
Lenin was a mushroom - Smaug123
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin_was_a_mushroom
======
ProfChronos
While reading the wikipedia article, I couldn't help thinking about two
things: \- the Big Lebowski scene when Walter jumps on the Dude's attempt to
quote Lenin and mixes Lenin with Lennon \- one thing I recently read about
natural language processing [1]: "NLP began in the 1950s as the intersection
of artificial intelligence and linguistics. (...) Early simplistic approaches,
for example, word-for-word Russian-to-English machine translation,2 were
defeated by homographs—identically spelled words with multiple meanings—and
metaphor, leading to the apocryphal story of the Biblical, ‘the spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak’ being translated to ‘the vodka is agreeable,
but the meat is spoiled.’
[1][http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168328/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168328/)

~~~
cstavish
Apt reference, but to be clear, it is Donny who jumps on the Dude's attempt to
quote Lenin, and Walter who scornfully corrects him, "V.I. Lenin-- Vladimir
Ilyich ULYANOV!"

~~~
karmelapple
Walter wasn't wrong, he was just... you know.

------
mendelk
This is great :)

On a related note, someone posted a question to r/newzealand if it was true
that having a vegetable garden is illegal in NZ[0]. The entire subreddit then
spontaneously decided that indeed it was.

The deadpan was so well done, that it had lots of people actually confused, if
not convinced!

r/OutOfTheLoop post "outing" the hoax:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/4ovxb1/is_the...](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/4ovxb1/is_the_new_zealand_antigardening_law_real_or_not/)

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/2nem47/can_you_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/2nem47/can_you_have_a_garden_in_new_zealand/)

~~~
marme
the reason people ask this is because in america there are some cities that
have outlawed gardens and types of plants you can plant in your front yard, it
is insane. So the question is not that ridiculous but i am sure it seems
ridiculous to new zealanders just like it laws banning gardens are ridiculous
but they do exist

~~~
e12e
While I can't speak to garden state-laws, I can see some good reasons to
outlaw poisonous plants in a garden that is accessible to children in a
neighbourhood. Especially some of those cruel plants that look like they have
good tasting berries that can in fact kill a five year old.

~~~
adrianratnapala
The laws in question are not about poisonous plants. It's about laws try to
force people to have ornamental gardens rather than veggie patches to keep up
the "tone" of the neighbourhood.

------
quantumhobbit
"one of the top regional functionaries stated that "Lenin could not have been
a mushroom" because "a mammal can not be a plant.""

I love the the logic here. As though "Lenin was a bottle nose dolphin" would
have been more plausible. Also did the Soviets have the same taxonomy as the
west, meaning mushrooms would be fungi and not plants?

~~~
Alex3917
Fungi were plants in the west too until the early 80s. Anyone old enough to be
making a speech on TV in 1991 would have probably thought of them as plants
regardless of their country.

~~~
Bromskloss
> Fungi were plants in the west too until the early 80s.

What brought about the change? Was some difference between them discovered or
was it a matter of deciding that it would be more convenient to give them
separate names?

~~~
mdemare
Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opisthokont](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opisthokont)

~~~
gpvos
Under "History" in that article:

 _> The close relationship between animals and fungi was suggested by Thomas
Cavalier-Smith in 1987_

 _> Early phylogenies placed fungi near the plants_ [...]

------
pierrec
The US today isn't in much of a different boat. Granted, a human being a
mushroom is quite an extreme one, but I'm sure a well-crafted documentary
reaching a wide enough audience could still have a deplorable impact. Here's a
2013 poll on conspiracy theories:

[http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/04/conspiracy-t...](http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/04/conspiracy-
theory-poll-results-.html)

I was in high school when one of the "moon landings were a hoax" documentaries
made the rounds. A significant portion of my class was instantly converted by
the documentary. I lost a little of my faith in humanity at that time, though
much of it was quickly recovered thanks to an excellent math teacher who paid
attention to his students, found out about the phenomenon, and dedicated half
of a class to thoroughly debunking it.

~~~
ajmurmann
When I grew up in Germany almost everyone seemed to believe that the moon
landing was a hoax. In fact I was usually labeled as the crazy one by my peers
for believing it actually happened.

~~~
geoka9
It's still widely believed in Russia (more for the anti-American sentiment
than particular veracity of the claim).

~~~
kirrent
Man, if I was Russian I think I'd be even more likely to believe it happened
than if I was American. I mean, given the propensity for governments over the
years to call events American conspiracies, the fact that Russian leaders
haven't ever said the landing was faked when they'd be gleeful to say it if it
was is conspicuous.

~~~
AnAfrican
It Was Broadcasted Live (or almost) In The USSR.

No Way, the Government of the USSR would have done that if they had any doubt
about it being an hoax.

------
maheart
Haha, hilarious, thanks for sharing.

I had to see this for myself.

Source:

Video, part1:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cs8QLnxlU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cs8QLnxlU)

Video, part2:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXDxpBFFR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXDxpBFFR0)

The "revelation" occurs at 2m36s:
[https://youtu.be/ExXDxpBFFR0?t=156](https://youtu.be/ExXDxpBFFR0?t=156)

~~~
anonymfus
That's a very short version.

I have a Lenin-grib.Sergey.Kuryohin.1991.avi with length of 1:33:11 on my PC.

~~~
dogma1138
Care to upload it? Since it was on Soviet television there isn't a copyright
issue.

~~~
anonymfus
Pretty sure that broadcasting on soviet television does not remove copyright
protection from the work. But there are many other almost complete versions on
YT, so I uploaded it anyway:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dp4H88ujY4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dp4H88ujY4)

Also I see that owners of 4 music compositions in it will monetize it:

[https://i.redd.it/otijgsg8du4x.png](https://i.redd.it/otijgsg8du4x.png)

~~~
dogma1138
Thanks for the upload :P

There was no copyright during communism, there were no patents either. It's
possible that archive footage has been purchased after the fall of the soviet
union and now it's owned by some one.

And even today some public television does not restrict rebroadcasting
including uploading it to sites like YouTube under certain circumstances.

~~~
anonymfus
There was:

[https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Авторское_право_в_СССР](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Авторское_право_в_СССР)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Un...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Union)

Anyway in 2012 Russia retroactively applied rules of the Bern convention to
all RSFSR works by becoming the member of WTO.

~~~
dogma1138
That's an interesting read thanks.

------
vizzah
Well, I watched it on TV when I was 14 years old and shortly after USSR break
up, obviously having no experience of mockumentaries before, having seen Lenin
in the mausoleum few years earlier.. all that stuff was really mind blowing,
even though it was hard to believe and raised mock suspicions - I remember I
questioned my parents about it =)

~~~
aaron695
> I remember I questioned my parents about it

What did they say?

Do you think any adults believed it?

You sounded confused rather than a believer.

~~~
vizzah
Sure I didn't buy it, was just perplexed by the idea itself. I never seen
anything so wacky on TV before.

My parents dismissed it right away and told me not to spend time watching that
kind of rubbish. I doubt adults believed it, only those who'd fancy paranormal
stuff. (All those UFOs, Bermuda triangle, fortune tellers were so ever popular
in USSR those days).

~~~
e12e
Haha. For something equally funny, but more serious (in a way, although making
fun of Lenin at the time is nothing to sneeze at), have a look at the work of
"the Yes Men":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men)

Perhaps my favourite:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI)

"Bhopal Disaster - BBC - The Yes Men" \- where they tricked media, including
the BBC, into believing they were Dow Chemical spokespersons, and that Dow
would take responsibility for the Bhopal chemical disaster, after Dow bought
Union Carbide.

[ed: some context:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lScyQYUHLA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lScyQYUHLA)
]

------
radiorental
Let us not forget the exceptional spaghetti harvest of 1957
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU)

Thanks, in part, to an unusual lull in population numbers of the notorious
Spaghetti Weevil.

~~~
gvurrdon
I am reminded of an advertisement for "compressed molecules" lager from the
80s. This is the only reference I can find:

[https://broken-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/when-advertising-
wa...](https://broken-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/when-advertising-was-good-top-
ten.html)

I was starting to think I'd imagined it.

------
oblio
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_d...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_\(radio_drama\))

~~~
annnnd
Nice one, straight to the point! :)

------
golergka
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI_CSKSshWg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI_CSKSshWg)

Here's the 55min version I've found - I think it's the longest one available
on youtube.

Random phrases that I just had to translate to illustrate the whole tone of
the video:

"Do you know that Quran allows jews to eat mushrooms only one day a week - on
saturday?"

"So you would think that this is an ordinary small mushroom... Although
really, it is a huge, spherical, energy-intensive, cosmological matter,
spreading it's dome into open astral space. -- So where does it grow? --
Excellent question. The thing is, it grows nowhere. I reaches out and finds a
human - see, it's mushrooms who are picking humans, not humans picking
mushrooms."

"We are looking at a mushroom culture - not really a culture, but a
geodynamic, geopolitic sphere of the mushroom world - as a certain telescopic
object"

"A great group of mushroom geneticists work in the Nuclear Physics Institute."

"So, it's been said that mushrooms look like flaccid phalluses, so I thought
that they carry within them a manly spirit - or corrupted manly spirit,
actually, since they're flaccid."

------
Artlav
And this was just the first in the long line of hoaxes that included the
world's largest pyramid (Ponzi?) scheme and legal homeopatics, which filled
the faith vacuum left followed the dissolution of the union.

People had no clue that a TV can lie about "X happened" (rather than "X didn't
happen"), what else you can do with money besides earn, buy and sell, and so
on.

It was such a rich scam market.

~~~
avdicius
It was not the first. It was after Allan Chumak made it to the TV. And after
lots of other absurdity like teachings of Helena Roerich was thrown in to blow
Soviet people's minds. Actually Kuryokhin was making fun of all of this, it's
rather a parody than a genuine hoax.

~~~
Artlav
Yep, should have said "one of the first". I was a kid during these times, so i
don't quite remember the precise sequences, only that the onslaught worked
kind of like a BS vaccine for the younger generation.

------
Graham24
That's up there with the great spaghetti tree hoax:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU)

"The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer..."

~~~
puzzlingcaptcha
There is also the internet classic "Spiders on Drugs" although it drops the
act half way through
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc)

------
Gravityloss
Gullibility research is an established area, as these things are important for
selling products and getting people voted to office.

For example, things people believe about the EU will affect their vote on
Brexit tomorrow. Here's an egregious example of a widely circulated totally
false myth:

[http://www.snopes.com/language/document/cabbage.asp](http://www.snopes.com/language/document/cabbage.asp)

~~~
10dpd
A quick keyword search for "cabbage" within EU legislation reveals 1273
documents:

[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/search.html?qid=1466597258008&text=...](http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/search.html?qid=1466597258008&text=cabbage&scope=EURLEX&type=quick&lang=en)

~~~
morsch
I looked at a few. I thought it was interesting that many of the ones I tried
did not contain the word "cabbage", apparently they do some semantic matching
which ends up including articles about cauliflower (which is a cabbage),
endives and potatoes.

Also, the titles are hilarious:

 _Council Regulation (EC) No 969 /94 of 26 April 1994 fixing the basic price
and the buying-in price for cauliflowers for the period 1 to 31 May 1994 _
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELE...](http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31994R0969&rid=141)

 _Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1775 /93 of 2 July 1993 amending Regulation
(EEC) No 2165/92 laying down detailed rules for the application of the
specific measures for Madeira and the Azores as regards potatoes and endives_
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELE...](http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31993R1775&qid=1466597258008&from=EN)

~~~
Gravityloss
Those are quite short?

EU is for a large part an agricultural subsidy organization. The paperwork
does cause a lot of overhead for the farmers, no doubt.

------
pandaman
I think the English wiki article is brilliant because the article itself is
what it's describing.

Kuryokhin told a tall tale on the TV and people enjoyed its absurdity and
humor. I would not say nobody believed it (you can find somebody who believes
any given bs) but I'd bet the 11.25M number in the wiki is exaggerated many
orders of magnitude. The whole statement of the article about many Soviet
people falling for this is as true as that a lot of Americans believed that
the film Borat is a documentary. Or, that Lenin was, indeed, a mushroom)).

------
dkaigorodov
It was a very important step for people of USSR to understand that TV !=
truth. The movie was to the very point. Quite an important topic for USSR with
an absolutely absurd statement just forces people to think and rely on their
own judgement only. And it simple to do in this case.

Now people not just was given a freedom to think. Now it is a must. To think
and to have OWN opinion.

------
sonthonax
The artist/prankster, Sergey Kuryokhin was also a fabulous pianist

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IvUgRylquA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IvUgRylquA)

And quite possibly one of the greatest artists of 90s Russia.

------
tn13
I am amused but not surprised and there this nothing unique about Russian
people either.

Many times survival in society vastly depends on believing absurdity because
cost to sticking to obvious truth could mean death. That is why women in Saudi
Arabia were Hijab and take beating from husband even though for any sensible
human being it should sound ridiculously stupid.

Americans are no different either. One has to only look at the irrational fear
of guns, terrorists or Muslims that schools or media promotes on regular basis
and sometimes well supported by laws too.

To give an example, one of my friends bought a simple bow and arrow to his
kids who practiced in a safe environment of his backyard. The bow itself was
not very powerful and the arrows did not have any harmful tips. So one day
cops showed up on his door and claimed that the neighbor had complained.

The cops told the guy that a "Bow and arrow" is considered a "Gun" in
California. A gun can be fired only in a range as per the law and what his
kids just did was "discharging a firearm in an harmful manner". This is a
felony that required them to arrest the father and send him to jail. What
father had done was completely common sense thing. The law was absurd. The
cops were gracious to let him go but later the father told me that if tomorrow
anyone tells him that it is a felony to make barbecue in your backyard without
FDA approval I might as well believe it.

------
moopling
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cs8QLnxlU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cs8QLnxlU)

Is in Russian but has English subtitles

------
StavrosK
Does anyone know the argument chain? I'm curious how someone made this
outlandish claim sound plausible.

~~~
gchp
> I'm curious how someone made this outlandish claim sound plausible.

From the article:

> 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.

I guess this had something to do with it? If people were used to TV being a
certain way, and this "interview" was presented in the same way, then it would
seem reasonable that it would be taken up in the same was as every other.
Nothing (aside from content) made it stand out from other shows.

Saying that, the claim is crazy, and it does seem strange that it was
seemingly accepted as truth. I wonder how a similar stunt could be attempted
today, and what the reaction would be...

~~~
icen
For a western analogue, try the BBC's spaghetti plantations.

~~~
VLM
or political correctness, as typically indoctrinated in school.

~~~
kodfodrasz
saying such things to this particular audience will result in massive
downvotes.

~~~
boomlinde
With less variation it seems to result in someone complaining about their
imaginary persecution.

------
botfly
Has anyone ever classified forms of gullibility before? For example, is there
a name for the form of gullibility that will make otherwise smart people
believe ridiculous things if it reinforces their belief that they are smarter
than everyone else?

------
MBCook
I've never heard of that before, pretty cool.

But now I've got the idea of trying to write lyrics for "Lenin Was A Mushroom"
(to the tune of Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog) stuck in my head, but I can't because
I have too much work to do today.

~~~
tsukikage
Haven't you heard?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MWqB4x7S9I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MWqB4x7S9I)

------
alanh
A Parasite from Outer Space: How Sergei Kurekhin Proved That Lenin Was a
Mushroom Author(s): Alexei Yurchak Source: Slavic Review, Vol. 70, No. 2
(SUMMER 2011), pp. 307-333 Published by: Stable URL:
[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307](http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307)
.

On Sci-Hub: [http://www.jstor.org.sci-
hub.bz/stable/10.5612/slavicreview....](http://www.jstor.org.sci-
hub.bz/stable/10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307#)

------
100ideas
Here's one of the articles (JSTOR) referenced on the en Wikipedia page:

A Parasite from Outer Space:: How Sergei Kurekhin Proved That Lenin Was a
Mushroom Alexei Yurchak Slavic Review Vol. 70, No. 2 (SUMMER 2011), pp.
307-333

[http://libgen.io/scimag/get.php?doi=10.5612/slavicreview.70....](http://libgen.io/scimag/get.php?doi=10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0307)

------
vittore
"What I want to say here is that Lenin was not only a mushroom , but also a
radio wave" (C)

------
Finnucane
I for one believe that a person can turn into a mushroom: I have seen it on
the TV.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqaslCGn-6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqaslCGn-6w)

------
avdicius
I don't think many people believed it. Actually it was more of a satire than a
hoax. A mockery of the BS wave that befell on gullible and unprepared audience
upon Perestroika.

------
davesque
I love how that official chose to correct the people: Don't worry everyone.
Just remember that "a mammal cannot be a plant" and everything's going to be
okay.

------
lunchTime42
Mario ( a working class plumber) made a career out of squishing mushrooms, to
get the princess in the castle.

Once your deducation goes whack, you can never go back.

------
aluhut
Great to see Carlos Castaneda in this. The ultimate Troll and still good
enough for New-Age ideologies.

------
dghughes
Now it's "Well I saw someone Facebook say that ... "taken as 100% truth.

------
justaaron
Ah the "Lenin Grib" story- tv announcers taken too seriously apparently...

------
narrator
I read the headline and thought he was kept in the dark and fed excrement by
Stalin.

------
tobymather
I wrote my dissertation on this

~~~
dandelion_lover
So would you mind sharing it?

------
muterad_murilax
And yet his embalmed body was there all along for everyone to see.

~~~
js8
If he wasn't a mushroom then, he probably is a mushroom now..

------
avodonosov
That's a well-known fact (as well as that Putin is a krab)

~~~
nice_byte
too bad there probably aren't enough russians here to understand that
reference

~~~
mk-61
Quite enough.

------
hodder
Here's another clue for you all, The Walrus is Paul.

------
alva
Probably not a fungi to be around at least

------
FuturePromise
It reminds me of the Yip Harburg song:

    
    
        Napoleon's a pastry
        Bismarck is a herring
        Alexander's a crème de cacao mixed with rum
        And Herbie Hoover is a vacuum
    
        Columbus is a circle and a day off
        Pershing is a square, what a pay-off
        Julius Caesar is just a salad on a shelf
        So, little brother, get wise to yourself
    
        Life's a bowl and it's full of cherry pits
        Play it big and it throws you for a loop
        That's the way with fate, comes today, we're great
        Comes tomorrow, we're tomato soup
    

(See [http://genius.com/Lena-horne-napoleon-lyrics](http://genius.com/Lena-
horne-napoleon-lyrics) )

------
ommunist
Who wasn't? I am glad Lenin became a normal corpse, and I grief it has low
buryability.

------
Atwood
In communist Russ Golden Teacher B+'s YOU!

