When do we think about mausoleums? When do we even say the word itself - "mausoleum"? We do this very infrequently. And for the most part, we do this when the echoes of the debates about Lenin's mausoleum, which are slightly fading, then flaring up with renewed vigor, reach us. About whether it is necessary to leave the body of the leader of the world revolution to rest in this building, or is it better to bury Vladimir Ulyanov in our traditional way. Meanwhile, there are a great many mausoleums in the world.
Europe and beyond everywhere
So, in Europe alone there were more than thirty mausoleums (not all of them survived). There are over forty in Asia. There are mausoleums in both South and North America. In Africa, too. Among them, one can single out those mausoleums where bodies are buried, subjected, in dry medical language, to the embalming procedure.
Famous mausoleums
Let's remember the most famous mausoleums. Rather, like this: the mausoleums, created in honor of the most famous historical figures and other very, very people who are in our ears. Well, if for us, then, of course, in the first place will be the same aforementioned Lenin's mausoleum. Well, for example, the mausoleum of Kaiser Frederick the First in Germany. Italy - the mausoleum of Dante Alighieri. Bulgaria. Dimitrov's mausoleum. This, however, was blown up by the country's authorities in 1999 on the fifth attempt. The mausoleum of Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade. Estonia - the mausoleum of M. B. Barclay de Tolly. In Japan, there is generally a complex of four mausoleums at the Musashi Imperial Cemetery. Mausoleums of Emperors Yoshihito, Hirohito, and Empresses Teimei and Kojun. Iran - Avicenna's mausoleum. Mausoleum of Ataturk in Turkey. Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in China. Mausoleums of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in the DPRK. Mausoleum of Abraham Lincoln in the United States. The Mausoleum of Che Guevara in Cuba. In fact, as already noted, there are a great many mausoleums. And not all of them, as you know, are dedicated to the communist leaders. On the contrary, "communist mausoleums" are drowning among others.
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Ukrainian mausoleums
Interestingly, there are also mausoleums in Ukraine. And two. Why did they remember specifically about the Ukrainian mausoleums? There is no policy on our part. But, on the other hand, its influence in this case is undoubted. As you know, the country is actively involved in the processes of so-called de-communization, in connection with which, for example, many monuments to Lenin were destroyed, streets named after statesmen of the Soviet period were renamed. But if only the Soviet period. The settlements are renamed, whose names are associated with the period of the Russian Empire. And it is precisely in this connection that it seems that both Ukrainian mausoleums, under certain conditions, may suffer.
Surgeon by the grace of God
One of the Ukrainian mausoleums is the mausoleum of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov near Vinnitsa. Although near Vinnitsa - this is not entirely accurate. The fact is that the village of Vishnya (later Pirogovo), where Nikolai Ivanovich lived for a long time and where he died, is now part of Vinnitsa. But first, let's remember about Pirogov himself. This is the great Russian surgeon, the actual creator of topographic anatomy, who was the first in history to use ether anesthesia and bandaging, the founder of military field surgery. After the Crimean War, he had the courage to tell Emperor Alexander II about the problems and weaknesses of the Russian army. For this he fell out of favor. However, then, already during the Russian-Turkish war, he again showed himself from the best side. In general, Nikolai Pirogov was one of the most respected doctors and scientists of his time. He became the fifth honorary citizen of Moscow (where he was born),he was a member of several academies of sciences (Imperial St. Petersburg, Medical-Surgical, German Academy of Naturalists).
Death and embalming
Pirogov died in the very village of Vishnya. According to biographers, his body was literally embalmed within a few hours. And, interestingly, before that, a special permission was obtained from the church authorities. These very authorities were allowed not to bury the body to the ground, taking into account the merits of Pirogov not only as a great scientist, but also as … an exemplary Christian. Therefore, when you hear about the need to take someone's body out of the mausoleum and give it to the earth according to Christian custom, remember the story with Pirogov and think that the mausoleum and Christian customs are not always so incompatible. The body was buried in a tomb in Vishnu. Then a church was erected over it.
War and rebalancing
It is usually reported that just before the war, in 1940, an autopsy was carried out on the coffin with Pirogov's body. And the experts allegedly discovered that individual parts of the body and clothing were covered with mold and that the remains were mummified. It was decided next summer to carry out a series of measures to restore and further preserve the body. But the next year, 1941, as you know, the war began. Then the sarcophagus with the body was hidden in the ground. There was, in the protocol language, damage to the body. But then repeated rebalancing was carried out. A special laboratory was created in Vinnitsa, and a specially created commission is watching over Pirogov's body.
No one dared
Interestingly, in all the years of the existence of the mausoleum, robbers encroached on it only once. They stole Pirogov's pectoral cross and his sword. This happened in the late twenties of the last century. And so, neither in the civil war (neither "white", nor "red"), nor during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis - no one dared to touch the last refuge of the great Russian scientist. Let's hope that, despite all the political Ukrainian vicissitudes, and now no one will dare.
Bandit, revolutionary, red commander
The second Ukrainian mausoleum is the mausoleum of the famous Grigory Kotovsky. The personality is known to be legendary. Before the revolution - a natural bandit. But not without charm. First, he robbed and robbed the rich by himself, then he put together a whole detachment, with whom he “walked” around Bessarabia. He was imprisoned several times. He was a recognized authority in the criminal world. But, interestingly, the peasants loved him, with whom he shared his good, considered him a kind of local Robin Hood, covered him in every possible way and helped to hide from the police. He knew several languages. He had acting skills. Then the civil war, where Kotovsky did many glorious deeds. Both literally and in quotes. They say that Nestor Makhno tried to befriend him. But unsuccessfully. But Kotovsky himself became friends with the legendary Mishka Yaponchik. He treated him as a very respected godfather. The same attitude to Yaponchik and "red" Kotovsky. By the way, when the "whites" were evacuated from Odessa, Kotovsky, they say, took the valuables out of the State Bank branch in three trucks. What happened to them later, history is silent.
But in general, Kotovsky fought really dashingly. Either his division makes a heroic raid on the enemy's rear, then his cavalry group is thrown to the aid of Petrograd, where Yudenich is torn, then he fights against the Petliurists and Poles, then he smashes the Makhnovists and Antonovites. It is rumored that the People's Commissar Frunze wanted to make Kotovsky his deputy. But whether this is actually so is unknown.
Ludicrous death
Grigory Kotovsky really died absolutely absurdly. He was killed on August 6, 1925 by a certain Meyer Seider. It is known that Zayder once owned a brothel in Odessa, in which sometimes Kotovsky hid from the police. Then, it seems, he was Mishka Yaponchik's adjutant. But this has not been confirmed. Already after the civil war, Kotovsky allegedly arranged for him to be the director of a sugar factory out of old memory. And this man shot him. Moreover, Zayder did not try to hide. I gave up myself. He confessed everything. He was sentenced to ten years, but released for good behavior. And in 1930, three veterans of the Kotovsky division found him and shot him. Seider's motives are still unclear. It is generally accepted that this is jealousy. It seems that Zayder was jealous of Kotovsky for some of his girlfriend. But there are also those who consider this version untenable, saying that, in fact,Kotovsky owed Zayder, but did not want to repay the debt. Still others hint that either Stalin or Trotsky organized the murder of Kotovsky, and some even talk about the revenge of the Ukrainian nationalists. Although at that time Ukrainian nationalists were, let's say, not so vindictive (they had not yet gained the strength that they later gained).
Mausoleum of the "noble robber"
After a solemn farewell in Odessa, his body was taken to the Moldovan border, to the town of Birzulu, then renamed Kotovsk. Embalming specialists arrived from Moscow. First, a crypt was made, where a glass sarcophagus with the body of the division commander was installed. Then, in 1934, a real mausoleum with a tribune was erected. In 1941, the Nazis destroyed the sarcophagus, throwing the remains of Kotovsky into the pit with the bodies of the Jews and Communists they had killed. But the workers of the railway dug up this grave and hid the embalmed corpse of Kotovsky in the cellar. And to make it better preserved, it was watered from time to time with alcohol. Then, after the liberation, the mausoleum was restored. Already in our time, in the fall of last year, the mausoleum of Grigory Kotovsky was robbed, and the body of the late division commander was damaged. Then the Podolsk deputies (Kotovsk was renamed Podolsk) decided to bury the body. This is how it turns out that the heroes and legends of past times again have to become involuntary "participants" either in revolutionary events, or in another public discord.
Mark Raven