I never got to Mavolei. It was closed during my arrival in Moscow, then I didn't want to stand in a huge queue (especially before).
There are many rumors circulating on the Internet that as such Lenin's body is no longer left and a wax doll is in the Mausoleum. If earlier it was unrealistic to ask such a question, now all this has long been known, verified and confirmed …
By the way, here are some interesting moments from history.
Lenin's relatives and some members of the leadership were strongly against the mummification of the body for many years:
"I thought, how would Vladimir Ilyich himself react to this, spoke out negatively, being completely convinced that he would be against such treatment of himself and with anyone else" (Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich)
“The attitude towards Lenin as a revolutionary leader was replaced by the attitude towards him as the head of the church hierarchy. During my protests, a mausoleum was erected on Red Square, unworthy and insulting to the revolutionary consciousness. Official books about Lenin turned into the same mausoleums. His thought was cut into quotes for false sermons. They fought with an embalmed corpse against the living Lenin (Leon Trotsky)
“I have a big request to you: do not let your sorrow for Ilyich go into the external veneration of his personality. Do not arrange monuments to him, palaces of his name, magnificent celebrations in his memory, etc. - he attached so little importance to all this during his lifetime, so he was burdened by all this. Remember - there is still so much poverty and disorder in our country. (Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya)
Soviet biochemist academician Boris Ilyich Zbarsky and his son in the laboratory.
Promotional video:
Despite the opinion of relatives, on March 5, 1924, at a meeting of the Commission for the organization of the funeral, discussions began with pathologists and doctors about the fundamental possibility of preserving the body of the leader for an indefinitely long period. There were no analogues in world practice for such an experiment yet - embalming according to the principles of Ancient Egypt was not suitable, since those mummies lost up to 70% moisture and their features were greatly distorted. Freezing was also not a reliable option. At first, scientists could not guarantee that the work on the kind of mummification required for Lenin would be successful. They started experimenting with no confidence of success.
When carrying out temporary embalming, scientists cut large blood vessels, since there was no talk of any mummification for many years. Later, academician Abrikosov was very distressed and said that if the plans for long-term storage of the body were announced immediately, the arteries would undoubtedly need to be preserved - through them embalming fluids would be easily transported to all areas.
A scientist behind the monitors of computers that control the parameters of the environment in the Mausoleum.
Embalming work began on March 26, two months after Lenin's death.
1. Impregnate the whole body with formalin - formaldehyde fixed proteins in the body, turning them into polymers that prevent decay, and at the same time killed all unnecessary microorganisms.
2. Desaturate brown spots on the skin with hydrogen peroxide.
3. Saturate the body with solutions of glycerin and potassium acetate so that the tissues retain moisture and are in equilibrium with the environment.
It seems that everything is clear, but in fact it was absolutely unclear how to ensure the optimal ratio of substances inside the body so that displacement does not begin, and how to provide all tissues with embalming solutions.
The work lasted four months, from March to July. Formaldehyde was injected through arteries, into tissues using injections, and then the body was completely immersed in a bath with a solution. Scientists got rid of cadaveric spots by cutting the skin and injecting hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid and ammonia.
In order for the embalming substances to penetrate better, the corpse was incised, holes were drilled in the skull (the holes were sewn up and masked). The face was fixed with sutures hidden under the beard and mustache, and eye prostheses were inserted into the eye sockets. Edema of tissues on the face and hands was removed with the help of alcohol lotions.
Rumors that Lenin's body was not real began to circulate in the first days after the death of the leader. A few months later, at the end of the summer of 1924, the Mausoleum opened to its first visitors, and Moscow again began to say that there was a wax mummy. Rumors did not stop even in the late 1930s, when their recurrence was especially dangerous. In a written denunciation to the GPU, a young Muscovite claimed that her acquaintance in a private conversation stated that there was only a wax doll in the Mausoleum.
In the early years, this was repeated in the foreign press. To dispel rumors, in the mid-1930s, the party leadership invited Western media representatives to the mausoleum. The American journalist Louis Fisher wrote how, in their presence, Boris Zbarsky, who, together with Vladimir Vorobyov, was the first to embalm Lenin's body, opened the hermetically sealed glass sarcophagus, took the leader by the nose and turned his head left and right to show that this was not a wax figure.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, rumors that Lenin's body was an artificial copy resumed. In response to them, Ilya Zbarsky, the son of the first embalmer, wrote: “I worked in the mausoleum for 18 years, and I know for sure that Lenin's body is preserved in excellent condition. All kinds of rumors and inventions about the artificial doll and that only the face and hands have survived from the body have nothing to do with reality."
For scientists at Lenin's laboratory, who have been supporting this body for 92 years, it has always been important to maintain its dynamic shape - that is, physical appearance, weight, color, skin elasticity, joint flexibility. Even today, the joints in Lenin's body bend, the torso and neck rotate. It has not hardened, has not turned into a dried mummy, so calling it a mummy, as it is constantly done in the media, is wrong.
However, the question of who is actually in the Mausoleum is already quite philosophical and controversial. The fact is that in the process of the procedures carried out and the replacement of some tissues and fluids, a little more than 20% of the original body of Lenin remained. Biological materials are more and more replaced with artificial ones every year, but the external shape of the body remains unchanged, so today we undoubtedly face the mummy of the leader of the proletariat, but it has undergone a very serious modification.
In order to maintain this body in a flexible state, it has been subjected to unique procedures for many years, as a result of which biological materials are replaced with artificial ones. This process goes slowly, gradually. On the one hand, at the level of a dynamic form, the body is certainly real, on the other hand, at the level of the biomaterials of which it is composed, it is rather a copy - everything depends on the point of view.