Yet this also hinders modern Russian progress as the people continually look back to the past, rather than show hope for the future. We vow to thee, Comrade Lenin, that we will honorably fulfill this thy commandment. From observing the eulogy, it is clear that even after death he dictates what is wrong and right. It seats his spirit high above the rest of society and equates him with God, such that his every wish about Soviet society must be fulfilled. Additionally, Stalin uses extremely formal language, suggesting that the embalmment process was a solemn and somber occasion.
Yet this is in fact the preserved body of a man who died 92 years ago. If carefully monitored and re-embalmed regularly, scientists believe he can last in this state for centuries more.
But it might get expensive. When Lenin died in January , no one planned to preserve his body for quite this long. In fact, the renowned pathologist, Alexei Abrikosov, who performed the autopsy on the body, cut its major arteries.
But as droves of people kept coming from all over the country, the government moved the casket to a temporary wooden mausoleum on Red Square.
As it was so cold, the body was still in tact and it was only 56 days later — as warmer weather slowly edged in — that Soviet officials decided to permanently preserve the body. Leonid Krasin, the international trade minister at the time, was granted permission to acquire special freezing equipment from Germany.
Armchair pathologists, by the way, are still arguing over whether Lenin died of a stroke or the neurological complications of tertiary syphilis—or both. During his final months, he demonstrated many symptoms of neuro-syphilis, including terrible headaches, seizures, nausea, insomnia and partial paralysis.
Lenin may also have been briefly dosed with Salvarsan, the arsenical compound developed by Dr. Paul Ehrlich in to treat syphilis in the pre-antibiotic era. Unfortunately, we may never know the precise answer, unless the Moscow Institute of the Brain releases their precise post-mortem findings.
Thus, the preservation team could not infuse embalming fluids through those vessels—the most common way to deliver such chemicals through a body. Instead, they developed micro-injection techniques where individual hypodermic syringes filled with embalming agents were injected directly into the portion of the body that required preservation at any given time. Every other year, the entire corpse is re-embalmed by submerging it in several different solutions: glycerol, formaldehyde, potassium acetate, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, and acetic sodium.
Each submersion takes about six weeks. Over the last century, the Lenin preservation laboratory has created a long list of biological preservation techniques. Yurchak also documented how these scientists have developed many measures that help living people, including new equipment designed to keep blood flowing through donor kidneys prior to their transplantation and even a noninvasive skin test to measure cholesterol.
All this is to say that while Lenin has been dead almost twice as long as he lived, a great deal of science, public history, political theater and fascination has been generated by what remains in Moscow today.
Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. Bodies embalmed in this way have a shelf life of tens of years. Both conventional embalmers and the Lenin Lab face several common challenges, Black explains.
Bodies must be kept from drying out so that they don't mummify. Heavy use of formalin can also turn human tissue the color of "canned tuna fish," which is why funeral embalmers use colorants in their embalming fluids to make the recently deceased look a healthy pink. Funeral embalmers also apply cosmetics for temporary funeral displays prior to burial. But bodies preserved in formalin become discolored, stiff and fragile over the long run.
A modern alternative called the Thiel soft-fix method combines a different mix of liquids—including nitrate salts—to maintain the natural color, feel and flexibility of the tissues. Such a method is useful for medical education and training. Although such modern approaches were not available to the Lenin Lab, a technique such as plastination would not have been acceptable in any case, because it creates unnatural stiffness in preserved bodies. To maintain the precise condition of Lenin's body, the staff must perform regular maintenance on the corpse and sometimes even replace parts with an excruciating attention to detail.
Artificial eyelashes have taken the place of Lenin's original eyelashes, which were damaged during the initial embalming procedures. The lab had to deal with mold and wrinkles on certain parts of Lenin's body, especially in the early years. Researchers developed artificial skin patches when a piece of skin on Lenin's foot went missing in They resculpted Lenin's nose, face and other parts of the body to restore them to their original feel and appearance.
A moldable material made of paraffin, glycerin and carotene has replaced much of the skin fat to maintain the original "landscape" of the skin.
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