Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/115375
Sarasota News Leader March 15, 2013 OPINION soaked in a special preservative and carefully inspected for signs of mold and decay. Every year the body is submerged in a tank of this special preservative for six weeks. The process is apparently quite successful; so much so that Ho Chi Minh's corpse is flown from Hanoi to Moscow for an annual two-month makeover. Page 67 Mao's corpse embalmed for permanent display in a crystal casket resting in a grand mausoleum in the middle of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It was meant to surpass in grandeur that of Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow. It is important to keep in mind that in 1976 the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China were in conflict with one another over several doctrinal and policy issues of critical importance. Relations between the two communist giants were icy. For understandable ideological reasons, the Soviets did not want a Chinese relic in the form of Mao's preserved corpse to challenge that of Lenin's. For this reason the Russians withheld from the Chinese the mummification technology that had been so successful in preserving Lenin's corpse. State funding for preserving Lenin's corpse ended in 1991 with the implosion of the Soviet Union. Since then, the work of the preservationists has depended on private donations, which have been generous. The preservation team also has offered its services to private individuals — for a hefty fee, of course. Business is said to be brisk among the families of Russian oligarchs, mafia chieftains and others. Please click on this link for details. The team has offered its services to the Venezuelan government to embalm and maintain Hugo After failing to acquire this technology from Chavez's body. Vietnam, which had used it to preserve the The mummification techniques pioneered and body of Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), a team of perfected by the Russians are producing high- nearly 40 Chinese physicians, nurses and morly satisfactory results. This is not always true tuary specialists, relying on a single library of the work of embalmers of other nationali- book describing embalming techniques, deties. For example, the syphilitic body of Kle- cided to go it alone — with disastrous consement Gottwald (1896-1953), Czechoslovakia's quences. first communist president, was embalmed and placed on public display in 1953. After a while Following the initial treatment, during which the corpse's legs fell off. They were replaced six times the normal volume of formaldehyde with artificial limbs. Then the chest cavity col- was injected into Mao's body ("just to make lapsed. Decomposition persisted. Finally, in sure"), the corpse bloated horribly. Li Zhisui, 1962, what remained of Comrade Gottwald MD, author of The Private Life of Chairman was scooped out of his sarcophagus and cre- Mao, who presided over this procedure, wrote that "Mao's face was a round as a ball and his mated. neck was the width of his head. His ears stuck Mao Zedong died in 1976 at the age of 82. He out at right angles. Formaldehyde oozed from had often stated his wish that his body be his pores … For another five hours the team cremated. Mao's successors ignored his tes- worked with towels and cotton balls to force tamentary directions. Instead, they ordered the liquid down into Mao's body. At last his