Russian authorities may be fretting about the physical dangers of people taking selfies, but communists in the country are all for them—or at least the ones that include Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
According to Global Voices, the idea would be to create a sort of online flashmob, with people sharing selfies taken with effigies of the communist leader with the hashtag #селфислениным (#selfiewithLenin). Started by the youth representatives of the Russian communist party this spring as a “cheap and effective way to popularize the image of the leader of the world’s proletariat among the youth,” the initiative has also been welcomed and promoted by the higher ranks of the party.
Gennady Zyuganov, a senior representative of the party, said he thinks “Vladimir Ilyich” (he is on first name terms with Lenin) would have liked the initiative, which would also help keeping track of the status of the thousands of statues of Lenin scattered around the country.
Of course, the trending hashtag has also attracted jokesters fond of digging at communism: