Witness History - Lenin and the deadly mushrooms
Download Lenin and the deadly mushrooms
As communism was crumbling in the early 1990s a spoof made for Soviet TV, persuaded some Russians that Vladimir Lenin's personality had been seriously affected by hallucinogenic mushrooms. The mushrooms in question were the deadly poisonous fly agaric fungi which the programme alleged Lenin had eaten whilst in exile in Siberia. Dina Newman has spoken to journalist Sergei Sholokhov who presented the TV spoof.
Photo: two fly agaric toadstools. Copyright: BBC.
Published on Tuesday, 12th March 2019.
Available Podcasts from Witness History
We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Witness History webpage.