<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/russia" rel="" target="" title="Russian television viewers"><span>Russian television viewers</span></a><span> were stunned, baffled, bemused or alarmed by a live news report making a bizarre accusation about an iconic former leader on May 17, 1991.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A historian interviewed on current affairs program </span><em><span>Pyatoe Koleso</span></em><span> made an elaborate explanation about a previously unreported claim about </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/ukrainians-up-pressure-on-president/42ff8fcd-1d92-4d62-8a57-a582abcbf82a" rel="" target="" title="Vladimir Lenin"><span>Vladimir Lenin</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The claim was that Lenin and others in the early communist movement consumed so many </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/single-psychedelic-dose-can-relieve-depression-symptoms/11d51bd5-f619-4ddc-9ccc-f17357c2f008" rel="" target="" title="psychedelic mushrooms"><span>psychedelic mushrooms</span></a><span> that they themselves turned into mushrooms.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-april-24-what-happened-on-this-day-beatles-reunion/05881bfb-a382-47ac-8259-5a7cf972192d"><strong><span>World's biggest band nearly reunited for tiny sum</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The mushrooms, as they were consumed by these people, displaced their personalities, and people became mushrooms. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So, I am simply trying to say that Lenin was a mushroom. And not just a mushroom; he was also a radio wave."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The broadcast was obviously a hoax with the intent of poking fun at conspiracy theorists.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-may-17-what-happened-on-this-day-lenin-was-a-mushroom/5b590056-7dcf-4ce7-a69b-f70811f2de87" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But after decades of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-april-26-what-happened-on-this-day/0a436f8c-a5e4-4f0e-bf14-bde6d20cf986#2" rel="" target="" title="Soviet television"><span>Soviet television</span></a><span>, where satire was verboten and news programs were taken deadly seriously, many viewers did not pick up on the joke.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Unflattering reports about politicians like Lenin were strictly forbidden up until the fall of the Soviet Union.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And as a consequence, many shocking truths were only coming to light as the government loosened its censorship laws.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-april-17-what-happened-on-this-day-kiteman/ce990119-c137-4a93-ae54-920cbcbe3706" target="" title="Crowd boos as stuntman nearly killed in baseball stadium"><strong><span>Crowd boos as stuntman nearly killed in baseball stadium</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Reporter Sergey Sholokhov recounted how a group of old Communists demanded an explanation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The day after the broadcast, a delegation of Old Bolsheviks came to Galina Barinova, who was in charge of ideology at the regional party committee, and demanded an answer to the question: is it true that Lenin is a mushroom?" Sholokhov said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"'No!' said Galina Barinova. 'But how could that be? They said so on TV yesterday'." </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The hoax was a collaboration between Sholokhov and Sergey Kuryokhin, an experimental musician and artist.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the live and largely improvised broadcast, Kuryokhin played the purported historian and Sholokhov the interviewer.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Sholokhov later described the episode's ratings as "truly astonishing".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Nowadays, Russians will recount watching the episode but few will admit to being fooled.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-april-18-what-happened-on-this-day/21990ac6-1839-49a3-84c4-b47550d9876a" target="" title="Fake radio station tricks hundreds of thousands of soldiers into surrendering"><strong><span>Fake radio station tricks hundreds of thousands of soldiers into surrendering</span></strong></a><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-21-what-happened-on-this-day-collyer-brothers/d420209f-80bc-49c4-8745-b09ffc292bb8" target="" title="Brother starves to death after hoarder killed by own booby trap"><strong><span></span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click here</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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