“A Parasite from Outer Space: How Sergei Kurekhin Proved That Lenin Was a Mushroom”, 2011-06-01 (; backlinks):
In 1991, Leningrad television broadcast a program that has since become infamous. The program’s guest, Sergei Kurekhin, claiming to be a political figure and scientist, conducted an elaborate hoax that he presented as a serious historical exploration into the origins of the Bolshevik revolution.
Using visual, textual, and scientific evidence, Kurekhin argued that the revolution was led by people who had been consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. His claim was that their personalities were being replaced by mushroom personalities, and their leader, Vladimir Lenin, was simply a mushroom.
As a result, Kurekhin’s assertions shed new light on many enigmas of Soviet history. Millions of viewers were at a loss: were they witnessing a serious program, a daring prank, or a case of unprecedented lunacy?
In this article, Alexei Yurchak analyzes that remarkable comedic performance, its social and political effects then and now, and what it may contribute to our understanding of the relationship between politics and irony.
…Kurekhin’s wife, Anastasia, later remembered that although he thought about faking perestroika media for a while, there was an immediate model on which he based his television appearance. A few months earlier he had watched a serious television program according to which newly discovered facts about the death of the poet Sergei Esenin suggested that he was killed, rather than committed suicide as was commonly believed. In the program this claim was “based on completely absurd facts. Showing photographs of Esenin’s funeral [the program’s author] provided such comments: ‘Notice where this person is looking; and see, another person is looking in the opposite direction. Which proves that Esenin was killed.’” Having watched this program Kurekhin said: “In this way anything at all can be proven.”