What do you think?
Rate this book
Lenin's Embalmers
Professor Ilya Zbarski mummified Lenin two months after his death to maintain the Soviet founder's body in perpetuity. Between 1924 and the fall of communism in 1991, hundreds of millions of visitors paid their respects to the embalmed bodies of Lenin and later, Stalin. This text reveals the story of Zbarski, his family and of those who worked in the mausoleum laboratory. Lenin's body was plunged into a secret solution based on glycerine and potassium acetate. This story, unthinkable except in a totalitarian regime, is also that of the burgeoning Soviet Union and those who, disregarding Stalin and his growing antisemitic paranoia, believed that working in the shadows of the mausoleum would protect them forever. Abandoned by the State since 1991, the laboratory can only survive through the patronage of the "nouveaux riches" and the Russian mafia dynasties. The text includes both archival and contemporary photographs.
215 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 1997
6 people are currently reading
381 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
September 24, 2018
Ακόμη μια ιστορία από την περίοδο που γεννήθηκε (και πολύ σύντομα πέθανε) η μεγαλύτερη ελπίδα για τον άνθρωπο. Οπως όλες οι ιστορίες αυτής της περιόδου, μπορεί να είναι ταυτόχρονα πολύ αστεία, τραγική, εξοργιστική, τρομακτική.
Όπως όλα τα νον-φίξιο βιβλία που αποτελούν προσωπικές μαρτυρίες έχει την αξία του. Ποια είν' όμως αυτή; Πόσο μπορεί να υιοθετήσει κάποιος ως «αλήθεια» όλα αυτά που γράφονται στους Ταριχευτές του Λένιν όταν ουσιαστικά πρόκειται για τις αναμνήσεις ενός 84χρονου ο οποίος δεν κρύβει καθόλου την υποκειμενική του ματιά η οποία διαμορφώθηκε ύστερα από μια (όχι και τόσο, για να λέμε την αλήθεια, ειδικά συγκριτικά με άλλους) βασανισμένη ζωή στα χρόνια του καθεστώτος;
Τέλος πάντων. Απογοητεύτηκα αρκετά. Κυρίως γιατί η ελληνική τουλάχιστον έκδοση μοιάζει να υποσχεται πολλά πράγματα σχετικά με την ταρίχευση του Λένιν, τους ταριχευτές, το εργαστήριο ταρίχευσης και το μαυσωλείο, όμως εντέλει επ' αυτών βρήκα λίγα, τα οποία συνυπάρχουν με την καταγραφή της ζωής του συγγραφέα, που ήταν κάπως άνευρη και αδιάφορη. Συν τοις άλλοις, όλα αυτά για τις διώξεις και τον τρόμο του σταλινικού καθεστώτος έχουν γραφτεί καλύτερα από άλλους, που -σε αντίθεση με τον συγγραφέα- πραγματικά τα αντιμετώπισαν.
Ο πολύ βολικός αντισταλινισμός του συγγραφέα, που εκδηλώνεται στις σελίδες αυτές, μετά την πτώση της ΕΣΣΔ, εκφράζεται μέσα από ένα σωρό ανεκδοτολογικές ιστορίες που φιλοδοξούν να αποδείξουν αυτό που δεν χρειάζεται εντέλει: ότι ο σταλινισμός ήταν «κακός». Χώρια που πολύ συχνά γράφει διάφορα ενδεχομένως ανυπόστατα περιστατικά βασιζόμενος, κατά παραδοχή του, σε φήμες. Ουκ ολίγες φορές γράφει «κυκλοφόρησε ότι η φήμη ότι...» ή «ειπώθηκε από ορισμένους πως...» - και χρησιμοποιώντας αυτές τις εκφράσεις γράφει διάφορα για να μας δείξει πόσο κακό ήταν το καθεστώς. Δεν χρειάζονται φήμες και «ειπώθηκε» -υπάρχουν γεγονότα, γνωστά, που αποδεικνύουν τον σταλινικό τρόμο.
Εντούτοις, αξίζει να διαβαστεί αν σας ενδιαφέρουν η ΕΣΣΔ, τα πτώματα, ο Λένιν κτλ. Οσες φορές το βιβλίο εστιάζει σε αυτά που ο τίτλος και το blurb υπόσχονται είναι απολαυστικό. Τα υπόλοιπα, γνωστά και (απ' άλλους/ες καλύτερα - πχ Βικτόρ Σερζ) χιλιοειπωμένα.
Όπως όλα τα νον-φίξιο βιβλία που αποτελούν προσωπικές μαρτυρίες έχει την αξία του. Ποια είν' όμως αυτή; Πόσο μπορεί να υιοθετήσει κάποιος ως «αλήθεια» όλα αυτά που γράφονται στους Ταριχευτές του Λένιν όταν ουσιαστικά πρόκειται για τις αναμνήσεις ενός 84χρονου ο οποίος δεν κρύβει καθόλου την υποκειμενική του ματιά η οποία διαμορφώθηκε ύστερα από μια (όχι και τόσο, για να λέμε την αλήθεια, ειδικά συγκριτικά με άλλους) βασανισμένη ζωή στα χρόνια του καθεστώτος;
Τέλος πάντων. Απογοητεύτηκα αρκετά. Κυρίως γιατί η ελληνική τουλάχιστον έκδοση μοιάζει να υποσχεται πολλά πράγματα σχετικά με την ταρίχευση του Λένιν, τους ταριχευτές, το εργαστήριο ταρίχευσης και το μαυσωλείο, όμως εντέλει επ' αυτών βρήκα λίγα, τα οποία συνυπάρχουν με την καταγραφή της ζωής του συγγραφέα, που ήταν κάπως άνευρη και αδιάφορη. Συν τοις άλλοις, όλα αυτά για τις διώξεις και τον τρόμο του σταλινικού καθεστώτος έχουν γραφτεί καλύτερα από άλλους, που -σε αντίθεση με τον συγγραφέα- πραγματικά τα αντιμετώπισαν.
Ο πολύ βολικός αντισταλινισμός του συγγραφέα, που εκδηλώνεται στις σελίδες αυτές, μετά την πτώση της ΕΣΣΔ, εκφράζεται μέσα από ένα σωρό ανεκδοτολογικές ιστορίες που φιλοδοξούν να αποδείξουν αυτό που δεν χρειάζεται εντέλει: ότι ο σταλινισμός ήταν «κακός». Χώρια που πολύ συχνά γράφει διάφορα ενδεχομένως ανυπόστατα περιστατικά βασιζόμενος, κατά παραδοχή του, σε φήμες. Ουκ ολίγες φορές γράφει «κυκλοφόρησε ότι η φήμη ότι...» ή «ειπώθηκε από ορισμένους πως...» - και χρησιμοποιώντας αυτές τις εκφράσεις γράφει διάφορα για να μας δείξει πόσο κακό ήταν το καθεστώς. Δεν χρειάζονται φήμες και «ειπώθηκε» -υπάρχουν γεγονότα, γνωστά, που αποδεικνύουν τον σταλινικό τρόμο.
Εντούτοις, αξίζει να διαβαστεί αν σας ενδιαφέρουν η ΕΣΣΔ, τα πτώματα, ο Λένιν κτλ. Οσες φορές το βιβλίο εστιάζει σε αυτά που ο τίτλος και το blurb υπόσχονται είναι απολαυστικό. Τα υπόλοιπα, γνωστά και (απ' άλλους/ες καλύτερα - πχ Βικτόρ Σερζ) χιλιοειπωμένα.
June 30, 2017
Going into Lenin's Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson (translated from the French by Barbara Bray), I had the wrong idea about what I was going to be reading. The first chapter was more or less what I would have expected, an objective account of Lenin’s final illness and death. But with the second chapter, as Party officials begin discussions about preserving Lenin’s body, the text talks of “my father” being involved in suggesting embalming methods and rejecting the idea of permanent freezing which one influential official was advocating. At this point we begin getting the limited viewpoint of a participant in the story rather the overarching vision of the historian.
In fact, the book is largely a memoir of Ilya Zbarsky’s life in the USSR under the dictatorship of Stalin and the domestic authoritarianism of his father, Boris Zbarsky, who, in this account, was instrumental in getting biochemist Professor Vorobiov to agree to undertake Lenin’s embalming. Together Vorobiov and Zbarsky form a sort of priesthood, eventually joined by the author, Zbarsky's son, who are responsible for the upkeep of Lenin’s corpse and largely immune from the purges of the 1930s, shortages of scientific equipment, and the lack of food and material goods that afflicted the vast majority of Soviet citizens.
Alongside the story of Lenin’s body – evacuated from Moscow during WWII, displayed for several years side-by-side with Stalin’s preserved corpse, considered for burial by post-Soviet rulers – we are told of Ilya Zbarsky’s life – his marriage, his inability to escape his father’s control, and a trip to Berlin in 1945 to gather chemicals and equipment before areas of the city are turned over to the Allies, a trip which included an affair with a German woman.
One chapter looks at science under the Soviet regime, with particular emphasis on how the officially sanctioned theories of Lysenko crippled biological research and teaching for decades. To anyone seeking a counter-example to the rule that “nouns trump adjectives”, I recommend the phrase “Soviet science”.
Eventually, as more scientific staff are added to the mausoleum after WWII, the Zbarskys become less indispensable, and during the anti-Jewish purges of Stalin’s last years, Boris is imprisoned and Ilya is dismissed and unable to find another job of any sort. After Stalin's death, Boris is released from prison, but dies, his health broken. We are led to understand that Ilya eventually finds work and a moderate degree of professional satisfaction, but the memoir pretty much fades out once the mausoleum work is left behind - we never learn how the author and his family fared in the latter days of the Soviet era, nor anything of his life in the post-Soviet era.
Two final chapters discuss Russian involvement in the embalming and display of other communist leaders, such as Ho Chi Minh, and the involvement of the post-Soviet Lenin mausoleum staff in embalming Russian gangsters as a way to supplement their much reduced state subsidy.
Like most stories of life in Soviet Russia, Zbarsky's tale is thick with irony: a dead patron offers more reliable protection than the favor of living officials, the condition of a corpse is painstakingly monitored while living bodies are callously brutalized, and an officially atheist society venerates the body of its founder as a holy object.
In fact, the book is largely a memoir of Ilya Zbarsky’s life in the USSR under the dictatorship of Stalin and the domestic authoritarianism of his father, Boris Zbarsky, who, in this account, was instrumental in getting biochemist Professor Vorobiov to agree to undertake Lenin’s embalming. Together Vorobiov and Zbarsky form a sort of priesthood, eventually joined by the author, Zbarsky's son, who are responsible for the upkeep of Lenin’s corpse and largely immune from the purges of the 1930s, shortages of scientific equipment, and the lack of food and material goods that afflicted the vast majority of Soviet citizens.
Alongside the story of Lenin’s body – evacuated from Moscow during WWII, displayed for several years side-by-side with Stalin’s preserved corpse, considered for burial by post-Soviet rulers – we are told of Ilya Zbarsky’s life – his marriage, his inability to escape his father’s control, and a trip to Berlin in 1945 to gather chemicals and equipment before areas of the city are turned over to the Allies, a trip which included an affair with a German woman.
One chapter looks at science under the Soviet regime, with particular emphasis on how the officially sanctioned theories of Lysenko crippled biological research and teaching for decades. To anyone seeking a counter-example to the rule that “nouns trump adjectives”, I recommend the phrase “Soviet science”.
Eventually, as more scientific staff are added to the mausoleum after WWII, the Zbarskys become less indispensable, and during the anti-Jewish purges of Stalin’s last years, Boris is imprisoned and Ilya is dismissed and unable to find another job of any sort. After Stalin's death, Boris is released from prison, but dies, his health broken. We are led to understand that Ilya eventually finds work and a moderate degree of professional satisfaction, but the memoir pretty much fades out once the mausoleum work is left behind - we never learn how the author and his family fared in the latter days of the Soviet era, nor anything of his life in the post-Soviet era.
Two final chapters discuss Russian involvement in the embalming and display of other communist leaders, such as Ho Chi Minh, and the involvement of the post-Soviet Lenin mausoleum staff in embalming Russian gangsters as a way to supplement their much reduced state subsidy.
Like most stories of life in Soviet Russia, Zbarsky's tale is thick with irony: a dead patron offers more reliable protection than the favor of living officials, the condition of a corpse is painstakingly monitored while living bodies are callously brutalized, and an officially atheist society venerates the body of its founder as a holy object.
September 18, 2016
Lenin's Embalmers is a fascinating microcosm of the early Soviet state, the scientific project of preserving the great leader, and the sudden swings of fortune that accompanied the political winds of the time. Ilya's father Boris Zbarsky was a a Jewish socialist and scientist, who in 1924 became one of the men responsible for the care of Lenin's body. A consummate political player, Boris navigated the turbulent 30s and 40s, doing well through war and family while alternately favoring and dominating his son, the author of this book. Ilya describes the shambles of the educational system in the 30s, the nightmare of disappearances under the KGB, the opulent lives of the elite, and the stunning poverty that he lived in as his family fell out of favor.
The mine line of the story ends in 1952, as the Jewish Zbarsky's found themselves on the wrong side of Stalin's paranoia. Fortunately, Stalin died before Boris could be executed, but they still lost their role in Lenin's masoleum and the Soviet scientific system. Ilya survived somehow through the 90s when he wrote this book, and it ends with a little retrospective about preserving other socialist leaders, and then turning to the private sector of dead Russian gangsters.
Over all, a small but fascinating book on a topic easily overlooked.
The mine line of the story ends in 1952, as the Jewish Zbarsky's found themselves on the wrong side of Stalin's paranoia. Fortunately, Stalin died before Boris could be executed, but they still lost their role in Lenin's masoleum and the Soviet scientific system. Ilya survived somehow through the 90s when he wrote this book, and it ends with a little retrospective about preserving other socialist leaders, and then turning to the private sector of dead Russian gangsters.
Over all, a small but fascinating book on a topic easily overlooked.
February 13, 2021
This was an accidental find in a bookstore and it was fascinating. First of all, the story of Lenin's body was embalmed is interesting in itself, but Dr. Zbarsky's family history and commentary on the dire downturn of the Soviet Union under Stalin are invaluable eyewitness reports. Leon Trotsky correctly called Stalin "the gravedigger of the revolution" and we get a glimpse of Stalin's irrationality and the paranoia generated under his tyranny. A nice addition to the history of the USSR and the Russian Revolution.
June 22, 2020
So I go from Lennon to Lenin with Lenin's Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky & Samuel Hutchinson (translated by Barbara Bray, who also translated
Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French village 1294-1324
. My edition was published in 1999 but for the life of me I cannot remember how I acquired it. I think it was given to me--not as a formal wrapped-up present--but as a recommendation to read.
Zbarsky was among the team of embalmers who were assigned the task of preserving Lenin's body for the long term. The very first team of embalmers had waited too long and some decomposition had already taken place. The team brought in to save Lenin's corpse was Zbarsky's father Boris and the project leader Professor (Vladimir) Vorobiov. Young Ilya, born in 1913, wouldn't join his father and Professor Vorobiov until after his own formal education. And judging from his date of birth, he was indeed in his mid-eighties when he wrote this book.
Zbarsky had an insider's view into the paranoid Stalinist regime from his childhood on. As part of the precious small team of scientists entrusted with the most intimate job of ensuring the bodily preservation of their government's ideological founder, his family was given a large apartment and ample food. During the time under Stalin millions starved and lived in squalor. Everyone, no matter how vital to the Politburo or to Stalin personally, lived in fear of the purges and of being awakened by a knock on the door in the middle of the night. Zbarsky addressed why he and his father avoided this:
"Throughout our time there, my father and I were physically so close to the source of power that we might easily have been swept away in the maelstrom of Stalin's purges. We probably owed our survival to the lack of people familiar with the techniques of preservation, for before the last war there were no more than four people really skilled in those procedures. Thus when Vorobiov died in 1937, there were only three of us left, so that to have eliminated even one of us would have been to put Lenin's corpse, the symbolic centre of Soviet power, in danger."
It was chilling to read about the sudden disappearances of colleagues. What must it have been like to work during this time, when all of a sudden--all too often--you found out that some of your fellow employees and superiors were not going to come in that day? And likely never would again? Zbarsky learned to deal with it by keeping his mouth shut. Loose lips meant deportation to labour camps or execution. Professor Vorobiov died under mysterious circumstances. It is likely that he was denounced after a drunken episode at a dinner where he kissed Stalin--or from any of his other drunken rants critical of the regime. It did not matter that Vorobiov was the embalming team leader; Stalin found a way to liquidate him following an unnecessary operation.
As the German army advanced on Moscow in 1941, Lenin's mausoleum was at risk. The decision was made to secretly transport the body to Tiumen in Siberia for the duration of the war. Zbarsky, his family and the embalming team travelled on the same train as Lenin. It wasn't long before the secret was out.
The very last lines of the book reveal Zbarsky's wishes:
"My second reflection is that while the preservation of Lenin's corpse was a considerable scientific achievement, I cannot help believe that embalming is a barbaric and anachronistic practice, alien to the cultures of Western societies. That is why, despite the privileges I enjoyed during the years I spent in the shadow and the shelter of the mausoleum--generous salary, modern equipment and scarce materials to work with, as well as access to a wealth of scientific literature--I believe, speaking as a citizen, that Lenin should now be buried."
This book, all too short at 215 pages, was exciting to read and provided a unique look into the science involved in long-term embalming. The text was printed in tiny type and the photo captions and page numbers were in an even smaller font. Sadly the quality of the photos was poor, but that could be due to the condition of their source originals.
Zbarsky was among the team of embalmers who were assigned the task of preserving Lenin's body for the long term. The very first team of embalmers had waited too long and some decomposition had already taken place. The team brought in to save Lenin's corpse was Zbarsky's father Boris and the project leader Professor (Vladimir) Vorobiov. Young Ilya, born in 1913, wouldn't join his father and Professor Vorobiov until after his own formal education. And judging from his date of birth, he was indeed in his mid-eighties when he wrote this book.
Zbarsky had an insider's view into the paranoid Stalinist regime from his childhood on. As part of the precious small team of scientists entrusted with the most intimate job of ensuring the bodily preservation of their government's ideological founder, his family was given a large apartment and ample food. During the time under Stalin millions starved and lived in squalor. Everyone, no matter how vital to the Politburo or to Stalin personally, lived in fear of the purges and of being awakened by a knock on the door in the middle of the night. Zbarsky addressed why he and his father avoided this:
"Throughout our time there, my father and I were physically so close to the source of power that we might easily have been swept away in the maelstrom of Stalin's purges. We probably owed our survival to the lack of people familiar with the techniques of preservation, for before the last war there were no more than four people really skilled in those procedures. Thus when Vorobiov died in 1937, there were only three of us left, so that to have eliminated even one of us would have been to put Lenin's corpse, the symbolic centre of Soviet power, in danger."
It was chilling to read about the sudden disappearances of colleagues. What must it have been like to work during this time, when all of a sudden--all too often--you found out that some of your fellow employees and superiors were not going to come in that day? And likely never would again? Zbarsky learned to deal with it by keeping his mouth shut. Loose lips meant deportation to labour camps or execution. Professor Vorobiov died under mysterious circumstances. It is likely that he was denounced after a drunken episode at a dinner where he kissed Stalin--or from any of his other drunken rants critical of the regime. It did not matter that Vorobiov was the embalming team leader; Stalin found a way to liquidate him following an unnecessary operation.
As the German army advanced on Moscow in 1941, Lenin's mausoleum was at risk. The decision was made to secretly transport the body to Tiumen in Siberia for the duration of the war. Zbarsky, his family and the embalming team travelled on the same train as Lenin. It wasn't long before the secret was out.
The very last lines of the book reveal Zbarsky's wishes:
"My second reflection is that while the preservation of Lenin's corpse was a considerable scientific achievement, I cannot help believe that embalming is a barbaric and anachronistic practice, alien to the cultures of Western societies. That is why, despite the privileges I enjoyed during the years I spent in the shadow and the shelter of the mausoleum--generous salary, modern equipment and scarce materials to work with, as well as access to a wealth of scientific literature--I believe, speaking as a citizen, that Lenin should now be buried."
This book, all too short at 215 pages, was exciting to read and provided a unique look into the science involved in long-term embalming. The text was printed in tiny type and the photo captions and page numbers were in an even smaller font. Sadly the quality of the photos was poor, but that could be due to the condition of their source originals.
December 2, 2025
There’s History and there’s histories and sometimes histories tell us more about History than History does - and more entertainingly. ‘Lenin’s Embalmers’ is a case in point: on the one hand the story of the preservation of the Russian revolutionary for posterity, and on the other, a coruscating trip through decades of Soviet history as experienced by Ilya Zbarsky, son of one of the men eventually entrusted with the tricky task (scientifically and politically) of embalming Lenin’s corpse.
Accompanied by some grim black and white photos of Lenin in his last days, this is a fascinating account of life in the Soviet Union as the country navigated its way through Stalinism to Khruschev and beyond. Even Zbarsky père, commissioned to carry out one of the most important assignments imaginable in the aftermath of Lenin’s death, wasn’t beyond the vengeful reach of Stalin’s malign machinery - with repercussions for the whole family.
The book has its flaws - the language is occasionally stilted (which may be the fault of the translation from French), and it would have been good to have had more on the interior life and motivations of Zbarsky fils - but I’d still recommend it as a lively contribution to the ‘quirky yesteryear’ section of anyone's bookshelf.
Accompanied by some grim black and white photos of Lenin in his last days, this is a fascinating account of life in the Soviet Union as the country navigated its way through Stalinism to Khruschev and beyond. Even Zbarsky père, commissioned to carry out one of the most important assignments imaginable in the aftermath of Lenin’s death, wasn’t beyond the vengeful reach of Stalin’s malign machinery - with repercussions for the whole family.
The book has its flaws - the language is occasionally stilted (which may be the fault of the translation from French), and it would have been good to have had more on the interior life and motivations of Zbarsky fils - but I’d still recommend it as a lively contribution to the ‘quirky yesteryear’ section of anyone's bookshelf.
January 1, 2025
Utterly fascinating. As much a revelation about Russian history as it is about embalming and preserving, to this day, Lenin’s body. This first-person account of life in Russia from the early 20th century onward paints a grim, matter-of-fact, impassioned portrait of the terror, privations—and rare joys—of life under communist rule.
August 9, 2014
This is a nifty little book written by one of the Russian scientists who kept Lenin's embalmed body fresh for public viewing for decades. It has a much more broad scope than the title suggests; the author provides a first-hand account of growing up in the USSR and his experiences swinging back and forth between poverty and affluence depending on the whims of the government. His description of how the Soviet government's attitude toward science affected his education and work are both amusing and maddening. It was a quick read at just over 200 pages and provided a perspective into Russian history I haven't read before.
February 11, 2025
This was one of those books you feel a little guilty about liking, since there's a lot of terror and suffering that goes on. This is basically the autobiography of Ilya Zbarsky. He was born under the reign of the last Tzar and died under Putin. He was the son of one of the original team members that embalmed Lenin. He then was hired to maintain the body until 1952. He also helped embalm other Communist dictators.
There is information about how to embalm a corpse, but nothing too technical so that the narrative slows down. There are plenty of black and white photos, including some from Zbarsky's personal library. This is a fascinating eyewitness account of major events in Russian history seen through the lense of the bizarre need by Stalin and his successors to preserve Lenin's corpse.
This was translated from the French, but this translation is smooth and easy to follow, with some humorous passages. There are a couple of minor typos, which is inevitable in any book. However, there is one major typo. Near the end of the book, Zbarsky states he helped care for Lenin's body from 1954 - 1952. Actually, it was from 1945 to 1952.
So, what are the takeaways from this?
* It has always sucked to live in Russia.
* In order to be an effective dictator, you have to make sure you have an uneducated population that mistrust science and reason.
* Also in order to be an effective dictator, you need style over substance ... and a whole lotta fear.
I read this at the Internet Archive, but something's gone a bit wonky with their search engine. The best way to find this book is through Google. Search for "Internet Archive Lenin's Embalmers" and that should provide you with a link.
There is information about how to embalm a corpse, but nothing too technical so that the narrative slows down. There are plenty of black and white photos, including some from Zbarsky's personal library. This is a fascinating eyewitness account of major events in Russian history seen through the lense of the bizarre need by Stalin and his successors to preserve Lenin's corpse.
This was translated from the French, but this translation is smooth and easy to follow, with some humorous passages. There are a couple of minor typos, which is inevitable in any book. However, there is one major typo. Near the end of the book, Zbarsky states he helped care for Lenin's body from 1954 - 1952. Actually, it was from 1945 to 1952.
So, what are the takeaways from this?
* It has always sucked to live in Russia.
* In order to be an effective dictator, you have to make sure you have an uneducated population that mistrust science and reason.
* Also in order to be an effective dictator, you need style over substance ... and a whole lotta fear.
I read this at the Internet Archive, but something's gone a bit wonky with their search engine. The best way to find this book is through Google. Search for "Internet Archive Lenin's Embalmers" and that should provide you with a link.
September 22, 2025
4.5
This was a really fascinating read, though it is more of a memoir than an account of the preservation of Lenin's corpse (though obviously that's still a main aspect of the book). It was very readable, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the topic, or generally interested in science and academia in Russia during Stalin's political regime.
Part of why I finally got around to reading this was because the Lenin mausoleum has recently begun undergoing repairs and Lenin's body has been removed from public viewing. Despite claims that his corpse will be back in display in 2027, you can only hope that this might instead be an opportunity to finally bury him, as were his wishes and the wishes of his family, as well as a sentiment echoed in this book.
I will say that are some errors in the text that stood out at times, though it's hard to say if these are errors in the translation or just general typos/errors missed in editing, but it's overall not a huge issue. I will say also that I wish they'd kept the original French title of the book ("À l'ombre du mausolée", or "In the Shadow of the Mausoleum") and maybe added "Lenin's Embalmers" as a subtitle, because I think it better reflects that this is a memoir and it's also just way cooler
Also, I just need to say that it's crazy to me how he just openly admits to cheating on his wife with an 18 year old girl during his time in Berlin
Also also, his entry on wikipedia is incorrect, and I'm debating how much I care to try and edit it, as it says that he was head of the Lenin Mausoleum from 1956-1989, which is patently false as he was fired from his position at the mausoleum in 1952 and was never able to return to a position there afterwards.
This was a really fascinating read, though it is more of a memoir than an account of the preservation of Lenin's corpse (though obviously that's still a main aspect of the book). It was very readable, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the topic, or generally interested in science and academia in Russia during Stalin's political regime.
Part of why I finally got around to reading this was because the Lenin mausoleum has recently begun undergoing repairs and Lenin's body has been removed from public viewing. Despite claims that his corpse will be back in display in 2027, you can only hope that this might instead be an opportunity to finally bury him, as were his wishes and the wishes of his family, as well as a sentiment echoed in this book.
I will say that are some errors in the text that stood out at times, though it's hard to say if these are errors in the translation or just general typos/errors missed in editing, but it's overall not a huge issue. I will say also that I wish they'd kept the original French title of the book ("À l'ombre du mausolée", or "In the Shadow of the Mausoleum") and maybe added "Lenin's Embalmers" as a subtitle, because I think it better reflects that this is a memoir and it's also just way cooler
Also, I just need to say that it's crazy to me how he just openly admits to cheating on his wife with an 18 year old girl during his time in Berlin
Also also, his entry on wikipedia is incorrect, and I'm debating how much I care to try and edit it, as it says that he was head of the Lenin Mausoleum from 1956-1989, which is patently false as he was fired from his position at the mausoleum in 1952 and was never able to return to a position there afterwards.
July 2, 2024
This is the fascinating story of one of the more peculiar elements of Soviet history: the account of one of the men who worked in the Lenin Lab in Moscow, embalming Lenin and other Communist leaders so that they can be put on permanent display in a bid to legitimise the state and its chosen successor.
The book explains how the concept and technique of embalming was developed by Soviet scientists, with Lenin essentially acting as the sacred test case of such techniques. Of course, they succeeded, Lenin's embalmed body is still on display in his mausoleum on Red Square and has been for the last century.
Zbarsky also recounts the fascinating way in which the Lenin Lab 'went international', with him having had personal involvement in the embalming of Mongolia's Khorloogiin Choibalsan and Bulgaria's Georgi Dimitrov (both of whom have been subsequently removed from public display).
These stories are incredibly interesting, so it is a shame that because of Zbarsky's removal from his post at the Lenin Lab, we don't get to learn the more intimate details about the embalming of Kim il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, Klement Gottwald, Mao Zhedong etc. (though there is a little detail provided by a subsequent employee of the lab in relation to the embalming of Ho Chi Minh).
A decent chunk of the book is taken up by the biography of Ilya Zbarsky and his father, Boris, though this in itself is an interesting tale of the cyclical rise and fall of many members of the Soviet nomenklatura.
This book is obviously really quite niche, but it was right up my street and I found it completely engrossing.
The book explains how the concept and technique of embalming was developed by Soviet scientists, with Lenin essentially acting as the sacred test case of such techniques. Of course, they succeeded, Lenin's embalmed body is still on display in his mausoleum on Red Square and has been for the last century.
Zbarsky also recounts the fascinating way in which the Lenin Lab 'went international', with him having had personal involvement in the embalming of Mongolia's Khorloogiin Choibalsan and Bulgaria's Georgi Dimitrov (both of whom have been subsequently removed from public display).
These stories are incredibly interesting, so it is a shame that because of Zbarsky's removal from his post at the Lenin Lab, we don't get to learn the more intimate details about the embalming of Kim il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, Klement Gottwald, Mao Zhedong etc. (though there is a little detail provided by a subsequent employee of the lab in relation to the embalming of Ho Chi Minh).
A decent chunk of the book is taken up by the biography of Ilya Zbarsky and his father, Boris, though this in itself is an interesting tale of the cyclical rise and fall of many members of the Soviet nomenklatura.
This book is obviously really quite niche, but it was right up my street and I found it completely engrossing.
June 21, 2025
บันทึกลับคนดองศพเลนิน เขียนโดยนักวิทยาศาสตร์ 1 ในทีมตั้งต้นที่คิดค้นวิธีการรักษาสภาพศพของผู้นำฝั่งคอมมิวนิสต์
ุ
เล่มนี้บอกเล่าความเป็นมาของสังคมรัสเซียตั้งแต่ยุคเลนินยังอยู่ไปจนถึงเลนินตายแต่ศพถูกใช้เพื่อการดำรงอำนาจของสตาลินและผู้สืบทอดยุคต่อมา ส่วนของการทำยังไงเพื่อที่ตะรักษาสภาพศพให้คงอยู่ก็สนุกใช้ได้ ดูเป็นการขัดหลักธรรมชาติในสภาวะที่ขัดสนเพราะคนโง่มากกว่าคนฉลาดจากการกวาดล้างนักคิดนักวิทยาศาสตร์รวมไปถึงการขาดแคลนเทคโนโลยีแต่กลับทำสำเร็จ
อ่านแล้วก็สะท้อนใจว่าคนในประเทศคอมมิวนิสต์ยุคหลังสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 ลำบากยากแค้นสุดๆ เพราะความโง่และดึงดันของเผด็จการที่ยึดอำนาจได้ ชีวิตเหมือนอยู่บนเส้นด้ายตลอดเวลาไม่รู้วันไหนจะเป็นวันสุดท้าย
เนื้อเรื่องดำเนินไปถึงยุคของเยลต์ซินแต่ก็น่าสงสารตรงที่รัสเซียก็เข้าสู่ยุคตกต่ำเป็นผู้แพ้ทางเศรษฐกิจอีก ถ้าคนเขียนอยู่มาถึงยุคนี้คงเศร้าใจมากที่เคยทนกับสตาลินมาจนหลุดมาได้ เจอช่วงเวลาเสรีสั้นๆ แล้วตอนนี้กลับไปอยู่ใต้เท้าเผด็จการแบบปูตินอีกครั้งแล้ว เหมือนรัสเซียไม่ได้ไปข้างหน้าเลย ก็คล้ายกับการดองศพที่ตายแล้วและไม่ยอมปล่อยให้สลายไปตามธรรมชาติเพื่อรอสิ่งใหม่มาเกิดนั่นแหละ
ุ
เล่มนี้บอกเล่าความเป็นมาของสังคมรัสเซียตั้งแต่ยุคเลนินยังอยู่ไปจนถึงเลนินตายแต่ศพถูกใช้เพื่อการดำรงอำนาจของสตาลินและผู้สืบทอดยุคต่อมา ส่วนของการทำยังไงเพื่อที่ตะรักษาสภาพศพให้คงอยู่ก็สนุกใช้ได้ ดูเป็นการขัดหลักธรรมชาติในสภาวะที่ขัดสนเพราะคนโง่มากกว่าคนฉลาดจากการกวาดล้างนักคิดนักวิทยาศาสตร์รวมไปถึงการขาดแคลนเทคโนโลยีแต่กลับทำสำเร็จ
อ่านแล้วก็สะท้อนใจว่าคนในประเทศคอมมิวนิสต์ยุคหลังสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 ลำบากยากแค้นสุดๆ เพราะความโง่และดึงดันของเผด็จการที่ยึดอำนาจได้ ชีวิตเหมือนอยู่บนเส้นด้ายตลอดเวลาไม่รู้วันไหนจะเป็นวันสุดท้าย
เนื้อเรื่องดำเนินไปถึงยุคของเยลต์ซินแต่ก็น่าสงสารตรงที่รัสเซียก็เข้าสู่ยุคตกต่ำเป็นผู้แพ้ทางเศรษฐกิจอีก ถ้าคนเขียนอยู่มาถึงยุคนี้คงเศร้าใจมากที่เคยทนกับสตาลินมาจนหลุดมาได้ เจอช่วงเวลาเสรีสั้นๆ แล้วตอนนี้กลับไปอยู่ใต้เท้าเผด็จการแบบปูตินอีกครั้งแล้ว เหมือนรัสเซียไม่ได้ไปข้างหน้าเลย ก็คล้ายกับการดองศพที่ตายแล้วและไม่ยอมปล่อยให้สลายไปตามธรรมชาติเพื่อรอสิ่งใหม่มาเกิดนั่นแหละ
November 4, 2025
A great book I found at a yard sale the other week. Just read this:
Charges range from 1,500 US dollars for a single day's work (for example, when the head has not been smashed to a pulp by bullets) to 10,000 US dollars for a whole week (if the whole body was blown to pieces by a bomb and has to be put together again).Lenin's Embalmers tells the story of 20th century Russia through the lens of Vladimir Lenin's glass casket. It doubles as the memoir of Ilya Zbarsky, one of the scientists charged with the upkeep and maintenance of Lenin's corpse. Loved it!
November 8, 2025
It's a darkly ironic memoir that reads like a twisted fairy tale, blending the grotesque science of mummification with the chilling absurdities of Soviet power.
The author is the son of one of the two biochemists handpicked by Stalin in 1924 to preserve Lenin's corpse against all odds.
While Trotsky was against turning Lenin into a relic, Stalin saw it differently.
Later in the book, embalming of Ho Chi Minh and Klement Gottwald are mentioned. The book is also packed with rare macabre photos.
The author is the son of one of the two biochemists handpicked by Stalin in 1924 to preserve Lenin's corpse against all odds.
While Trotsky was against turning Lenin into a relic, Stalin saw it differently.
Later in the book, embalming of Ho Chi Minh and Klement Gottwald are mentioned. The book is also packed with rare macabre photos.
December 24, 2024
( Format : Audiobook )
"All the best, Comrade."
A bizarre story set in mid 1920s Russia and based on a true story. After Lenin's death two men reluctantly accept the task of embalming his body - for ever! With hope of reward (or punishment for failure) they try to find a preserving technique to accomplish this.
Written in a bleak, almost pantomime, style this attempts to bring comedy into a dark period. Clever, but not really to my taste.
"All the best, Comrade."
A bizarre story set in mid 1920s Russia and based on a true story. After Lenin's death two men reluctantly accept the task of embalming his body - for ever! With hope of reward (or punishment for failure) they try to find a preserving technique to accomplish this.
Written in a bleak, almost pantomime, style this attempts to bring comedy into a dark period. Clever, but not really to my taste.
July 27, 2019
ClassConscious.org - Owen Hsieh
June 6, 2018
Lenin’s Embalmers is the autobiography of Ilya Zbarsky (1913-2007) a chemist in the Soviet Union working on the preservation and display of Lenin’s body in Red Square, Moscow. Reading like a history of the 20th century his autobiography charts the history of his family, first under Tsarism, through the Russian Revolution, the purges and mass terror, WW2, the death of Stalin, the period of glasnost and perestroika and finally capitalist restoration.
His autobiography contains many interesting unique observations and anecdotes on political life in the Soviet Union, writing from a rare position as the son of a key figure in the bureaucracy, yet influenced by and sympathetic of the analysis of Trotsky and the Left Opposition. He had a insider’s view of life in the Soviet Union and was able to interpret events as he saw them. He never made his peace with Stalin, nor did he become an anti-communist, he was of the best layers in the Soviet Union.
Beginning with a prologue, he gives an excellent summation of the inner party debate around what to do with Lenin’s body after his death following a long period of incapacitation.
His autobiography then switches to his family history under Tsarism, the story of how his father come to be associated with the team at Lenin’s Mausoleum. His father, first persecuted for his ethnic and religious background, was unable to find regular employment despite his extensive formal education. He eventually obtained a position working in a large chemical plant through the idiosyncratic whim of the widow of a powerful industrialist. As he had an important position in Russia’s economy, he avoided conscription and the horrors of WW1. Following the October Revolution he took a position in an important biochemical institution in Moscow and eventually a role in the groundbreaking experimentation to permanently preserve and display Lenin’s body.
Zbarsky goes on to write his observations of boyhood on family life and growing up from absolute poverty to then live in relative affluence corresponding with his father’s new found success. Zbarsky attended a prestigious private school and later went on to study Chemical Biology at Moscow University. He saw the bastardisation of the curriculum though the crude ‘proletarianisation’ of the university which saw the suppression of all independent and critical thought. Disgusted with his experiences there, he eventually left the university and joined his fathers team. Zbarsky then writes on number of interesting episodes with considerable insight; his commentary on the intricacies of the long term preservation of the body and scientific and academic life in the Soviet Union more generally are fascinating.
He lived through the mass terror, he witnessed the show trial of Rykov (successor of Lenin as the Chairman of the Council of People’s commissars) and Bukharin (Editor of Pravda and Novy Mir), both former family friends of Zbarsky!
Zbarsky survived WW2 as the work of Lenin’s Mausoleum was sent to Far East Siberia so as to not endanger Lenin’s body.
In the post war period Ilya was assigned to a team of Chemists responsible for the plunder of West Germany as its biochemistry labs were sacked of all useful chemicals and instruments before the region was handed over to the Allies.
The next period Zbarsky was tasked with the preservation of leading figures from other communist parties the world over, including those of Bulgaria and Mongolia.
It was around this time that his father fell under suspicion and was imprisoned. Though this was eventually overturned following the death of Stalin, Zbarsky too fell out of favour and was unable to find work for a long time.
Zbarsky is then forced to rely on the second hand observations of his contemporaries to conclude his story with the final chapter of the mausoleum lab. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Capitalist restoration in Russia, deprived of its massive state funding, the lab resorted to the preparation of the bodies of Russia’s burgeoning Mafioso figures who are renowned for having extensive lavish funerals.
Zbarsky was a very intelligent man and his analysis of contemporary life in Russia was informed by the perspectives of the Left Opposition. While on a scientific mission in France, he was able to read works that were banned inside the Soviet Union, Trotsky’ My Life among them. In addition, his father was a one time Social Revolutionary deputy, he once helped Trotsky cross the border from Austria to Russia while in exile. As such his biography is filled with a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes that correspond to the analysis made by Trotsky on the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy in his struggle against the grave digger of the revolution.
Zbarsky was uniquely situated to observe and document this phenomena and he excels in doing so. His book is engrossing, the information is very accessible and his acerbic wit means his observations are quite humorous in places. Zbarsky’s biography has many insightful comments and could act as a companion to any serious study of the Soviet Union and the degeneration of the Russian revolution.
https://classconscious.org/2018/06/06...
June 6, 2018
Lenin’s Embalmers is the autobiography of Ilya Zbarsky (1913-2007) a chemist in the Soviet Union working on the preservation and display of Lenin’s body in Red Square, Moscow. Reading like a history of the 20th century his autobiography charts the history of his family, first under Tsarism, through the Russian Revolution, the purges and mass terror, WW2, the death of Stalin, the period of glasnost and perestroika and finally capitalist restoration.
His autobiography contains many interesting unique observations and anecdotes on political life in the Soviet Union, writing from a rare position as the son of a key figure in the bureaucracy, yet influenced by and sympathetic of the analysis of Trotsky and the Left Opposition. He had a insider’s view of life in the Soviet Union and was able to interpret events as he saw them. He never made his peace with Stalin, nor did he become an anti-communist, he was of the best layers in the Soviet Union.
Beginning with a prologue, he gives an excellent summation of the inner party debate around what to do with Lenin’s body after his death following a long period of incapacitation.
His autobiography then switches to his family history under Tsarism, the story of how his father come to be associated with the team at Lenin’s Mausoleum. His father, first persecuted for his ethnic and religious background, was unable to find regular employment despite his extensive formal education. He eventually obtained a position working in a large chemical plant through the idiosyncratic whim of the widow of a powerful industrialist. As he had an important position in Russia’s economy, he avoided conscription and the horrors of WW1. Following the October Revolution he took a position in an important biochemical institution in Moscow and eventually a role in the groundbreaking experimentation to permanently preserve and display Lenin’s body.
Zbarsky goes on to write his observations of boyhood on family life and growing up from absolute poverty to then live in relative affluence corresponding with his father’s new found success. Zbarsky attended a prestigious private school and later went on to study Chemical Biology at Moscow University. He saw the bastardisation of the curriculum though the crude ‘proletarianisation’ of the university which saw the suppression of all independent and critical thought. Disgusted with his experiences there, he eventually left the university and joined his fathers team. Zbarsky then writes on number of interesting episodes with considerable insight; his commentary on the intricacies of the long term preservation of the body and scientific and academic life in the Soviet Union more generally are fascinating.
He lived through the mass terror, he witnessed the show trial of Rykov (successor of Lenin as the Chairman of the Council of People’s commissars) and Bukharin (Editor of Pravda and Novy Mir), both former family friends of Zbarsky!
Zbarsky survived WW2 as the work of Lenin’s Mausoleum was sent to Far East Siberia so as to not endanger Lenin’s body.
In the post war period Ilya was assigned to a team of Chemists responsible for the plunder of West Germany as its biochemistry labs were sacked of all useful chemicals and instruments before the region was handed over to the Allies.
The next period Zbarsky was tasked with the preservation of leading figures from other communist parties the world over, including those of Bulgaria and Mongolia.
It was around this time that his father fell under suspicion and was imprisoned. Though this was eventually overturned following the death of Stalin, Zbarsky too fell out of favour and was unable to find work for a long time.
Zbarsky is then forced to rely on the second hand observations of his contemporaries to conclude his story with the final chapter of the mausoleum lab. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Capitalist restoration in Russia, deprived of its massive state funding, the lab resorted to the preparation of the bodies of Russia’s burgeoning Mafioso figures who are renowned for having extensive lavish funerals.
Zbarsky was a very intelligent man and his analysis of contemporary life in Russia was informed by the perspectives of the Left Opposition. While on a scientific mission in France, he was able to read works that were banned inside the Soviet Union, Trotsky’ My Life among them. In addition, his father was a one time Social Revolutionary deputy, he once helped Trotsky cross the border from Austria to Russia while in exile. As such his biography is filled with a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes that correspond to the analysis made by Trotsky on the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy in his struggle against the grave digger of the revolution.
Zbarsky was uniquely situated to observe and document this phenomena and he excels in doing so. His book is engrossing, the information is very accessible and his acerbic wit means his observations are quite humorous in places. Zbarsky’s biography has many insightful comments and could act as a companion to any serious study of the Soviet Union and the degeneration of the Russian revolution.
https://classconscious.org/2018/06/06...
February 13, 2023
For a book about embalming it really wasn’t that interesting.
Spoiler alert: we never find out the 7 secret herbs and spices used to embalm Lenin. There go my plans of starting up an Etsy embalming store.
2.5 stars
Spoiler alert: we never find out the 7 secret herbs and spices used to embalm Lenin. There go my plans of starting up an Etsy embalming store.
2.5 stars
December 1, 2023
2.5 stars. There was a great deal of time spent on the authors biographical history, sometimes in relation to embalming, which was not incredibly engaging. An interesting topic overall, and not a bad introduction to Lenin's embalming and the Soviet political zeitgeist that lead to and continued it.
August 20, 2019
Really interesting, mainly for its observations on life in Russia during the early days of the communist regime
March 5, 2020
October Revolution. Lenin and Stalin. Embalming. Russian science. Bizarre.
September 2, 2025
Interesting read but Lenin's embalming was only about a quarter of the book. "Embalmers of the Soviet Union" might have been a more appropriate title.
March 31, 2011
I came at this book not from the perspective of a history aficionado but, as you might guess, as someone fascinated by the concept of keeping one’s leaders under glass. Nonsecular saints, you might say. Ilya Zbarsky is the person to go to for the gory details, since he was the son of the man who first embalmed Lenin, and in turn, headed up the embalming lab. As such, it’s interesting that Zbarsky chose to end this little book with the statement: “I cannot help believing that embalming is a barbaric and anachronistic practice, alien to the cultures of Western societies.” Speaking as a citizen, he feels the time has come to bury Lenin. Guess I should see about getting some plane tickets and making my pilgrimage now.
In 1923, as Vladimir Lenin was dying of a series of strokes perhaps brought on by syphilis, Joseph Stalin suggested the Soviet Union embalm Lenin long enough “for us to grow used to the idea of his being no longer among us.” Lenin’s widow begged the country, in the pages of Pravda, to remember her husband by building kindergartens and hospitals, but Stalin saw a way to use the population’s religious sentiment to cement his own power.
One of the Bolshevik leaders wanted to refrigerate Lenin and approached Boris Zbarsky, a biochemist, to strengthen his case. Zbarsky examined the decaying body and knew that freezing would not reverse the damage. After he’d dared to have an opinion on the matter, he was put in charge of restoring the corpse and preparing it for public viewing. The descriptions of Lenin’s decomposition are particularly tasty. These were recorded in watercolors by Alexander Pasternak, but unfortunately, the paintings aren’t reproduced here.
After his career in nuclear composition was cut short for smacking too much of genetics, Ilya Zbarsky joined the embalming lab. While he was sent to Mongolia to embalm the dictator Choybalsan, his father Boris was arrested for being “cosmopolitan” – read Jewish – after some 30 years of tweaking Lenin’s corpse. The elder Zbarsky’s health was ruined by his imprisonment and his son assumed his position.
Stalin joined Lenin on view in the mausoleum on Red Square for eight years, before he was buried under the Kremlin with other dignitaries. After his demotion, Muscovites adopted the maxim, “Don’t sleep in a mausoleum that doesn’t belong to you.” Other leaders who were embalmed by the Russian team include Ho Chi Mihn, Kim Il Sung, and the leaders of Angola, Guyana, and the Czech Communist Party. Mao Tse-Tung was embalmed by the Chinese without Soviet technology.
These days, after the fall of the Soviet Union decimated their budget, the embalming team works commercially, providing museum-quality preservation for gangsters.
Zbarsky is the last survivor of the team who preserved Lenin from 1934 to 1952. His memoir is fascinating, even occasionally frightening, reading.
This review originally appeared in Morbid Curiosity #8. Lenin's body was in the news in January as Russians once again considered burying him at last. Here's the link: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe...
In 1923, as Vladimir Lenin was dying of a series of strokes perhaps brought on by syphilis, Joseph Stalin suggested the Soviet Union embalm Lenin long enough “for us to grow used to the idea of his being no longer among us.” Lenin’s widow begged the country, in the pages of Pravda, to remember her husband by building kindergartens and hospitals, but Stalin saw a way to use the population’s religious sentiment to cement his own power.
One of the Bolshevik leaders wanted to refrigerate Lenin and approached Boris Zbarsky, a biochemist, to strengthen his case. Zbarsky examined the decaying body and knew that freezing would not reverse the damage. After he’d dared to have an opinion on the matter, he was put in charge of restoring the corpse and preparing it for public viewing. The descriptions of Lenin’s decomposition are particularly tasty. These were recorded in watercolors by Alexander Pasternak, but unfortunately, the paintings aren’t reproduced here.
After his career in nuclear composition was cut short for smacking too much of genetics, Ilya Zbarsky joined the embalming lab. While he was sent to Mongolia to embalm the dictator Choybalsan, his father Boris was arrested for being “cosmopolitan” – read Jewish – after some 30 years of tweaking Lenin’s corpse. The elder Zbarsky’s health was ruined by his imprisonment and his son assumed his position.
Stalin joined Lenin on view in the mausoleum on Red Square for eight years, before he was buried under the Kremlin with other dignitaries. After his demotion, Muscovites adopted the maxim, “Don’t sleep in a mausoleum that doesn’t belong to you.” Other leaders who were embalmed by the Russian team include Ho Chi Mihn, Kim Il Sung, and the leaders of Angola, Guyana, and the Czech Communist Party. Mao Tse-Tung was embalmed by the Chinese without Soviet technology.
These days, after the fall of the Soviet Union decimated their budget, the embalming team works commercially, providing museum-quality preservation for gangsters.
Zbarsky is the last survivor of the team who preserved Lenin from 1934 to 1952. His memoir is fascinating, even occasionally frightening, reading.
This review originally appeared in Morbid Curiosity #8. Lenin's body was in the news in January as Russians once again considered burying him at last. Here's the link: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe...
July 27, 2016
An interesting telling of the Soviet Union through the prism of a scientist who helped keep Lenin's body preserved. It is striking to think of the Communists' decision to make Lenin into a relic, though obviously there are roots for it in old Russian history. That it continues today with Russia's nouveaux riche just shows how reality knows no irony.
A few of the author's thoughts:
"It may be worth making a few general remarks her about the internationalization of embalming that began after the war.
"The long-term preservation of the body of a head of state was always carried out at the request of the national government concerned, and never at the behest of Moscow.
"The leaders of 'sister states' who had recourse to the services of the laboratory of the mausoleum in Moscow usually had two objects in view: to reinforce the legitimacy of their regime by preserving the body body of their 'historic' leader, and in ingratiate themselves with their big brother, the USSR. It should also be noted that every one of the leaders who had been embalmed was a dictator who, when he was alive, had already allowed a personality cult to develop around his life, character and works.
"The only example of embalming carried out in a country with a wholly Western culture is that of Klement Gottwald, though it may be remembered that this body was cremated in 1956, despite the risk to the Czechs of offending the authorities in Moscow. I might be tempted, therefore, to conclude that embalming is not compatible with the traditions of civilized countries. If I were to saw that, however, I run the risk of incurring the wrath of my colleagues in the laboratory of the mausoleum. Moreover, there can be no doubt that their work remains of considerable scientific value."
A few of the author's thoughts:
"It may be worth making a few general remarks her about the internationalization of embalming that began after the war.
"The long-term preservation of the body of a head of state was always carried out at the request of the national government concerned, and never at the behest of Moscow.
"The leaders of 'sister states' who had recourse to the services of the laboratory of the mausoleum in Moscow usually had two objects in view: to reinforce the legitimacy of their regime by preserving the body body of their 'historic' leader, and in ingratiate themselves with their big brother, the USSR. It should also be noted that every one of the leaders who had been embalmed was a dictator who, when he was alive, had already allowed a personality cult to develop around his life, character and works.
"The only example of embalming carried out in a country with a wholly Western culture is that of Klement Gottwald, though it may be remembered that this body was cremated in 1956, despite the risk to the Czechs of offending the authorities in Moscow. I might be tempted, therefore, to conclude that embalming is not compatible with the traditions of civilized countries. If I were to saw that, however, I run the risk of incurring the wrath of my colleagues in the laboratory of the mausoleum. Moreover, there can be no doubt that their work remains of considerable scientific value."
July 18, 2018
So imagine you're an unassuming chemist in post-revolutionary Russia and Stalin tells you to figure out a way to permanently preserve the rapidly decaying recently-deceased body of Lenin so that it can be on display, in a lifelike state, for future generations. Or, um, else!
That's the unbelievably stressful situation that the author of this book's father, Boris Zbarsky, found himself in circa 1924. He worked with another chemist, Vladimir Vorbiov, to develop an experimental but ultimately extremely successful chemical bath which stemmed the decay, removed the discoloration, and ended up with a more life-like Lenin than the emaciated corpse he actually left behind!
The book is written from the perspective of Zbarsky's son Ilya, who took on the role of caretaker of Lenin's corpse. I don't know why I was expecting this book to be fascinating because, really, preserving bodies isn't that fascinating at all. It's a lot of drudgery and hum-drum chemistry. And, indeed, the sections that discuss the actual embalming process are pretty uninteresting.
Thankfully, other parts of Ilya's story prove to be quite fascinating, including his upbringing as he bounced from entitled estates (when his father found good jobs) to abject poverty in cold rooms with leaky roofs (when his father was struggling). His description of the starvation and plight of the lower classes during Lenin and Stalin's reigns are also quite interesting, as are the stories of Stalin's years of terror, when anyone suspected of being anti-Stalin was eliminated via imprisonment, exile, or execution.
In the end, I lost interest in the book and skimmed through the last chapters. Alas, it happens.
That's the unbelievably stressful situation that the author of this book's father, Boris Zbarsky, found himself in circa 1924. He worked with another chemist, Vladimir Vorbiov, to develop an experimental but ultimately extremely successful chemical bath which stemmed the decay, removed the discoloration, and ended up with a more life-like Lenin than the emaciated corpse he actually left behind!
The book is written from the perspective of Zbarsky's son Ilya, who took on the role of caretaker of Lenin's corpse. I don't know why I was expecting this book to be fascinating because, really, preserving bodies isn't that fascinating at all. It's a lot of drudgery and hum-drum chemistry. And, indeed, the sections that discuss the actual embalming process are pretty uninteresting.
Thankfully, other parts of Ilya's story prove to be quite fascinating, including his upbringing as he bounced from entitled estates (when his father found good jobs) to abject poverty in cold rooms with leaky roofs (when his father was struggling). His description of the starvation and plight of the lower classes during Lenin and Stalin's reigns are also quite interesting, as are the stories of Stalin's years of terror, when anyone suspected of being anti-Stalin was eliminated via imprisonment, exile, or execution.
In the end, I lost interest in the book and skimmed through the last chapters. Alas, it happens.
May 6, 2012
A Kafkaesque insight into one particularly bizarre aspect of Stalinist Russia:- that of keeping the legend of Lenin alive by preserving the corpse. A highly skilled professional team are tasked with the impossible:- that of embalming the body to be kept seemingly 'ad infinitum' for the public to view (all at the delectation of Stalin). A sorry tale of professionals working within a tyrannical regime. Preserving the spectre of Lenin is wrought with stress (that one senses was on a scale akin to milling the Star of Africa diamond) such was the weight of expectation that accompanied Stalin's requirements.The final dénouement is one of the value of this 'currency', once Stalin himself expires.
June 10, 2012
The title of this book does not inspire you to grab it with both hands and start to read voraciously. But it certainly tells an interesting tale traversing recent russian history from the 1920s through to the 1990s. And, told with a lot of personal insight makes this into a compelling tale about the predilection of autocratic states for preserving their almighty leaders forever. I even had the privelege to visit one of the mausoleums referred to in the book .. that of the leader Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the central square in Sofia. That was in 1987 before the wall came down
July 2, 2009
where do they find these? Perhaps not the greatest writing, but a totally unique story to tell from a point of view I'd never considered: who was responsible for maintaining Comrade Lenin's corpse in a condition suitable for viewing for all these years? Great insight on Soviet life and the tidal changes in that society over the years.
October 24, 2009
An interesting read especially the chapter 'Embalmers of the Nouveaux Riches'. What does make me wonder is the photographs on pages 53 and 101 it cannot be the author as a young child and then as an adult as Professor Vorobiov has the same outfit on and the background has not changed. If a photograph can be mistaken what else has been?
August 7, 2011
I read this just after it came. I came across it on the shelf at my library. I found it a short and interesting read, especially after visiting Lenin's Tomb in Moscow, during 1990. I particularly fascinating was reading about the changes in politics and how those affected science. The last chapter rounds off this work well.
April 14, 2013
A surprisingly thrilling story of a family who were Lenin's Embalmers. During the Stalin years more and more of their peers disappear until finally they are in deep jeopardy. Full of surprising twists and turns; the story is a mordant take on one family (and one father's) perilous existence in a crazy and dangerous world of paranoia.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews