MUMMY OF LENIN TESTED

Shannon News, 10 June 1927, Page 2

MUMMY OF LENIN TESTED

; EMBLAMERS’ WORK. . •% Professor Schiling, of the famous ■ ' 'just returned from Moscow, gave an interesting; account of the examination ordered : recently by the Soviet ' " Government to prove the genuine- ' ness of his mummified remains of tenth, which aw?'on exhibition in an ■ underground vault outsdc the Krem- ' lin. ' . Rumors were circulated in Russia * to the effect that the body lying in state inside the glass coffin was merely a fake wax effigy made in Benin’s image. . • professor Schilling relates that ’ . the mission in which h e belongs was ' conducted by an officer of the Red ■Army down the dark steps into the uncanny chamber where Lenin sleeps ,his long sleep. The subterranean ■hall was suddenly flooded with light from an electric lamp of 2000 cand-le-power, revealing the pallid countenance of a man clad In a woman’s blouse. The delicate shad, lng of the skin of the face, the silky hair of a thin moustache ,and even the traces, pf, frost-bite on the ears and Cheeks were still clearly visible, w ‘.'To'/ "dispel-any . doubts that w might still have,” says Professor Schilling, "the Russian doctor w accompanied .us opened a window ' the end, of the glass doffm and let us feel the damp hair and smel odour of alcohol issuing from case. This case and its intents he told us, were kept constantly ® freezing point by means of a refriD- ' crating machine; , “I touched Lenin s brow, ■ bhceks. and they felt as in the case of a manwhohasony just dt ? d. I Pinched the lobeoft ear. and found that It was still flex lb The first attempt to . embalm Lenin's body." said Professor Schilling, proved a. failure, and it y?a# n<o tii six weeks after his death that - gL‘t Government commißSloned vgFMmi* actentletn.. Professor

Vorobief and Professor Sharsky, to undertake the immensely difficult task of preserving the body in suMi a way as to- retain as far as possible the appearance of the Bolshevist leader had when still alive. After four and a-half months’ arduous work, the two scientists, by an ingenious process, the secret of which has not yet been given to t-be ■world, completed what Professoi Schilling describes as a masterpiece of the art of embalming. The Soviet Government is even now sceptical whether the like life result obtained wall be permanent and is determined to Wait and see whal effect time will have on the body. If, at the end of three years, Lenin’s mummy is still as perfect as it is today, the Government intends to publish a work giving a full and detailed description of the methods employed by the two Moscow scientists.