hell have a literal meaning—that Lenin saw our very reality…