Passing Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, few people know that the idea of \u200b\u200bmaking Ilyich “forever alive” did not belong to Stalin at all, but to the man whose name is now immortalized elsewhere - in the name of the icebreaker on the Neva in St. Petersburg converted into a museum “ Krasin ". It was named after the Bolshevik Leonid Krasin. It was he who came up with the idea to "revive" the deceased leader of the proletariat.
Krasin was after the revolution the only "technocrat" in the Soviet government, an engineer by training. However, his youth was no less stormy. He entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, but was expelled for participating in the revolutionary movement. He traveled around the country, printed leaflets and newspapers, was engaged in agitation, planned "exes" - terrorist actions to "confiscate" money from the bourgeoisie for the purpose of the revolution. He himself, however, did not rob or kill, but was the "brain" of bloody bandit raids, planning them in cold blood.
The raid on a bank in Tiflis, organized by Comrade Krasin, was a brilliant success, where the terrorist revolutionaries managed to steal 250 thousand rubles. In 1911, Krasin parted ways with Lenin in views, and left for emigration. There he became a real bourgeois - he worked in a prosperous company "Siemens and Schuckert". He became addicted to excellent tailored suits, with which he later amazed the unpretentious Bolsheviks in Russia. But he soon returned to his previous revolutionary affairs, and eventually ended up in the government of Lenin, became the people's commissar for foreign trade, a member of the Central Committee, and then the Soviet ambassador.
Here again his penchant for adventures and considerable scientific knowledge appeared. Krasin was an ardent admirer of science fiction writer, scientist and social democrat Bogdanov, who quite seriously believed that immortality could be achieved in reality. He argued: “Science already sets the task of not only healing, but also rejuvenating. I am sure that a liberated humanity will be able to resurrect great figures. "
After the death of Lenin in 1924, inspired by the ideas of Bogdanov, it was Krasin who began to rush with the idea of \u200b\u200breviving the “great leader”.
On his initiative, in Germany, for a lot of money, ultra-modern refrigeration equipment was purchased (in times of famine and devastation!) To freeze the precious body, and then, when science becomes capable of it, it ... revive.
The equipment has already begun to be installed in one of the Kremlin towers, but the work has been delayed. Spring was coming and something had to be done urgently. In addition, Felix Dzerzhinsky was skeptical about the idea of \u200b\u200bfreezing. "This is with our power outages!" - he sarcastically.
And then they decided to embalm Lenin. The chemist Boris Zbarsky and the anatomist from Kharkov Vladimir Vorobiev took up the case. They relied on the research of the Russian scientist Nikolai Melnikov-Razvedenkov, who back in 1896 proposed an original method for preparing anatomical preparations while preserving their natural color by impregnating tissues with alcohol, glycerin and potassium acetate.
Krupskaya was categorically against, but no one listened to her. The main thing is that Stalin, a former seminarian, liked the idea, who even earlier, according to his recollections, had promised Krupskaya that if she contradicted him, then "Ilyich would be found another wife."
Together with the idea of \u200b\u200bembalming, Krasin announced the need to build a mausoleum. He wrote in Izvestia: “The first task is to build a permanent tomb in the place where the body of Vladimir Ilyich is now resting. The difficulty of the task is truly extraordinary. After all, this will be a place that will surpass Mecca and Jerusalem in its importance for humanity. "
The first mausoleum was built by the architect Alexey Shchusev on January 27 in the form of a wooden cube. The artist Kazimir Malevich saw in this a connection with his famous "Black Square". “The crypt is like a cube - a symbol of eternity. The image of Lenin is outside of matter. Materialistic being in Leninism becomes sacred, ”the artist wrote enthusiastically. The stone version of the mausoleum of multi-colored granite was built in 1929 according to the project of the same Shchusev.
At the end of March, Zbarsky and Vorobyov started embalming. To assess and register skin color, Zbarsky invited the artist A. Pasternak, the brother of Boris Pasternak, the future Nobel Prize laureate in literature. The case, of course, is unprecedented and even adventurous. Zbarsky had never dealt with corpses before. Therefore, both he and Vorobyov were very worried. However, the operation, which lasted four months, was completely successful. The mummy was placed in a glass coffin, built according to the project of the same Krasin.
For the first time, they decided to show the embalmed body of the leader to the delegates of the Congress of the Comintern, which took place in Moscow, as well as to Lenin's relatives. Everyone was amazed.
Krupskaya was crying. And the leader's brother, Dmitry Ilyich, said: “I am very excited. He lies as I saw him immediately after death, and even better. "
The idea of \u200b\u200b"resurrection" was expressed in some form in the USSR and in collecting the brains of not only Lenin, but also other famous people. For this, the Brain Institute was specially created. His idea belonged to the famous neuropathologist Vladimir Bekhterev. He wrote an article "On the Creation of the Pantheon of Famous People", which "would be a collection of canned brains belonging to highly talented people." It still houses not only the brain of Ilyich, but also many other celebrities: Kalinin, Kuibyshev, Krupskaya, Lunacharsky, Gorky, Mayakovsky, Michurin, Pavlov, Tsiolkovsky, Stalin himself, etc. The unique collection has been replenished even in our days. For example, the brains of Academicians Landau and Sakharov were placed there. Moreover, in the case of Sakharov, his wife Elena Bonner agreed to this. In Soviet times, the activities of the institute were strictly classified, like everything that was done with Lenin in the mausoleum.
All participants in the unique operation to embalm the leader were generously rewarded. Vorobyov received 40 thousand ducats, Zbarsky - 30 thousand. Later, they were also awarded the Order of Lenin. However, both ended badly. Vorobiev in 1937 died unexpectedly on the operating table (like Frunze) from anesthesia. And Zbarsky, although he survived the repressions of 1937, was arrested in 1952 and rehabilitated only after Stalin's death. The death of Krasin himself was also mysterious. Stalin sent him as ambassador to London, where he died the next day. The death of Academician Bekhterev, who put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bthe "Pantheon of the Brain", is also considered strange. He was invited to examine Stalin, and then he diagnosed "schizophrenia", and even had the imprudence to tell his friends about it, after which he quickly died, although he was still in good health, allegedly "from food poisoning."
Some people still believe that Stalin did not need people who hoped that Lenin would sooner or later be resurrected. What for? If he already considered himself a god on earth ...
The example with Lenin was contagious. In the post-war years, employees of Zbarsky's laboratory embalmed the late leaders of Bulgaria (G. Dimitrov), Mongolia (H. Choibalsan), Czechoslovakia (K. Gottwald), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh), Angola (A. Neto), North Korea (Kim Il Sung) ) and, of course, Stalin himself.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died on January 21, 1924. However, even six months before his death, discussions were going on in the Politburo about how to deal with the body of the seriously ill Ilyich.
Party debate
Kalinin was the first to speak. “The death of Lenin should not be sudden for us,” he said. "You need to think over all the details of the funeral in advance." Stalin supported him. “Our comrades from the regions propose to bury the leader according to the Russian tradition,” said Iosif Vissarionovich. - They believe that the body cannot be cremated, since according to Russian customs, criminals have always been betrayed. Modern science allows the possibility of preserving the body through embalming. "
Trotsky began to protest violently: “The preservation of the relics is prescribed by the church canons.
Obviously, you call on us, revolutionary Marxists, to move in the same direction, adding to the relics of Sergius of Radonezh the power of Vladimir Ilyich? "
Bukharin and Kamenev took the side of Trotsky. Stalin's idea was defended by Kalinin and Rykov. The debate ended in a draw.
The main shrine of the party
But on the day of Ilyich's death, Trotsky was resting in the Caucasus, and therefore could not influence events. The winner was Stalin's proposal to embalm the leader, disguised as the idea of \u200b\u200b"comrades from the regions." Lenin's family did not approve of this initiative. But they had no right to dispose of the body of their loved one - it belonged to the party. Where did the idea of \u200b\u200bmummification come from? Stalin, who at one time received a spiritual education, knew perfectly well that in the Christian religion, imperishable remains are evidence of holiness.
So the body of Ilyich turned into the main party shrine.
Soviet pharaoh
According to researcher Nina Tumarkin, the decision to place the leader in the Mausoleum had an “Egyptian footprint”. On the eve of Lenin's death, the tomb of Tutankhamun was opened, whose body has been perfectly preserved for 3000 years. Professor Zbarsky, who was instructed to carry out the embalming of Lenin, admitted that his actions resembled the work of the Egyptian priests.
Electrical engineer Leonid Krasin, who was nicknamed "the wizard of the party", was responsible for preserving Lenin's body. Krasin was an ardent supporter of the philosopher Fedorov, who promoted the idea of \u200b\u200braising the dead. A few years before Lenin's death, Krasin said bluntly that science needed to move towards the resurrection of great people. Probably, the party leaders dreamed of bringing Ilyich back to life in the future.
To bury in Russian!
"This terrible event should not take us by surprise," Kalinin said at the time. "If we bury Vladimir Ilyich, the funeral should be as magnificent as the world has never seen before." Stalin agreed with him. They say it is important that everything is prepared in advance and the country's leadership is not at a loss. “The issue of burial worries some of our comrades from the provinces. They say that Lenin is a Russian person and, accordingly, he should be buried. They, for example, are categorically opposed to cremation, burning of Lenin's body. the last supreme judgment over those who were subject to execution. Some comrades believe that modern science has the ability to preserve the body of the deceased with the help of embalming, in order to allow our minds to get used to the idea that Lenin is not among us. "
The property of the party
According to the memoirs of Bonch-Bruevich, "Nadezhda Konstantinovna (Krupskaya - Ed.) Was against the mummification of Vladimir Ilyich." Lenin's sisters Anna, Maria, brother Dmitry did not approve of this either. But relatives were not free to dispose of his body. It has become the property of the party! Stalin's idea of \u200b\u200bembalming, disguised as the initiative of "provincial comrades", won. Where did this exotic thought come from?
Stalin, who studied to be an Orthodox priest, and the failed priest Dzerzhinsky, head of the commission for organizing Lenin's funeral, knew perfectly well that the incorruptibility of remains in Christianity is evidence of holiness. They were supported by Lunacharsky, once the head of the faction of god-builders in the Bolshevik party. "Scientific socialism," he wrote back in 1907, "is the most religious of all religions!"
The opportune moment has come to turn Bolshevism into a new world religion, and the body of the late leader into its main shrine.
Red pharaoh
Perhaps the main archaeological sensation of that time also influenced the decision to keep Ilyich's body and place it in the luxurious Mausoleum, researcher Nina Tumarkin, daughter of Russian emigrants, writes in her book "Lenin is Alive". Namely, the discovery a year before the death of the leader of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In 1923, the world press avidly described the fabulous treasures found there. Tourists flocked to Luxor in droves. The world community with might and main discussed the mysterious properties of the body of the pharaoh, not decayed for three millennia. By the way, Professor Zbarsky, who embalmed Ilyich, directly compared his work with the work of his ancient Egyptian fellow priests.
The later recognition of the architect Konstantin Melnikov, who designed the Lenin sarcophagus, is interesting. It turns out that the general idea of \u200b\u200beternal storage and public display of the leader's body belonged to Leonid Krasin. The very same electrical engineer Krasin, whom Lenin called "the magician and the magician of the Bolshevik party." Krasin, like a number of other Bolshevik intellectuals, was fascinated by the idea of \u200b\u200bthe philosopher Nikolai Fedorov about the resurrection of all ancestors before the second coming of Christ, so that they would avoid the Last Judgment. In 1921, at the funeral of a Bolshevik friend, the techie Krasin bluntly stated: "I am sure that this moment will come when liberated humanity, using all the power of science and technology, will be able to resurrect great figures, fighters for the liberation of humanity ..." In the executive troika of the commission at the funeral of Lenin, Krasin was responsible for preserving the body of the leader. It seems that the leadership of the party dreamed of resurrecting the sacred communist mummy in the future.
On January 21, 1924 at 18:50, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died after a serious illness.
His condition began to deteriorate in May 1922. Leading German specialists in nervous diseases were called in for treatment. The cause of death was atherosclerosis of blood vessels due to their premature wear. If technologies with stem cells had been developed then, Lenin could have lived for a very long time. The fact is that with the help of stem cells it is possible to restore blood vessels, there are technologies for cleaning blood vessels from atherosclerotic plaques, technologies are being developed to stimulate angiogenesis (the growth of new vessels).
At that time, by the way, the idea was being considered to freeze Lenin's body. But there was no appropriate technology, a liquid nitrogen generator could not be bought for a couple of hundred thousand rubles. Otherwise, Vladimir Ilyin could have become the world's first cryopatient ...
On January 23, the coffin with Lenin's body was transported to Moscow and installed in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. On January 27, the coffin with Lenin's embalmed body was placed in a specially built Mausoleum on Red Square. Hundreds of thousands of people came to say goodbye to Lenin. If they knew about the existence of technologies capable of preserving the brain and personality of the leader to revive hundreds of years later in the bright communist future, I have no doubt that every Soviet person would require the party and the country's leadership to do this.
Now Lenin's brain is stored separately, at the Brain Institute, including in the form of tens of thousands of histological preparations (sections). We do not know exactly the degree of safety of the structures of the neural networks, but all the same, this gives a potential opportunity in the future to scan the brain and create a detailed computer model of Lenin's brain, that is, download Lenin's personality into a computer. These technologies are currently being developed by IBM in the Blue Brain project.
In addition, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin left behind many written works, workers of museums and scientific institutes in the Soviet Union did a great job of collecting information about Lenin's life. This will greatly help reconstruct and refine the personality if there is not enough information in his brain. You and I suffer from the imperfection of our memory, constantly fabricating false memories. And Lenin can get not only his personality back, but also a wonderful - even better than in his younger years - memory. So, as a futurologist and transhumanist, I do not exclude that as a result of the restoration of his personality, Lenin will indeed be "more alive than all living things."
In this regard, I consider the proposal of Vladimir Medinsky from United Russia about Lenin's funeral to be insane and barbaric. The body of Vladimir Ilyich, kept in the Mausoleum in the center of our state, is an important symbol of the hope for immortality. For all of us, it serves as a reminder of our duty to revive the founder of the Soviet state.
I consider it timely and expedient to organize a scientific and technical project for a preliminary study of the possibility of reviving Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and defining directions for further scientific work. I think the time has come for RTD to come up with such an initiative.