Russia spends $200,000 this year to maintain Lenin's body

The annual spending on maintenance of the body of Russia’s 1917 October Revolution, who died in 1924, was published in Russian state website seeking tenders for medical and biological works on Lenin’s body.

Lenin’s body was placed in a mausoleum near the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. The mortal remains of Vladimir Lenin are nearly 146 years old, but doesn’t look a day over 53.

Scientists have kept the Soviet leader, carefully preserved since his death in 1924. The country’s procurement agency says on its website, it has contracted a supplier of “biomedical work for the conservation of Vladimir Lenin’s body as it looked in life,” but did not provide a name for the supplier.

Russian scientists have spent 92 years keeping Lenin’s body in good shape, adding a fresh coat of embalming fluids every other year, a weeks-long “process that involves submerging the body in separate solutions of glycerol solution baths, formaldehyde, potassium acetate, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid solution and acetic sodium.

To maintain the precise condition of Lenin’s body, the staff must perform regular maintenance on the corpse and sometimes even replace parts with an excruciating attention to detail. Artificial eyelashes have taken the place of Lenin’s original eyelashes, which were damaged during the initial embalming procedures. The lab had to deal with mold and wrinkles on certain parts of Lenin’s body, especially in the early years. Researchers developed artificial skin patches when a piece of skin on Lenin’s foot went missing in 1945. They resculpted Lenin’s nose, face and other parts of the body to restore them to their original feel and appearance. A moldable material made of paraffin, glycerin and carotene has replaced much of the skin fat to maintain the original “landscape” of the skin.

Russian state-run polls show the majority of Russians believe Lenin’s body should be removed from display and buried. But President Vladimir Putin has said Lenin should stay put and likened the Soviet leader’s mausoleum to displays of relics of Orthodox saints in monasteries.