Lenin’s preserved body fused Orthodox saint relics with scientific resurrection hopes

Evidence

After his death in 1924, Lenin’s body was embalmed and placed in a sarcophagus inside a gleaming red granite mausoleum on Red Square abutting the Kremlin for public viewing. This was in accord both with the Russian Orthodox belief, like that of the Egyptians and Chinese before them, that the body of a saint did not decay after death, and with the expectation of eventual scientific resurrection of the dead—ancient and modern versions of immortality coexisting. … For decades to come, legend had it that Lenin, like Elvis, was still alive, traveling incognito, observing the work of the authorities, and taking notes to ensure the emancipation of the proletariat. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 467

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of a secular dictator’s embalmed body borrowing the logic of saintly incorruptibility — and the undying-Lenin urban legend — is a great elevator-conversation tidbit.