Team of scientists preserved Lenin's corpse

At the peak of the period, the laboratory had 200 working professionals at the Lenin mausoleum in Moscow, Russia.

According to Guardian, lying in a glass coffin with a red trimmed mustache and hands on his thighs, wearing an austere black suit, that was Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union, at first glance. wax statue.

However, this is the truth of a person who died 92 years ago. If carefully monitored and re-embalmed regularly, scientists believe that this state can be maintained for centuries.

But work will be very expensive. Last month, the Federal Guard, responsible for overseeing all the bases near the Kremlin, including Lenin Mausoleum, first announced the cost of "medical and biological works to maintain the body." Lenin's " , up to 13 million rubles (US $ 197,000) in 2016.

When Lenin died in January 1924, no one planned to keep his body for a long time. In fact, the famous pathologist, Alexei Abrikosov, who performed an autopsy on Lenin, conducted a major artery cut.

"After that, he said that if he knew they would proceed with embalming, he would not do that," said Alexei Yurchak, professor of social anthropology at the University of California, USA. "Arterial systems may have been used to transport mummified chemicals to tissues."

After an autopsy, Lenin's body was temporarily marinated to prevent decomposition for 4 days and was placed in an open casket in central Moscow. More than 50,000 people visited, though the temperature was 7 degrees Celsius.

But as the number of visitors increased, the government had to temporarily transfer the coffin to a wooden tomb on Red Square. Because it was very cold, the body remained intact and only 56 days later when the weather got warmer, Soviet officials decided to permanently preserve the body.

Lenin's corpse.(Photo: Sergei Karpukhin / AP).

The first idea is to not embalm it, only deep cooling. The then-minister of international trade Leonid Krasin was allowed to import special freezing equipment from Germany. However, at the beginning of March 1924, when things were going well, two famous chemists, Vladimir Vorobyov and Boris Zbarsky, suggested embalming his corpse with a chemical mixture that could prevent decomposed corpses. cancel, dry or change colors and shapes.

After a series of government meetings, they were allowed to experiment.

For several months, a group of scientists sought to whiten Lenin and calculate the correct chemical mixes. Under the pressure of reporting to Soviet officials, they had to work day and night.

When the mausoleum on Red Square reopened to visitors on August 1, 1924, the reactions were very positive.

"Amazing. An absolute victory," Zbarsky reported.

Lenin Laboratory

Since 1924, a group of scientists has been tasked with maintaining Lenin's corpse. At the height of its activity in the Soviet era, the Lenin laboratory had about 200 experts working on the project, according to Yurchak.

Today, the group is much smaller, but the work is constant. Every few days scientists have to go to the tomb to examine the body, where the temperature and light are carefully calculated. And every 18 months, Lenin was taken to an underground laboratory with dim light to reclaim and wash.

Although scientists have preserved the bones, muscles, skin and other organs, all of his internal organs have been removed. His brain was removed and examined in the Soviet "Brain Institute" , founded shortly after Lenin's death, with the specific role of studying his "extraordinary abilities" . The brain fragments are still preserved to this day at the Center for Neurology, Russian Academy of Sciences.

The unique techniques developed by Soviet scientists have also led to a number of "customers" from abroad. The Moscow laboratories also embalmed President Ho Chi Minh, Bulgarian leader Georgi Dimitrov, North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and also Josef Stalin, whose mummy was on the side. next to Lenin from 1953-1961.

All mummification processes have been carried out in complete secret, scientists only occasionally fly to Vietnam or Korea for inspection and maintenance.

"Low-level experts like me were not told the specifics , " explained Vadim Milov, a mummified employee from 1987-1997 in the laboratory. "But I have enough information to go to Vietnam to work with Ho Chi Minh's corpse."

Attempts to interview people who are working in the lab are not successful. According to Yurchak, who studied Lenin's body for many years and interviewed lab workers, it was due to the new policy.

"They answered many interviews in the 1990s, one of the Russian TV channels even shot a detailed documentary about the laboratory under the tomb, until there was a new management policy." , he said.

Post-Soviet

The laboratory had a hard time after the Soviet Union disintegrated. In 1991 many new Russian democrats called for the destruction of the tombs, and put Lenin buried elsewhere. This caused a great protest, recalls Yevgeny Dorovin, a member of the Russian federal parliament.

"A lot of people went to Red Square to protest this decision," said Dorovin. "Luckily the Kremlin guard commander finally appeared and called on everyone to calm down, telling them that the tomb was safe."

People visit Lenin mausoleum in Red Square.(Photo: TASS).

But the government stopped funding the project in 1991, once again making the tomb's fate difficult. The Communist Party responded by donating.

"We pay for everything except gas, electricity and water," Dorovin explained, although he refused to disclose details of the amount spent. The state has just begun to fund the tomb again a few years ago, he added.

However, the main threat to the future of the tomb is the lack of adjacent research classes. Scientists are getting older, and no young researchers are willing to replace them.

"Young people are no longer interested in mausoleum science, it is no longer as prestigious as it used to be , " Yurchak said.

Without finding a solution to maintain the tomb, it means that this 92-year-long experiment will come to an end.

"It will be a loss of science, research and discovery, which is what scientists are worried about , " Yurchak said.