NOBLE QUEST IN PURSUIT OF DEAD COMMUNISTS

The pharaohs pioneered a primitive form. Walt Disney, Timothy Leary and L. Ron Hubbard were rumoured to have been but weren’t. Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Mao and Kim Il Sung have been. We will wait and see what happens to the bodies of Kim Jong Il and Fidel Castro when they leave this mortal coil. I’m talking about the phenomenon of body preservation. The communists have a pretty good monopoly when it comes to modern leaders whose bodies have been preserved for future generations to venerate. Lenin, of course, was the first to be embalmed in 1924. Stalin was embalmed in 1952 but his body was removed from public display and buried in 1961 in the Kremlin grounds. Ho Chi Minh followed in 1969, Mao in 1976 and Kim Il Sung in 1994.

Several trips we have been on have had the viewing of these bodies on the itinerary. The first such occasion was in Hanoi, where we went to see the body of Uncle Ho. His mausoleum was based on Lenin’s in Moscow, which also unfortunately happened to be where his body was. The week that we were in Hanoi overlapped with a week Ho Chi Minh had made a posthumous mercy dash to Russia for repairs, necessary for keeping a body pristine in viewing conditions in a climate as warm and humid as Vietnam. We could still witness the daily changing of the guard where somber soldiers marched. In what seems to be a repeating occurrence, Ho Chi Minh had stated his wish was to be cremated, with his ashes to be scattered around Vietnam. It was said that he preferred cremation because it would be “more hygienic than burial and would also save land for agricultural purposes”. However, as has been the case for many leaders throughout history, his will was ignored, his body preserved and a mausoleum built to house his body, all against his wishes.  

Above: Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi. 

Missing out on seeing Uncle Ho, we decided to try our luck with Chairman Mao when we went to Beijing the following year. Like Ho, Mao had always expressed his desire not to be embalmed and displayed, signing papers to that effect as far back as 1956. In spite of his standing in The Communist Party, or perhaps because of it, he was not cremated on his death in 1976. Instead, he was embalmed, with his body placed on display in a purpose built mausoleum in Tiananmen Square. The mausoleum was built using materials sourced from throughout China; granite from Sichuan Province, porcelain plates from Guangdong Province, pine trees from Yan’an, saw-wort seeds from Xinjiang, earth from Tangshan, coloured pebbles from Nanjing, milky quartz from the Kunlun Mountains, pine logs from Jiangxi Province, water and sand from the strait of Taiwan and even rock samples from Mount Everest. As big as a logistic problem sourcing this material from around China would seem to be, the biggest problem involved making a crystal coffin, suitable for viewing the body. At the time, China couldn’t make such a casket, the Soviet Union could. Due to the Sino-Russian split, China couldn’t ask Russia for help. Instead, using designs from Lenin’s casket in Moscow and looking at the Soviet designed coffin that was intended for Sun Yat-Sen, a lot of expenditure and a prolonged and frustrating development phase, Mao’s final casket was reverse engineered, made and prepared. Unfortunately, the week we were in Beijing corresponded with the Communist Party Congress and we couldn’t see Mao. It also meant we didn’t have to wait in line in the cold for several hours, waiting with tour groups of Chinese coming to pay their respects, with rented flowers and forced tears. It did mean that we were 0 from 2 when it came to seeing dead Communist leaders.

Above: Mao’s Mausoleum, Beijing.

 With a trip to Russia in 2009, I came to the third city that housed an embalmed communist leader. Would I get to see Lenin’s body in Moscow? Lenin was the first of the leaders to be embalmed and displayed. When he died in 1924, the Soviet government allegedly received more than 10,000 telegrams asking that Lenin’s body should be preserved for future generations. With such an outpouring of emotion, who could refuse the people such a wish?  His body was preserved in a hastily put up mausoleum made of wood. This mausoleum was eventually replaced with one made of stone, when it was decided to display Lenin’s body for the foreseeable future. In the Red Square, Lenin has laid for nearly 100 years, apart for four years when he was removed in the 2^nd World War due to the threat of Nazi occupation of the Soviet capital. Stalin’s body was also embalmed and placed beside Lenin’s in 1953 but was removed in the early 1960s. His body was buried in the grounds of the Kremlin. The gods of fate smiled upon me in Moscow. It may have been bitterly cold but Lenin’s body was open for viewing during the time we were there. All that it needed to view the body was patience enough to wait in-line for an hour and a half. I was accompanied by curious foreigners and Russians alike. Small groups were allowed into the mausoleum where you go down a few steps of stairs before you reach the inner sanctum. Lenin’s final resting place is solemn but not overly so, perhaps a reflection that he is from a bygone era, a fallen ideology, a curiosity in modern-day capitalist Russia. You get a quick look at the famed revolutionary lying in his crystal casket. Obviously, videotaping and photography are not allowed and guests are expected to show an appropriate level of decorum. His body looks waxy, an appearance that has often led to accusations that the body is actually a fake, made from wax. Lenin’s embalmers maintain that the body is real and that it is Lenin’s, and that they have to moisturize and inject preservatives into the body daily. Lenin’s body receives intensive treatment annually to keep it in good condition. Throughout the year, blemishes are removed with hydrogen peroxide or a diluted mixture of acetic acid. As Russia moves forward from its turbulent communist past, that was ushered in by Lenin, there are moves that his body, like Stalin’s, should be removed from his sarcophagus and buried, a move that would no doubt be unpopular with foreign visitors looking forward to seeing a reminder of the Cold War. Ultimately, the decision will lie with the Russian people; how they want to celebrate their communist legacy and heritage will determine the fate of Lenin.

Above: Lenin’s mausoleum, Moscow.

 I may never get to Pyongyang, where Kim Il Sung, the fourth embalmed leader, lies. Even though I live less than 200 kilometres away, entry to the country is obviously restrictive and the cost of travelling to North Korea is prohibitive. If I did make it, I would fancy my chances of seeing him; foreign guests are often taken to the mausoleum, although entry is by invite only (can’t have any old pleb or peasant viewing the Great Leader).Kim Jong Il may be the nominal leader, but Kim Il Sung is still the eternal President of the country he founded. Emotions still seem to run high when it comes to the Great Leader, something that is still exploited by the regime. One friend who did make it up to North Korea was invited to the spectacle. Outside, greeters would tell patriotic stories of the Great Leader, working and manipulating the crowd until emotions were unhinged. Tears flowed, breasts were beaten. Inside, Korean visitors bowed at the four corners of Kim Il Sung’s glass sarcophagus, where his head lies on a Korean-style pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers Party of Korea. Foreign guests were encouraged to do likewise, to offer homage to a man seen as diabolical in the West but a man thought highly off in the DPRK.

Above: Crowds outside Kim Il Sung’s Mausoleum, Pyongyang.

Its strange that the bodies of these men, all of whom caused the deaths of many, some of them who caused the deaths of millions, are kept in such a state, while the bodies of their victims are often uncared for. In some cases, they remain undiscovered, left anonymously in mass graves for future generations to discover. Maybe one day, post reunification of the Koreas perhaps, I will get to North Korea. Hopefully, the South won’t seek to destroy all evidence of the painful divide, maybe Kim Jong Il will even be lying in state beside his father. Its something I would like to see. It was an odd thing seeing Lenin, almost 100 years after his death,  lying seemingly without blemish or decay, in a tomb that echoed those used by the pharaohs. Sometimes the more things change, the more things really do stay the same.