Lenin's Mausoleum

Embalmed remains of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution

Category Mummies

Mummies http://atlasobscura.com/category/memento-mori/mummies

Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square offers up one of Moscow's most macabre attractions and perhaps the most famous "modern mummy" in the world.

Frozen in time, Vladimir Ilych Lenin's embalmed body lays within a red granite and black labratorite step-pyramid. Here visitors may gaze on it in the dark, cool of the tomb.

When Vladimir Ilych Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, died on January 21, 1924, he did not believe he was going to an afterlife. He assumed that death was the ultimate end for him. How wrong he was.

In his will, Vladimir Ilych Lenin requested he be laid to rest in the ground. Instead, he was embalmed and interred in a temporary wooden cube designed by architect Alexei Shchusev. His body was on display before his funeral, and - while the government planned to bury him, according to them - the Russian people wouldn't have it. The Russian government allegedly received over 10,000 telegrams from the grieving public asking for the body of great leader to be preserved in some way for the generations to come.

In response to the public outcry, the permanent mausoleum was commissioned in 1929 to preserve Lenin's remains for a longer period of time. The current mausoleum was unveiled in 1930, again designed by Shchusev. Lenin's body remained here until it was evacuated to Tymen, Siberia (along with his embalmers, who worked to keep it "fresh"), since Moscow was under the threat of Nazi invasion. In March of 1945, a Soviet operation codenamed "Object No. 1" moved Lenin's body back from Siberia to the Moscow mausoleum.

To continue the preservation of Lenin's body, a group of special embalmers (originally Ilya Zbarsky and his son Boris Zbarsky) are dedicated to Lenin's corpse. Unfortunately Lenin's 85-year-old body still has a distinctive "wax-fruit" look to it, despite being warmly lighted to make him appear more lifelike.

The sarcophagus is kept at a constant temperature of 16° C (61° F) and humidity of 80 - 90 percent. Weekly, a mild bleach is used to fight discoloring fungus and mold on Lenin's skin, and every eighteen months the corpse undergoes a chemical bath of glycerol and potassium for thirty days while the mausoleum is closed. During this time, Lenin's clothes are washed and carefully ironed. And every three years, Lenin receives a new suit.

Sadly, due to the recent economic crisis, the charity that funds Lenin's upkeep has fallen on hard times and can't afford to buy Lenin a new silk suit. But then, Lenin would probably cherish the knowledge of capitalism's global meltdown more then a new suit, anyway.

Lenin can be viewed for five minutes at a time in small groups under the watchful eye of guards in every corner of the room.

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  • Hours Every day except Mon and Fri, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
  • Address Krasnaya Ploshchad, Moscow, Russia
  • Cost Free
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Lenin's Mausoleum is situated on the Red Square, next to the walls of Kremlin. Museum rules state no talking, smoking, or taking photos inside.

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  • & Anonymous July 27, 2011
    Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square offers up one of Moscow's most macabre attractions and perhaps the most famous "modern mummy" in the world.Frozen in time, Vladimir Ilych Lenin's embalmed body lays within a red granite and black labratorite step-pyramid. Here visitors may gaze on it in the dark, cool of the tomb. Through the ages of world history, thousands of leaders and scholars appeared who spoke eloquent words, but these remained words. You, Lenin, were an exception. You not only spoke and taught us, but translated your words into deeds. You created a new country. You showed us the road of joint struggle... You, great man that you are, will live on in the memories of the oppressed people through the centuries. Winston Churchill, who encouraged British intervention against the Russian Revolution, in league with the White Movement, to destroy the Bolsheviks and Bolshevism, said: "He alone could have found the way back to the causeway... The Russian people were left floundering in the bog. Their worst misfortune was his birth... their next worst his death." Three days after his death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour, so remaining until 1991, when the USSR dissolved, yet the administrative area remains "Leningrad Oblast". In the early 1920s, the Russian cosmism movement proved so popular that Leonid Krasin and Alexander Bogdanov proposed to cryonically preserve Lenin for future resurrection, yet, despite buying the requisite equipment, that was not done. Instead, the body of V. I. Lenin was embalmed and permanently exhibited in the Lenin Mausoleum, in Moscow, on 27 January 1924. Despite the official diagnosis of death from stroke consequences, the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov reported that Lenin died of neurosyphilis, according to a publication by V.Lerner and colleagues in the European Journal of Neurology in 2004. The authors also note that 'It is possible that future DNA technology applied to Lenin's preserved brain material could ultimately establish or disprove neurosyphilis as the primary cause of Lenin's death'. According to Leon Trotsky, who knew him well: "Lenin's outward appearance was distinguished by simplicity and strength. He was below the middle height, with the plebeian features of the Slavonic type of face, brightened by piercing eyes; and his powerful forehead and still more powerful head gave him a marked distinction." According to most reports, in his personal life Lenin was a modest and unassuming man. He liked children and cats and his enthusiasms included bicycling, amateur photography, chess, skating, swimming, hunting, music and hiking. When in exile in Switzerland, Lenin, accompanied by his wife Krupskaya, developed a considerable passion for mountain walking in the Swiss peaks. Lenin's personal life is documented in detail in his wife's book Memories of Lenin. Lenin was a prolific political theoretician and philosopher who wrote about the practical aspects of carrying out a proletarian revolution; he wrote pamphlets, articles, and books, without a stenographer or secretary, until prevented by illness. He simultaneously corresponded with comrades, allies, and friends, in Russia and world-wide. His Collected Works comprise 54 volumes, each of about 650 pages, translated into English in 45 volumes by Progress Publishers, Moscow 1960–70.
  • & Anonymous August 6, 2009
    totally interesting. I will probably never be there but seeing this way was close. Ala.