Lenin’s Tomb opens its doors after two months of secret works

Lenin’s Tomb, the Mausoleum of the leader of the Great October Revolution, located on the Red Square - in the heart of Moscow and all Russia - opened its doors for visitors on January 9. However, the tomb was closed 30 minutes before the previously announced time, which left many in the long line in a state of disappointment.

Photo: Lenin’s Tomb opens its doors after two months of secret works

Several hundreds of people made a long line on the Red Square in Moscow today, wishing to see the body of the legendary revolutionary, the police said. Those, who were lucky to take a look at Vladimir Lenin’s mummy resting in a glass coffin, pointed out that the body was kept in a good condition.

Lenin’s Tomb was closed for maintenance works on November 10, 2006. It was previously said that the works would last for about 45 days, although biochemists working on the physical preservation of Lenin’s body insisted on a different opening date – January 9, 2007.

Specialists conduct biochemical works in the mausoleum from the moment of its construction. The Director of the Scientific Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Herbs, Valery Bykov, said that activities to maintain the body in a proper physical state were conducted regularly. “We have kept all our approaches to the matter. In Western countries they use only temporal embalming techniques, whereas we preserve the body’s original appearance,” the scientist said.

“We pay our first priority to the anatomic appearance and try to avoid all possible deviations. It is not just mummification, it is a much more complicated objective,” Bykov added.

Up-to-date Russian technologies will allow to preserve the proper appearance of Lenin’s body for many years ahead. “The body can be preserved in its current condition during an indefinitely long period of time. We already have almost a hundred years of this experience,” Valery Bykov said.

Specialists work on the body of Vladimir Lenin in the pantheon. The works usually take up to two months, although some of them can be finished during several days. In addition to operations on the body of the revolutionary specialists change Lenin’s suit from time to time too. At present moment Lenin is wearing the suit that was put on him in 2003. All of the above-mentioned activities are funded by one of Russia’s scientific centers.

Based on Russian media news reports

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.ru