Lenin’s Mausoleum also known as Lenin’s Tomb and is situated in Red Square in Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the current resting place of Vladimir Lenin. His embalmed body has been on public display there since the year he died in 1924. Aleksey Shchusev’s diminutive but monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great.
The family of Lenin’s embalmers states that the corpse is real and requires daily work to moisturise the features and inject preservatives under the clothes. Lenin’s sarcophagus is kept at a temperature of 16° C and kept at a humidity of 80 – 90 percent. The chemical used was referred to by the caretakers as “balsam”, which was glycerine and potassium acetate. Every eighteen months the corpse is removed and undergoes a special chemical bath. The chemicals that were unknown until after the fall of the Soviet Union were kept secret by authorities.