Lenin was a mushroom is urban myth and 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.
The hoax took the form of an interview on the television program The Fifth Wheel. In the interview Kuryokhin, impersonating a historian, narrated his findings that Vladimir Lenin consumed large quantities of psychedelic mushrooms and eventually became a mushroom himself. Kuryokhin arrived at his conclusion through a long series of logical fallacies and appeals to the authority of various "sources" (such as Carlos Castaneda, MIT 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. 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 puts the number at 11,250,000 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 Region Comity of the CPSU to clarify the veracity of Kuryokhin's claim, in response to which one of the top regional functionaries stated that "Lenin could not have been a mushroom" because "a mammal can not be a plant."
The incident has served as a watershed moment in Soviet (and Russian) culture and has often been used as proof of the gullibility of the masses.
42 Comments - Last post 21 minutes ago by Roguedust
5 Comments - Last post 48 minutes ago by solodolo1337
13 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Fluffster
54 Comments - Last post 3 hours ago by macgamer
93 Comments - Last post 4 hours ago by adambiser
21 Comments - Last post 4 hours ago by Beer4myself
35 Comments - Last post 5 hours ago by TinTG
30 Comments - Last post 9 minutes ago by woofwoofwoof
351 Comments - Last post 26 minutes ago by Tauis2Pi
825 Comments - Last post 30 minutes ago by MaximanBojangles
18 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Fluffster
16 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Fluffster
94 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by drstem
116 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Faloperito
thanks for the chance
Comment has been collapsed.
yyyyyy...did you eat Lenin Legatus? thanks for GA anyway.
Comment has been collapsed.
Thank you!
Comment has been collapsed.
Thanks!
Comment has been collapsed.
Has that actually happened or are you just trying to see if we are gullible? ^,...,^
Comment has been collapsed.
Source
Comment has been collapsed.
Wut
Comment has been collapsed.
Thanks!
Comment has been collapsed.
Thanks :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Sounds legit. Thanks for the giveaway!
Comment has been collapsed.