How Lenin died and three versions of the cause of his death. “As long as doctors are silent, the authorities do not touch them. When and on what day did Lenin die?

Probably, the life of any famous person is shrouded in a certain aura of mystery and mystery. The details of his life and death arouse genuine interest among the people. The life of the leader of the proletariat, the creator of a new state on the world map, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, is no exception. Scientists are still arguing about some details of his life and work, and the circumstances of his death look a little mysterious. This is what we will talk about.

What preceded Lenin's death?

Of course, such a significant political figure as Vladimir Ilyich had both admirers and ill-wishers. There were quite a few of the latter, especially after Lenin became the head of the state and began to pursue his own policy, which differed from the opinion of other party members. Of course, we should not forget about the people who greeted the changes in the life of the country with delight, but over time their fervor faded a little. People gathered in secret circles where they discussed the possibility of physically eliminating the leader. The direct executor was also found - a revolutionary anarchist.

On August 30, 1918, Lenin was supposed to speak at a workers' rally at an electromechanical plant. Kaplan fired three shots - one missed, two hit the target - Lenin was wounded in the neck and jaw. The 28-year-old woman was detained almost immediately. During interrogation, Fanny did not deny it and admitted that it was she who shot Lenin. During the search, they found a Browning car with license plate number 150489. The woman did not admit who she received this weapon from and replied that the attempt was entirely her own initiative and the investigators would not receive other details.

Kaplan was executed on September 3 of the same year - she was shot without due trial (here, willy-nilly, a parallel can be drawn with a few months earlier).

Whether Fanny really acted alone, or whether someone more important led her hand, we will never know. The result is much more important - it was after this assassination attempt that Ilyich’s health began to deteriorate.

Last six years of life

Some readers may ask a completely reasonable question - if the leader’s health weakened after two rather serious wounds (in the neck and jaw), then how did he last another six years? Why didn't he die immediately or soon? Scientists studying this issue suggest that the destruction of brain vessels occurred gradually. In addition, there was also the enormous tension that accompanied Lenin for many years while he was preparing for the revolution.

The civil war and devastation in the country also had a negative impact on his health. Occupying the main post in, Vladimir Ilyich could not help but understand that an enormous responsibility for the people rested on his shoulders - over time, he began to be bothered by constant headaches and general fatigue of the body.

The consequences of the assassination attempt were obvious - the leader’s condition was rapidly deteriorating. In 1922, Lenin suffered his first stroke, which deprived him of speech and partial mobility. It is worth noting that in the same year, a bullet left after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Fanny Kaplan was pulled out of her body. Recovery took about six months, and Ilyich returned to work, full of strength and energy, although the schedule was lightened.

In December he draws up a will, in which he points out some aspects of government, and also criticizes party members, for example Bukharin. Ilyich also does not ignore Joseph Stalin, whom he made general secretary of the party in April of the same year. In the document, Lenin questions the ability of his successor to govern the state in the manner in which he began and bequeathed to his fellow party members.

Soon there was a second stroke, which again took away the possibility of full movement and partially blocked the speech apparatus. Lenin went to Gorki, near Moscow, to recover, where his wife looked after him. There he learned to speak and write again with his left hand.

It was surprising that Stalin at this time became a frequent guest at Lenin’s estate. Was there something hidden behind these visits? Maybe.

The third stroke was not long in coming - in March 1923, Lenin was completely immobilized and speechless. It was no longer possible to recognize in the frail old man, confined to a wheelchair, the very leader who called for revolution in St. Petersburg. Some historians claim that he even asked Stalin to give him a portion of potassium cyanide - the pain was so unbearable. Why did Lenin turn specifically to Joseph, and not to his wife, for example?

Perhaps Ilyich believed that Stalin was devoid of compassion and humanity, so he would do this with a light hand. But even the future leader of the peoples could not cope with this difficult mission and refused, although it is worth recognizing that poisoning would subsequently become a favorite method of eliminating opponents and competitors in the struggle for power.

Death of Lenin

Despite complete immobility and problems with the blood vessels of the brain, as well as the lifestyle of a vegetable, Lenin survived for almost a year. While in Gorki, he still tried to pay attention to political affairs, although Stalin had already taken over most of the rule. Vladimir Ilyich died on January 21, 1924. He was only 53 years old. To be fair, we note that at the same age his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Bad heredity? Maybe. But the assassination attempt also played its fatal role. When the autopsy was performed, we noticed that the brain was almost completely destroyed, and this did not happen in one day, but over several years.

Stalin, who became the next General Secretary, officially took over the organization of the funeral. For four days, Lenin’s body lay in the Moscow House of Unions so that everyone could say goodbye to him, of which there were quite a few - almost a million people. Next, his corpse was embalmed and displayed in a wooden mausoleum, which in 1930 was turned into marble. The brain was removed from the skull and cut into small plates in order to study its activity in detail.

His widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, was against putting her husband’s body on public display - she wanted to give him a human burial. But who will listen to a woman? Stalin began to create a personality cult of Lenin, deifying him. Thus, he prepared the ground for his reign, which was not always distinguished by humane methods. Already from the end of the 30s of the 20th century, repressions began, and Joseph Vissarionovich turned around with might and main, forgetting about the ideals of the revolution and that his predecessor taught.

But Lenin remained in his place - in the mausoleum, where anyone can come, even remotely unfamiliar with communism, but, of course, who has heard about Vladimir Ilyich.

It seems that Vladimir Lenin’s entire life has already been sorted out bit by bit and described in thousands of books. But after the collapse of the USSR, it turned out that it was not so much the life of the leader of the world proletariat that was being described as the legends about him. One of these legends turned out to be the story of Lenin’s death...

Under socialism, schoolchildren were taught the fairy tale that Lenin's death was the result of an illness caused by poisoned bullets fired at him by the bourgeois henchman Fanny Kaplan.


At the end of the 80s of the twentieth century, this version was questioned; at that time, yesterday’s hero was already in the role of a world villain. But the truth, probably, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle.

Bullets filled with lies

Lenin was indeed wounded by Kaplan in August 1918. As the Great Soviet Encyclopedia stated: “Two poisoned bullets hit Lenin. His life was in danger." But the encyclopedia was disingenuous, as were the officials.

Fanny Efimovna Kaplan
People's Commissar of Health Semashko clearly “embellished” the story of the assassination attempt on the leader when he announced that the bullets were filled with curare poison. It is not entirely clear why they did not remove the bullets from the leader’s body? Although they didn’t seem to bother him.
They remembered about bullets in 1922, when Lenin began to suffer from headaches. The Berlin doctor Klemperer, who examined Ilyich, advised to remove the bullets, since they cause poisoning with their lead. However, the doctor treating Lenin, Rozanov, stated that the bullets were overgrown with connective tissue through which nothing could penetrate the body.
And yet it was decided to remove one bullet. But then it turned out that there was no place for the leader of the world proletariat in the men's ward of the hospital. He spent the night in the women's room. True, the operation was easy, the bullet was right under the skin.
In October 1925, the same “light” stomach surgery was performed on Mikhail Frunze. It cost him his life; this operation was performed by the same doctor Rozanov.
Three weeks after the bullet was removed, Vladimir Ilyich’s condition suddenly worsened. On May 25-27, he suffered a serious attack, which resulted in partial paralysis of his right arm and leg and speech impairment. It is likely that this was due to the "successful" operation.

For many years, the official version of Lenin’s illness reigned unconditionally - that he had hereditary cerebral atherosclerosis. However, in recent years, another version has become popular. Allegedly, Vladimir Ilyich died of syphilis, which he picked up from a Parisian prostitute in 1902. This is exactly the conclusion that historian and writer Helen Rappoport made after a detailed study of the circumstances of Lenin’s death.
And in 2004, an article was published in the European Journal of Neurology that Lenin died of neurosyphilis. This version is supported by Lenin’s treatment method. Professor Osipov wrote in the Red Chronicle in 1927 that the sick leader was treated with iodine, mercury, arsenic and malaria vaccinations.
Nowadays they say that atherosclerosis cannot be treated this way. This is how late neurosyphilis is treated. And yet I don’t want to believe researchers who claim that the revolution in Russia was made by a madman with syphilis of the brain. Even if they are right.
As it turns out, one could really sympathize with Vladimir Ilyich. As soon as his health began to deteriorate, his “faithful comrades” immediately began a behind-the-scenes struggle for power.

Already in the summer of 1922, the West began to build versions regarding Lenin’s successor. Among the most likely candidates were Rykov, who replaced Ilyich as the pre-Soviet People's Commissar (head of the country's government), and Bukharin, the “favorite of the entire party.”
Preference was given to these two based on their nationality - they were Russian. And thanks to this, they allegedly had an advantage over the Georgian Stalin, the Jew Trotsky and the Pole Dzerzhinsky. They also had great political weight over another candidate for power - Plenipotentiary Representative in Germany Krestinsky, who had previously been the executive secretary of the party's Central Committee.

Who's next in line for power?

However, in reality, Stalin was gaining more and more political power. He tried to control everything, even the leader's treatment. When doctors allowed Lenin to dictate to his secretaries for 5-10 minutes a day, they reported everything to Stalin. But Vladimir Ulyanov would not have been Lenin if, even bedridden and semi-paralyzed, he had not tried to participate in the political life of the country.

In December 1922, he entered into an agreement by correspondence with Trotsky so that at the upcoming plenum of the Central Committee he would voice his position on “preserving and strengthening the monopoly of foreign trade.” And although Vladimir Ilyich dictated the letter to Trotsky to his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, the secretary of the sick leader Fotieva immediately informed Stalin about its contents.
He realized that Lenin, with the hands of Trotsky, would try to defeat him at the next plenum. Stalin called Krupskaya, scolded her, saying that she was not following the doctors’ orders to rest the leader, threatened with punishment along the party line and said that if this happened again, he would declare Lenin’s widow Artyukhin (an old Bolshevik, head of the Women’s Department of the Central Committee).

Krupskaya complained about Stalin's rudeness to her husband. Lenin wrote him a letter, demanding that he apologize to Nadezhda Konstantinovna. Relations between Lenin and Stalin were thoroughly damaged. And the recovery of Vladimir Ilyich threatened Joseph Vissarionovich with disgrace.
Against the backdrop of this situation, a version arose that Stalin “did not allow” Lenin to recover. While already in exile, Trotsky often said that Stalin poisoned Lenin. This version still exists today.
At the instigation of one of Stalin’s secretaries, who fled abroad, it was developed in the form of a story about how on January 20, 1924, Stalin sent two doctors to Lenin in Gorki, accompanied by the deputy chairman of the OGPU, Genrikh Yagoda. Allegedly they gave the leader poison. The next day, Vladimir Ilyich died.


And Elizaveta Lermolo, who served six years in the Kirov murder case, after emigrating to the West, said that in prison she met with the chef of the Kremlin sanatorium in Gorki, Gavrila Volkov, who told her that on January 21, 1924, it was he who brought Lenin at eleven o’clock in the morning lunch.
There was no one in the room. Lenin made an attempt to rise and, stretching out both hands, made several inarticulate sounds. Volkov rushed to him, and Lenin thrust a note into his hand. Immediately, Doctor Elistratov, Lenin’s personal therapist, burst into the room. With Volkov's help, he laid Lenin on pillows and injected him with something sedative. Lenin calmed down. And soon he died.
Only after his death did Volkov unfold the note he had hidden. It was written in barely legible scrawls: “Gavrilushka, I was poisoned... Go now and bring Nadya... Tell Trotsky... Tell everyone you can.”

Curiously, there is another version, according to which Lenin was poisoned by the cook. And he did this through mushroom soup, to which they added dried cortinarius ciosissimus, a deadly poisonous mushroom.
Experts say that the issue of Lenin’s poisoning can be clarified once and for all by examining his hair. Modern technologies allow this. But the authorities are against it - in the end, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Stalin removed Krupskaya?

There is no doubt that Stalin's hostility towards Krupskaya continued after Lenin's death.
There is a version that a year after the death of her husband, Nadezhda Konstantinovna tried to obtain political asylum in England. this issue was even discussed in the English Parliament, which, as you know, had many socialists at that time.


One must assume that this information should have reached Stalin. And the successor was unlikely to forgive the leader’s wife for such intentions. But, of course, he could not imprison or kill Lenin’s wife openly. And therefore there is a version that Nadezhda Konstantinovna left this mortal world not without the help of Joseph Vissarionovich.
They say she was going to speak at the 18th Party Congress and say something important. On the eve of the congress on February 24, 1939, friends visited Krupskaya in Arkhangelskoye to celebrate the hostess’s approaching seventieth birthday. The table was set, the decoration of which was the cake sent by Stalin.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna felt great and ate it with appetite. In the evening she suddenly felt ill. She died 3 days later in terrible agony.

Oleg Loginov

“Arguments and Facts” continues the story about the last year of life, illness and “adventures” of the body of the leader of the world proletariat (beginning in).

The first bell about the illness, which in 1923 turned Ilyich into a weak and feeble-minded person, and soon brought him to the grave, rang in 1921. The country was overcoming the consequences of the civil war, the leadership was rushing from war communism to the new economic policy (NEP). And the head of the Soviet government, Lenin, whose every word the country eagerly hung on, began to complain of headaches and fatigue. Later, numbness of the limbs, up to complete paralysis, and inexplicable attacks of nervous excitement are added to this, during which Ilyich waves his arms and talks some nonsense... It gets to the point that Ilyich “communicates” with those around him using just three words: “ just about", "revolution" and "conference".

In 1923, the Politburo was already doing without Lenin. Photo: Public Domain

“Makes some strange noises”

Doctors are being prescribed to Lenin all the way from Germany. But neither the “gast-arbeiters” from medicine nor the domestic luminaries of science can in any way diagnose him. Ilya Zbarsky, son and assistant of a biochemist Boris Zbarsky, who embalmed Lenin’s body and for a long time headed the laboratory at the Mausoleum, being familiar with the history of the leader’s illness, described the situation in the book “Object No. 1”: “By the end of the year (1922 - Ed.), his condition was noticeably deteriorating, he Instead of articulate speech, he makes some unclear sounds. After some relief, in February 1923, complete paralysis of the right arm and leg sets in... The gaze, previously penetrating, becomes expressionless and dull. German doctors invited for big money Förster, Klemperer, Nonna, Minkowski and Russian professors Osipov, Kozhevnikov, Kramer completely at a loss again.”

In the spring of 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki - essentially to die. “In the photograph taken by Lenin’s sister (six months before his death - Ed.), we see a thinner man with a wild face and crazy eyes,” continues I. Zbarsky. - He cannot speak, he is tormented by nightmares at night and during the day, at times he screams... Against the background of some relief, on January 21, 1924, Lenin felt a general malaise, lethargy... Professors Förster and Osipov, who examined him after lunch, did not reveal any alarming symptoms. However, at about 6 o'clock in the evening the patient's condition sharply worsens, convulsions appear... pulse 120-130. Around half past seven the temperature rises to 42.5°C. At 18:50... doctors pronounce death.”

The broad masses of the people took the death of the leader of the world proletariat to heart. On the morning of January 21, Ilyich himself tore off a page of the desk calendar. Moreover, it is clear that he did it with his left hand: his right was paralyzed. In the photo: Felix Dzerzhinsky and Kliment Voroshilov at Lenin’s tomb. Source: RIA Novosti

What happened to one of the most extraordinary figures of his time? Doctors discussed epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and even lead poisoning from a bullet fired as possible diagnoses. Fanny Kaplan in 1918. One of the two bullets - it was removed from the body only after Lenin's death - broke off part of the shoulder blade, touched the lung, and passed in close proximity to vital arteries. This allegedly could also cause premature sclerosis of the carotid artery, the extent of which became clear only during the autopsy. He cited excerpts from the protocols in his book Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Yuri Lopukhin: sclerotic changes in Lenin’s left internal carotid artery in its intracranial part were such that blood simply could not flow through it - the artery turned into a solid dense whitish cord.

Traces of a stormy youth?

However, the symptoms of the disease were little similar to ordinary vascular sclerosis. Moreover, during Lenin’s lifetime, the disease most closely resembled progressive paralysis due to brain damage due to late complications of syphilis. Ilya Zbarsky draws attention to the fact that this diagnosis was definitely meant at that time: some of the doctors invited to Lenin specialized in syphilis, and the drugs that were prescribed to the leader constituted a course of treatment specifically for this disease according to the methods of that time. However, some facts do not fit into this version. Two weeks before his death, on January 7, 1924, on Lenin’s initiative, his wife and sister organized a Christmas tree for children from the surrounding villages. Ilyich himself seemed to feel so well that, sitting in a wheelchair, for some time he even took part in the general fun in the winter garden of the former master's estate. On the last day of his life, he tore off a piece of a desk calendar with his left hand. Based on the results of the autopsy, the professors who worked with Lenin even made a special statement about the absence of any signs of syphilis. Yuri Lopukhin, however, in this regard refers to a note he saw from the then People's Commissar of Health Nikolai Semashko pathologist, future academician Alexey Abrikosov- with a request “to pay special attention to the need for strong morphological evidence of the absence of luetic (syphilitic) lesions in Lenin in order to preserve the bright image of the leader.” Is this to reasonably dispel rumors or, conversely, to hide something? “The bright image of the leader” remains a sensitive topic today. But, by the way, it’s never too late to put an end to the debate about the diagnosis - out of scientific interest: Lenin’s brain tissue is stored in the former Brain Institute.

Hastily, in 3 days, the knocked together Mausoleum-1 was only about three meters in height. Photo: RIA Novosti

"Relics with communist sauce"

Meanwhile, while Ilyich was still alive, his comrades began a behind-the-scenes struggle for power. By the way, there is a version why on October 18-19, 1923, the sick and partially immobilized Lenin made his way from Gorki to Moscow for the only time. Formally - to an agricultural exhibition. But why did you stop by the Kremlin apartment for the whole day? Publicist N. Valentinov-Volsky, who emigrated to the USA, wrote: Lenin in his personal papers looked for those who had compromised Stalin documentation. But apparently someone has already “thinned out” the papers.

While the leader was still alive, members of the Politburo in the fall of 23 began to lively discuss his funeral. It is clear that the ceremony should be majestic, but what should be done with the body - cremated according to the proletarian anti-church fashion or embalmed according to the latest word of science? “We... instead of icons, we hung leaders and will try for Pakhom (a simple village peasant - Ed.) and the “lower classes” to discover the relics of Ilyich under a communist sauce,” the party ideologist wrote in one of his private letters Nikolai Bukharin. However, at first it was only about the farewell procedure. Therefore, Abrikosov, who performed the autopsy of Lenin’s body, also carried out embalming on January 22 - but an ordinary, temporary one. “...When opening the body, he injected into the aorta a solution consisting of 30 parts of formaldehyde, 20 parts of alcohol, 20 parts of glycerin, 10 parts of zinc chloride and 100 parts of water,” explains I. Zbarsky in the book.

On January 23, the coffin with Lenin’s body, in front of a large crowd of people who had gathered, despite the severe frost, was loaded into a funeral train (the locomotive and carriage are now in the museum at the Paveletsky Station) and taken to Moscow, to the Column Hall of the House of Unions. At this time, near the Kremlin wall on Red Square, in order to arrange the tomb and foundation of the first Mausoleum, deep frozen ground is being crushed with dynamite. Newspapers of that time reported that about 100 thousand people visited the Mausoleum in a month and a half, but a huge line was still lining up at the door. And in the Kremlin they are starting to frantically think about what to do with the body, which in early March begins to rapidly lose its presentable appearance...

The editors thank the Federal Security Service of Russia and Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Devyatov for the materials provided.

Read about how the leader was embalmed, Mausoleum-2 was built and destroyed, and his body was evacuated from Moscow during the war in the next issue of AiF.

Lenin's death is described here. With the events of the last day of life, the cause, date, time and place of death are indicated. Post-mortem, funeral and grave photos are included. Therefore, this information is strictly not recommended for viewing by all people with unstable mental health, as well as persons under 21 years of age.

Cause of death

The cause of Vladimir Lenin's death was atherosclerosis of the blood vessels of the brain.

From the official anatomical diagnosis:

Widespread atherosclerosis of the arteries with pronounced damage to the arteries of the brain

One of 30 thousand sections of Lenin's brain

Based on the results of the autopsy, it was established that:

The main one - the “internal carotid artery” - at the very entrance to the skull turned out to be so hardened that its walls did not collapse during a transverse section, significantly closed the lumen, and in some places they were so saturated with lime that they were hit with tweezers as if they were bones. Individual branches of the arteries that feed the especially important centers of movement and speech in the left hemisphere turned out to be so changed that they were not tubes, but laces: the walls became so thick that they completely closed the lumen. There were cysts, that is, softened areas of the brain, all over the left hemisphere; clogged vessels did not deliver blood to these areas, their nutrition was disrupted, softening and disintegration of the brain tissue occurred. The same cyst was found in the right hemisphere

The causes of atherosclerosis will be discussed in detail below.

I, the undersigned Arosev, received from Comrade. Belenky on January 24, 18:25 in the evening for the Institute of V.I. Lenin, a glass jar containing Ilyich’s brain, heart and a bullet removed from his body.

I undertake to store what I received at the V.I. Lenin Institute and personally be responsible for its complete integrity and safety

The disease progresses, 1923

Lenin is terminally ill

Date and place of death

Lenin died on January 21, 1924, in the Gorki estate in Podolsk district, Moscow province, at 18:50.

Vladimir Ilyich was 53 years old.

Estate "Gorki"

Nowadays, Gorki is an urban-type settlement in the Moscow region. Here is the route map. Now there is a historical reserve "Gorki Leninskie"

Initially it was the estate of Agrafena Alekseevna Durasova. Lenin lived and worked in Gorki for about 2 years, and after his death his younger brother Dmitry Ulyanov lived in Gorki, who did not want to leave the estate, and was even going to take all the antiques out of there.

Parting

Hundreds of thousands of people came to say goodbye to Vladimir Ilyich (according to Nina Tumarkin, professor of history at Wellesley College, Harvard University, author of numerous works on the modern history of Russia and the Soviet Union, including the monographs “Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia”, during from January 23 to 26, up to half a million people visited Lenin’s tomb.)

Of course, all members of the Politburo took part in the funeral (except Trotsky, of course. Everyone knows the story of how Stalin told Trotsky the wrong date of the funeral).

Lenin's body, previously delivered to Moscow in the baggage car of the branded Lenin steam locomotive U-127, was exhibited in the Column Hall of the House of Unions for farewell. The coffin with the body stood in the Hall of Columns for 5 days.

The coffin with the body of V. I. Lenin in the Column Hall of the House of Unions

It must be said that January 1924 was marked by monstrous frosts. Despite this, people traveled literally from all over the world to say goodbye to the creator of the first socialist state. Official telegrams came from everywhere with a request to postpone the day of the funeral so that all delegations had time to say goodbye.

Severe frosts made it possible to delay the funeral date by several days, and then by several weeks. All this time, the flow of grief-stricken people did not weaken for a second.

Funeral line to Lenin's coffin

On January 22, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR created a special commission to organize Lenin’s funeral, which included Molotov, Voroloshilov, Bonch-Bruevich, Zelensky, Enukudze, Muralov, Lashevich, Sapronov, Avanesov and Krasin. Dzerzhinsky was appointed chairman of the commission.

The Politburo, making concessions, ordered the construction of a temporary crypt - a prototype of a modern mausoleum. A wooden structure was erected near the walls of the Kremlin, in which the body of the fallen leader was placed.

At the same time, Leonid Krasin announced a competition for designs for the second mausoleum. In turn, a lot of interesting things can be told about the adventurer Krasin, but in this context it was Krasin who played a key role in the fact that Ilyich’s body still lies in the mausoleum and is not buried. Suffice it to say that Krasin preached the idea of ​​​​the resurrection of the dead. In particular, at the funeral of Karpov (the head of the chemical industry), Krasin said:

Science, not stopping at only treating and restoring the health of a diseased organism, is already raising the question of arbitrary creation of sex, rejuvenation, etc. I am sure that the moment will come when science will become so powerful that it will be able to recreate the dead organism. I am sure that the moment will come when, based on the elements of a person’s life, it will be possible to physically reconstruct a person. And I am sure that when this moment comes, when liberated humanity, using all the power of science and technology, the strength and greatness of which cannot now be imagined, will be able to resurrect great figures, fighters for the liberation of humanity - I am sure that at this moment among our comrade Lev Yakovlevich will also be great figures

It should be noted that the question of embalming the body of Comrade Lenin was raised during his lifetime. In particular, Comrade Kalinin said:

This terrible event should not take us by surprise. If we bury Vladimir Ilyich, the funeral must be as majestic as the world has ever seen.

To which Comrade Stalin answered him:

This question, as I learned, is of great concern to some of our comrades in the provinces. They say that Lenin is a Russian man, and accordingly he should be buried. They, for example, are categorically against cremation and burning of Lenin’s body. In their opinion, burning the body is completely inconsistent with the Russian understanding of love and admiration for the deceased. It may even seem offensive to his memory. In the burning, destruction, and scattering of ashes, Russian thought has always seen as the last, highest judgment over those who were subject to execution. Some comrades believe that modern science has the ability, with the help of embalming, to preserve the body of the deceased for a long time, in any case, long enough to allow our consciousness to get used to the idea that Lenin is not among us after all.

Which in turn caused sharp criticism from Comrade Trotsky:

When Comrade Stalin finished his speech to the end, then only it became clear to me where these initially incomprehensible reasoning and instructions were leading, that Lenin was a Russian man, and he should be buried in a Russian way. In Russian, according to the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church, saints were made relics. Apparently, we, the party of revolutionary Marxism, are advised to go in the same direction - to preserve Lenin’s body. Previously there were the relics of Sergius of Radonezh and Seraphim of Sarov, now they want to replace them with the relics of Vladimir Ilyich. I would really like to know who these comrades in the provinces are who, according to Stalin, propose using modern science to embalm Lenin’s remains and create relics from them. I would tell them that they have absolutely nothing in common with the science of Marxism.

Be that as it may, the issue of preserving the remains was not finally resolved in the first days after Lenin’s death.

However, study a typical letter that the Politburo received in the tens of thousands at that time, and you will understand what mood was in the air:

We address the Central and Moscow Committees of the Russian Communist Party with a deep request: do not bury Ilyich’s ashes underground from millions of working people. We are deeply confident that this would be the desire of hundreds of millions. We must make sure that our descendants have the opportunity to see the body of the man who brought the world revolution to life. Leave it on the surface of the earth on Red Square. Let him remain for us an inexhaustible source of the idea of ​​Leninism for the benefit of the working people of the whole world. By doing this we will give everyone, all working people, the opportunity to see it. Lenin must be among us. How to do this, think for yourself

One way or another, as a result of 13 (!) meetings, the Politburo decided to preserve the mummy of Vladimir Lenin and place it in a sarcophagus. A commission was created “to monitor the state of embalming of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s body and timely take the necessary measures,” and Academician Alexei Abrikosov was directly involved in monitoring the state of Lenin’s body. Spring warming left no time for reflection, and on March 26, 1924, scientists Boris Zbarsky and Vladimir Vorobyov began thoroughly embalming Lenin’s body. For this purpose, the mausoleum was temporarily converted into a laboratory, where special tram rails and electrical wires were even installed.

Work continued until June 1924. To analyze sections of Lenin’s brain, an entire institute was subsequently created, which was called the Brain Institute. In particular, Lenin's brain was divided into approximately 30 thousand sections.

Video chronicle of Lenin's funeral

Burial place

On January 27, the body of the deceased was moved to the first wooden mausoleum, the work of Shchusev. The first version of the mausoleum stood until the spring of 1924.

Lenin's first mausoleum

In the second option, stands were added. The second mausoleum was also made of wood, but it stood until the end of the Great Patriotic War.

Second, temporary Lenin mausoleum made of wood

After which the third - final version of the mausoleum with brick walls and red granite cladding was erected

Lenin Mausoleum today

The day Lenin died is written in black letters in Russian history. This happened on January 21, 1924, the leader of the world proletariat did not live only three months before his 54th birthday. Doctors, historians, and modern researchers have not yet agreed on why Lenin died. Mourning was declared in the country. After all, the man who managed to be the first in the world to build a socialist state, and in the largest country, has passed away.

Sudden death

Despite the fact that Vladimir Lenin was seriously ill for many months, his death was sudden. This happened on the evening of January 21. The year was 1924, Soviet power had already been established throughout the entire Land of Soviets, and the day when Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died became a national tragedy for the entire state. Mourning was declared throughout the country, flags were lowered at half-mast, and mourning rallies were held at enterprises and institutions.

Expert opinions

When Lenin died, a medical council was immediately assembled, in which the leading doctors of that time participated. Officially, doctors published this version of premature death: acute circulatory disorders in the brain and, as a result, hemorrhage in the brain. Thus, the cause of death could have been a repeated major stroke. There was also a version that Lenin suffered for many years from a venereal disease - syphilis, which a certain French woman infected him with.

This version has not been excluded from the causes of the death of the proletarian leader to this day.

Could syphilis be the cause?

When Lenin died, an autopsy was performed on his body. Pathologists discovered that there was extensive calcification in the vessels of the brain. Doctors could not explain the reason for this. Firstly, he led a fairly healthy lifestyle and never smoked. He was not obese or hypertensive and did not have a brain tumor or other obvious lesions. Also, Vladimir Ilyich had neither infectious diseases nor diabetes, in which the vessels could have suffered such damage.

As for syphilis, this could have been the cause of Lenin’s death. After all, at that time this disease was treated with very dangerous medications that could cause complications for the entire body. However, neither the symptoms of the disease nor the results of the autopsy confirmed that the cause of death could be a venereal disease.

Bad heredity or severe stress?

53 years old - that’s how old Lenin died. For the beginning of the twentieth century, this was a fairly young age. Why did he leave so early? According to some researchers, the cause of such an early death could have been the leader’s poor heredity. After all, as you know, his father died at exactly the same age. According to the symptoms and descriptions of eyewitnesses, he had the same disease that his son later suffered from. And other close relatives of the leader had a history of cardiovascular diseases.

Another reason that could have affected Lenin’s health was his incredible workload and constant stress. It is known that he slept very little, had practically no rest and worked quite a lot. Historians describe a well-known fact: in 1921, at one important event, Lenin completely forgot the words of his own speech. He had a stroke, after which he had to learn to speak again. He could barely write. He had to spend a lot of time on rehabilitation and recovery.

Unusual seizures

But after Ilyich suffered a hypertensive stroke, he came to his senses and recovered quite well. In the early days of 1924, he was so fit that he even went hunting himself.

It is unclear how the leader’s last day went. As the diaries show, he was quite active, talked a lot and did not complain about anything. But a few hours before his death, he suffered several severe convulsive seizures. They did not fit into the picture of a stroke. Therefore, some researchers believe that the cause of the sharp deterioration in health could be ordinary poison.

Stalin's hand?

Today not only historians, but also many educated people know when Lenin was born and died. Previously, every schoolchild remembered these dates by heart. But neither doctors nor researchers can still name the exact reason why this happened. There is another interesting theory - Lenin, they say, was poisoned by Stalin. The latter sought to gain absolute power, and Vladimir Ilyich was a serious obstacle on this path. By the way, later Joseph Vissarionovich resorted to poisoning as a sure way to eliminate his opponents. And this makes you think seriously.

Lenin, who initially supported Stalin, sharply changed his mind and bet on the candidacy of Leon Trotsky. Historians claim that Vladimir Ilyich was preparing to remove Stalin from governing the country. He gave him a very unflattering description, called him cruel and rude, and noted that Stalin was abusing power. Lenin's letter addressed to the congress is known, where Ilyich sharply criticized Stalin and his leadership style.

By the way, the story of the poison also has a right to exist because a year earlier, in 1923, Stalin wrote a report addressed to the Politburo. It said that Lenin wanted to poison himself and asked him to get a dose of potassium cyanide. Stalin said that he could not do this. Who knows, maybe Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself suggested the scenario of his death to his future successor?

By the way, for some reason doctors did not conduct a toxicological study at the time. Well, then it was too late to do such tests.

And one moment. At the end of January 1924, the 13th Party Congress was to take place. Surely Ilyich, speaking at it, would again raise the question of Stalin’s behavior.

Eyewitness accounts

Some eyewitnesses also speak in favor of poisoning as the sure cause of Lenin’s death. The writer Elena Lermolo, who was exiled to hard labor, communicated with Vladimir Ilyich’s personal chef Gavriil Volkov in the 30s of the twentieth century. He told the following story. In the evening he brought dinner to Lenin. He was already in poor condition and could not talk. He handed the cook a note in which he wrote: “Gavryushenka, I was poisoned, I am poisoned.” Lenin understood that he would soon die. And he asked that Leon Trotsky and Nadezhda Krupskaya, as well as members of the Politburo, be informed about the poisoning.

By the way, for the last three days Lenin complained of constant nausea. But during the autopsy, doctors saw that his stomach was in almost perfect condition. He could not have had an intestinal infection - it was winter, and such diseases are uncharacteristic for this time of year. Well, only the freshest food was prepared for the leader and it was carefully checked.

Leader's funeral

The year when Lenin died is marked with a black mark in the history of the Soviet state. After the death of the leader, an active struggle for power began. Many of his comrades were repressed, shot and destroyed.

Lenin died in Gorki near Moscow on January 24 at 18:50. His body was transported to the capital by steam locomotive, and the coffin was installed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. Within five days, the people could say goodbye to the leader of the new country, which had just begun to build socialism. Then the coffin with the body was installed in the Mausoleum, which was specially built for this purpose on Red Square by the architect Shchusev. Until now, the body of the leader, the founder of the world's first socialist state, remains there.