Alexei Yurchak

During the Soviet period, Lenin’s body played the role of a central ideological symbol and its public display served important propaganda purposes. However, if we study closely the scientific practices that are conducted in the Mausoleum Lab, Lenin’s body would appear to be something quite different than a simple ideological symbol. For example, generations of the Lab scientists have paid particular attention to those parts of the body that remain invisible to the public and have never been intended for display.

The fruits of this unique scientific labor, and even the fact that it is conducted at all, have always been hidden from everyone except for a tiny group of scientists and political leaders. Why has this work been conducted? What science has developed around it? What political, philosophical and scientific criteria have shaped it? Answering these questions will add a unique new perspective on the symbolic foundations of “Leninist” political regimes, the nature of power, legitimacy and sovereignty in that political system, its links with other communist projects around the world and with the political regime in Russia today.