The greatest embalming job of the 20th Century was the mummification of V. I. Lenin. Until last week, the technique had always remained a dark secret of Soviet science. Finally, Dr. Herwig Hamperl, famed Austrian pathologist who taught in Moscow and was a close friend of the embalmers, let the world in on some of the secret.
When Lenin died in 1924, an autopsy was performed to spike rumors that he had died of syphilis or poison. Because the autopsy cut the blood vessels through which embalming fluid ordinarily is forced, some new technique had to be devised if Lenin was to...
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