Communist mummies
The bodies of severalCommunistheads of state have beenmummifiedand displayed to the public. The practice began following the death of Soviet leaderVladimir Lenin.Since 1924, his remains have been exhibited atLenin's Mausoleumin theRed Square.Since Lenin, a series of Communist and state-socialist heads of state have been similarly preserved and displayed, often encased in glass and available for public viewing in mausoleums. Current leaders on display include Lenin,Ho Chi Minh,Mao Zedong,Kim Il Sung,andKim Jong Il.
Background
[edit]Early corpse preservation by humans is known from theChinchorro mummiesandAncient Egyptian funerary practices.[1]
Preservation technologies improved rapidly during the 18th and 19th centuries, with Dutch anatomistFrederik Ruyschinnovating a chemical embalming solution (liquor balsamicum) containingmercury oxide,Prussian blue,and clotted pig's blood. His anatomical museum was visited byPeter the Great,who said "I saw boys and girls 4 years old, visibly well vascularized, with open eyes and soft little bodies, and they were not even in alcohol." Ruysch sold his "repository of curiosities", including his embalming recipe, to Peter the Great for 30,000 guilders in 1717.[2]Anatomists continued to make advances inembalming chemicals,significantly in 1859 with the identification offormaldehydeby Russian chemistAleksandr Butlerov.[3]Following the death of Russian physicianNikolay Pirogovin 1881, he was embalmed using methods he devised. His remains are relatively well-preserved, entombed in a glass-lidded coffin at a church inVinnytsia.[4]
History
[edit]Preservation of Lenin
[edit]
Following the death of Soviet leaderVladimir Leninon 21 January 1924, he was embalmed byAleksey Abrikosov.On 24 January 1924, his body was displayed in theKremlin's Hall of Columns. His internal organs were removed during the autopsy,[5]and hisbrain was dissected.Lenin's body was transferred to theRed Squareand placed in a temporary wooden mausoleum. For two months cold weather kept Lenin's remains relatively undeteriorated as hundreds of thousands of Russians came to pay their respects. A committee chaired byFelix Dzerzhinskywas formed to deliberate on the preservation of Lenin's body[6]andLeonid Krasinmade an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the bodycryogenically.In March, biochemist Boris Zbarsky and anatomist Vladimir Vorobiev tried an experimental embalming technique.[7]The decision to display Lenin permanently was not made until 26 July. It was not until 1929 or 1930 that Lenin was put in the stone mausoleum.
Preservation and repair of Lenin's body has been ongoing since 1924. A Soviet team of specialists informally known as the "Lenin Lab" (now known as the Russian Biomedical Technology Research and Training Centre) was responsible for the body. The annual cost of preserving Lenin's corpse was $200,000 in 2016.[8]The specialists for Lenin's body also preserved the corpses ofHo Chi Minh,Kim Il Sung,andKim Jong Il.[9]
Spread to other countries
[edit]Since the embalming of Lenin, the Soviet practice spread to other Communist countries in theEastern Blocand elsewhere. Following the death ofCommunist BulgarialeaderGeorgi Dimitrovin 1949, his corpse was embalmed and put on display at theGeorgi Dimitrov Mausoleum.It remained there until 1990.[10]Like his predecessor, Soviet leaderJoseph Stalinwas embalmed and put on display next to Lenin in Lenin's Mausoleum. The Soviet leaders lay side-by-side for around eight years before Stalin was removed in ade-Stalinizationpurge.[11]Czech leaderKlement Gottwaldwas embalmed and preserved in a mausoleum at theNational Monument at Vítkovfrom 1953 to 1962 before finally being cremated.[12]
While not a head of state, Argentine First LadyEva Perónwas embalmed in 1952[13]and her blood was replaced withglycerineto preserve the organs and lend an appearance of "artistically rendered sleep". Her body was to be displayed publicly in a monument that was being constructed. Meanwhile, her body was displayed in her former office at theGeneral Confederation of Labourbuilding for almost two years. Before the monument was completed,Juan Perónwas overthrown in a 1955 coup, and the military dictatorship secretly transported her body to Italy, where it remained until 1971.[14]
Following the death ofHo Chi Minhin 1969, Soviet scientists from the Lenin Lab were flown into Vietnam to assist in the preservation of the body. Chemicals and equipment were also flown in. The initial embalming process took place at a temporary tomb in a secret underground chamber north of Hanoi.[15]After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia started charging Vietnam for embalming chemicals.[16]
While Chinese leaderMao Zedongwanted to be cremated, he was embalmed following his death in 1976. His remains were preserved with formaldehyde, during which his head was said to have "swelled up like a football".[17]
In 1979 after the death of Angolan PresidentAgostinho Netoin Moscow, the same Russian technicians who had worked on Lenin's corpse embalmed Neto. Neto was ultimately buried in 1991 by the wishes of his former spouse.[18]
While not a Communist, the body of President of the PhilippinesFerdinand Marcoswas preserved following his death in 1989.[19]President Marcos died in exile in Hawaii. After denial of President Cory Aquino of the return of his remains, his body was interred inByodo-In,aJapanese Buddhisttemple, on the island ofOahu.In 1993, his body was allowed to be returned to the Philippines, where his body was displayed in a glass-topped, refrigerated coffin at theFerdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center.In 2016, his body is reinterred in theLibingan ng mga bayani.
Following the death of North Korean leaderKim Il Sungin 1994, he was embalmed by Russian scientists. He is displayed in a mausoleum in theKumsusan Palace of the Sunin Pyongyang. AfterKim Jong Ildied in 2011, he joined his father on display after being embalmed by scientists from the Lenin Lab in a laboratory that was built into the mausoleum.[16]
Following the death of Venezuelan leaderHugo Chávezin 2013 plans to embalm and permanently display his body in a transparent sarcophagus[20]were abandoned after German and Russian scientists concluded that too much time had passed to properly preserve it.[21]
ExceptFidel Castro,the founder of every Communist state has been preserved.[22]Virtually none of the leaders wanted to be mummified.
Preservation
[edit]Lenin's remains are preserved by the "Lenin Lab", officially the Center for Scientific Research and Teaching Methods in Biochemical Technologies, which has a "Mausoleum group" consisting of five or six anatomists, surgeons, and biochemists.[7]The centre has treated its embalming techniques as a state secret. By 1993, the centre had 150 employees.[6]The centre has assisted in the preservation ofHo Chi Minh,Kim Il-sungandKim Jong-il,among others.[7]Ilya Zbarskyand his father Boris Zbarsky both headed the embalming processes as Lenin's Mausoleum.[23]The Lenin Lab concentrates on preserving the physical form and not the biological tissue. Flesh and skin are sometimes replaced with plastic and other materials. In the case of Lenin's remains, his blood vessels and arteries were removed during autopsy, so he wears a double-layered rubber suit and scientists use microinjection techniques to deliver embalming fluids. According to anthropologistAlexei Yurchak,the bodies are re-embalmed every one and a half to two years.[24]During the six-week process, the body is submerged in formaldehyde, alcohol,hydrogen peroxide,potassium acetate,sodium acetate,acetic acidandglycerolsolution baths. Lenin's skin fat has largely been replaced with a flexible material composed ofcarotene,glycerin,and paraffin.[7]
Mausoleums where leaders' bodies are preserved for public exhibition serve aspilgrimagesites and tourist attractions.[25]
Preserved communist heads of state
[edit]| Leader | Location | State | Dates of preservation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet Union | 1924 | During World War II, when Nazi armies threatened to enter Moscow, Lenin's body was removed toTyumen,Siberia.[26]In 2019, over 2.5 million people queued to see Lenin's remains.[27]A new set of clothing is ordered for Lenin every three years.[23] | ||
| People's Republic of Bulgaria | 1949–1990 | Following Dimitrov's death in Russia, theGeorgi Dimitrov Mausoleumwas built in six days.[28]Dimitrov's body was embalmed and encased in glass. In 1990, his remains were cremated and the ashes were buried inCentral Sofia Cemetery.[29] | ||
| Mongolian People's Republic | 1952–2005 | Choibalsan was embalmed by Soviet scientists from the Lenin Lab,[30]but was not "accorded long-term preservation" under the direction of the Kremlin.[31]His body was initially buried in the Altan-Ölgii National Cemetery in Ulaanbaatar before being transferred to Sükhbaatar's Mausoleum in 1954. His remains were cremated and reinterred atAltan-Ölgii National Cemeteryafter the mausoleum was torn down in 2005. | ||
| Soviet Union | 1953–1961 | Following his death in 1953, Stalin was embalmed and placed inLenin's Mausoleumnext to Lenin.[32]Stalin was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum in 1961 during the period ofDe-Stalinisationand interred in theKremlin Wall Necropolis. | ||
| Czechoslovak Socialist Republic | 1953–1962 | Gottwald died in office in 1953 after attending the funeral of Stalin. His body was embalmed and displayed in a mausoleum at theNational Monument at Vítkov.In 1962, his body was cremated, the ashes returned to the Žižka Monument and placed in a sarcophagus. Some accounts relate that his body had blackened and wasdecomposingdue to a botched embalming, although other witnesses have disputed this.[33]After the end of communism, Gottwald's ashes were removed from the Žižka Monument (in 1990) and placed in a common grave at Prague'sOlšany Cemetery,[34]together with the ashes of about 20 other communist leaders which had also originally been placed in the Žižka Monument. | ||
| Vietnam | 1969 | A team of Russian and Vietnamese scientists was convened to assess the state of Ho's remains in 2019.[35] | ||
| China | 1976 | |||
 Mausoleum of Agostinho Neto |
Angola | 1979–1991 | After dying in Moscow, Neto was embalmed by Soviet scientists. His mausoleum in Luanda was nicknamed "Angola's Sputnik".[36] | |
| Guyana | 1985 | Burnham was buried briefly before being exhumed and transported to the Soviet Union for preservation by the Lenin Lab. His body was returned in 1986 but was never publicly exhibited.[30] | ||
| North Korea | 1994 | Embalmers from the Lenin Lab spent nearly a year preparing Kim Il Sung's body for display. In the bookNorth of the DMZ,Andrei Lankovwrites that North Korea was rumoured to have paid $1 million for the embalming.[37] | ||
| North Korea | 2011 |
Non-communist personalities preserved in a similar fashion
[edit]| Personality | Location | State | Dates of preservation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 First LadyEva Peron
|
 Duarte family tomb inLa Recoleta Cemetery
|
Argentina | 1952 | First Lady Eva Peron, wife of Argentine PresidentJuan Peronwas embalmed by Dr. Pedro Ara, where he replaced her blood with glycerine which rendered the mummy "mannequin-like". |
 PresidentFerdinand E. Marcos
|
 |
Philippines | 1989 | In 1993, the remains of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos was returned to the Philippines and displayed at theFerdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center. |
See also
[edit]- Communist nostalgia
- Cult of personality
- God-Building
- Incorruptibility
- List of mummies
- Lying in state
- Plastination
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