whats behind the display of embalmed world leaders
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edition.cnn.com
What's behind the display of
embalmed world leaders?
by LAURA SMITH-SPARK, CNN • MARCH 8, 2013
(CNN) -- The body of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will rest in a
glass case on public display. Forever.
At least, so said his deputy, Nicolas Maduro.
While the idea may seem alien to some, Chavez will be the latest in a
line of leaders whose remains have been embalmed and put on show
in a glass casket.
Perhaps the best known is Russia's Vladimir Lenin, whose body still
lies in a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, nearly 90 years after his
death.
Others include Stalin, China's Mao Zedong, Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh,
and North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il Sung.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was also embalmed following his
assassination in 1865, enabling his body to be taken on its winding,
three-week train journey back to Springfield, Illinois, with open-casket
memorial services along the way.
For Nina Tumarkin, author of "Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet
Russia," the decision to embalm Lenin in 1924 -- the first modern
leader to have his corpse preserved in this way -- was a reflection of a
tumultuous period in early Soviet history.
Chavez's impact lauded at funeral
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"Many people feared that the regime could not survive his death, so
after the announcement was made, Moscow became something of an
armed camp," said Tumarkin, a professor of Russian history at
Wellesley College, Massachusetts.
The leaders were unsure whether to hold a lying-in-state period, for
fear that the people would not come, she said. As it turned out, some
750,000 braved the bitter January cold, standing in line for long hours
to catch a glimpse of the corpse.
As a result, the leaders decided to make it a "going concern," she said,
extending the period first to 40 days, the period in the Russian
Orthodox tradition when Mass is said daily for the dead, and then
installing his glass sarcophagus. They first placed it in a wooden
mausoleum before building the stone one that stands today.
Nine decades later and half a world away, crowds of Venezuelans
similarly lined up to see Chavez's body as it lay in state at a military
academy before the funeral Friday.
So many came to see the body that the viewing was extended for
another seven days.
Giving details of his funeral, Maduro said Chavez would be embalmed
"just like Lenin (and) Mao Zedong" and laid to rest at a military
museum where generations of Venezuelans will be able to visit a man
who for many was larger-than-life.
Polarizing move
In Lenin's case, the decision was -- and is still -- controversial.
Even at the time of the communist leader's death, many Russians were
outraged by the idea of embalming him, Tumarkin said. Many more
today would like to see the body buried.
But the polarizing move came against the backdrop of the discovery 15
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months earlier of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb. "It took
the imagination of the world by storm," Tumarkin said, and it sowed
the idea that the body of a leader could be preserved for thousands of
years to come.
It also tapped into a Russian Orthodox belief that the body of a true
saint does not decay, she said.
"Most important from a political point of view, the leaders who
followed Lenin at the time, or who would be competing for the mantle
of general secretary of the party, were men who were really terrified
that the whole system was going to come falling down," she said.
That fear had already prompted them to begin the process of "making
Lenin eternal" through his writings and portraits. With his extended
lying in state, the Russian people also had a kind of shrine to visit,
Tumarkin said, again channeling the religious tradition.
When Lenin's body was put on display, the embalmers compared their
work to that of the ancient Egyptians -- who actually had used very
different methods -- and the message sent out to the rest of the world
was that this should be seen as a demonstration of superior Soviet
science, she said.
At the same time, Lenin's symbolic presence lent the next generation
of leaders an extra legitimacy, she said.
And as the cult of Lenin swelled in the 1920s and 1930s, and was
revived under Khrushchev in the 1970s, his body could still be viewed,
Tumarkin noted. Other Communist leaders, such as Mao, followed his
lead in later decades.
Civil War practice
In some countries, for example the Philippines and the United States,
embalming ahead of open-casket funerals is now quite common.
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But the process is still regarded with suspicion or revulsion by many,
perhaps linked to a wider discomfort with the idea of death.
According to the American Society of Embalmers, modern-day
embalming took off in the United States during the Civil War, when
families would travel to the battlefields to find their dead sons or
brothers.
"The Union Army had 'Embalming Surgeons' in the battlefield that
would prepare the remains, place them in a coffin and send back to the
family by train or horse and buggy," the society's website says.
So what's involved in the embalming process today?
First, the body fluids must be drained and replaced with a
formaldehyde-based product, said Richard Arnold, managing director
of the Embalmer Training School in Britain and a qualified embalmer
for 20 years.
The formaldehyde-based fluid plasticizes the proteins within the body
and fights against the bacteria that otherwise would lead to its
decomposition, he said.
In cases where the body is expected to remain embalmed for a long
period -- rather than for a few weeks or months, as can happen if a
funeral is delayed -- the concentration of formaldehyde will be
increased. Other chemicals, such as lanolin, can be added to the mix to
improve the color and texture of the skin, help break down blood clots
or lessen discoloration.
Then comes the process of making the deceased look as realistic and,
for the sake of the family, as peaceful as possible, Arnold said. "We do
everything from reconstructive surgery to cosmetics and hairdressing."
The cosmetics used in embalming have higher levels of pigment and
silicone, he explained, so that when the body is moved in and out of
cold storage the cosmetics will expand and contract with the tissue
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beneath without cracking.
Each embalmer works with individual artistry, he said, with many
around the world creating their own mixes of chemicals to achieve the
best results in local conditions.
This could be important in Venezuela, where the weather is tropical
and power supplies sometimes erratic.
And if a body is going to be displayed for a long time, it's crucial to get
it right.
The body of Klement Gottwald, president of then-Czechoslovakia, was
embalmed and placed in a mausoleum for display by Communist Party
leaders in 1953. But it was taken off display several years later, in part
because, it is said, it had begun to decompose.
World leaders aside, Arnold believes embalming is an overlooked and
undervalued art that helps regular people if someone dies far from
home or must be laid to rest after a delay.
Particularly for families who've lost a relative in sudden or tragic
circumstances, it's important to see the loved one looking their best at
the last, he adds.
"I've always enjoyed the job," he said. "It's the last thing you can ever
do for anybody."
'Magic has gone'
But even with the best of skill, an embalmed body will eventually start
to look more waxy or plasticky -- as has been remarked of Lenin's face
during his long repose.
It reportedly is under a high-maintenance regime that involves the
frequent reapplication of embalming fluids.
Despite this, Lenin is no longer looking as good as he used to, said
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Tumarkin, who has viewed him several times over the decades in the
gloom of his 1920s-style mausoleum, decorated in red, black and
white.
It used to make an impression in the Soviet period, when the long lines
of visitors leading up to the sarcophagus created a sense of reverence
akin to that of a pilgrimage, she said.
But on more recent visits, Tumarkin found much has changed.
"You don't have that any more. You don't have the lines (of people) any
more. You just wander in and it's like being in a wax museum -- the
magic has long since gone."
It's perhaps a word of warning that Venezuela's leaders should heed as
they plan for eternity.
Original URL:http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/08/world/americas/venezuela-chavez-embalming/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
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