This guide is created to explain the meaning of a popular internet meme from the post-Soviet space to people who are not familiar with it. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT PURSUE ANY OTHER PURPOSES.

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Many people on the internet may have come across images of Lenin depicted as a mushroom, but not everyone knows the history and meaning of this meme. That is exactly why I am here.

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So, why is Lenin a mushroom after all?

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It all started with a lecture by Artemy Troitsky and Sergey Kuryokhin on a 1990s TV show, where they parodied the style of investigative journalism. He “demonstrated” that Lenin had consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms, had turned into a mushroom himself, and even became a “communist mushroom.”

The show was absurd from start to finish, yet delivered with a perfectly straight face—leaving many viewers utterly bewildered. The ridiculous premise wasn’t thrown at the audience all at once. Instead, it was dressed up as serious reasoning, peppered with quotes from all sorts of sources—even referencing Carlos Castaneda when Kuryokhin recounted his so-called Mexican expedition. The sense of plausibility came from clever manipulations: facts were twisted, the narrative was confusing, and though it made little sense on its own, it was presented as a kind of “scientific justification.”

According to the story, Lenin was not just a mushroom, but also a radio wave. “Evidence” included things like the supposed similarity between the cut of the armored car from which Lenin spoke and the mycelium of a fly agaric, the claim that “Ninel” (“Lenin” spelled backward) is a French mushroom dish, and other equally absurd arguments. The whole thing was a masterclass in absurdity dressed up as serious science.

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For what?
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Sergey Kuryokhin’s widow recounted the story of how this TV program came to be in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda:

The idea for the show was born one day when Sergey saw a program about the death of Sergei Yesenin. The producer of that program was trying to “prove” that the poet had been murdered—based on completely absurd evidence. They showed photos from Yesenin’s funeral and narrated: “Look at where this person is looking, and this one is looking the other way, which clearly means Yesenin was killed…” Sergey watched it and said to me: “You can prove anything that way.”

The whole point was to show just how easy it is to manipulate mass consciousness.
Kuryokhin was mocking pseudo‑evidence and conspiracy thinking: if you present information with an “academic tone” and sprinkle it with references, people can end up believing even the most unbelievable things.

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End
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And, of course, such a performance didn’t go unnoticed by the public, which is how all these memes came about.

Now you know more about this meme and its history. That brings my story to an end—thank you for your attention.

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