ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
The Nellie Bly Express - DAY BEFORE:
27 Years in the Jungle - DAY BEFORE THAT:
Rock N Roll’s Big Night - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Lalli and the Axe
ON THIS DAY
Let’s Embalm Lenin
The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow’s Red Square on 27th January, 1924 – where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.
He’d wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming techniques were created by ‘The Lenin Lab’ to look after the cadaver; ponder how mausoleum architect Alexey Shchusev contented with the January freeze; and consider whether an embalmed Queen Victoria would be just as popular a tourist attraction…
Further Reading:
• ‘Death of Lenin’ (The Guardian, 1924): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/death-of-lenin-archive-1924
• ‘Lenin’s Body Improves with Age’ (Scientific American, 2015): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lenin-s-body-improves-with-age1/
• ‘Russia: 100 Years on from Revolution’ (BBC News, 2017):
#Macabre #Russia #Revolution
ON THIS DAY
Let’s Embalm Lenin
The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow’s Red Square on 27th January, 1924 – where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.
He’d wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming techniques were created by ‘The Lenin Lab’ to look after the cadaver; ponder how mausoleum architect Alexey Shchusev contented with the January freeze; and consider whether an embalmed Queen Victoria would be just as popular a tourist attraction…
Further Reading:
• ‘Death of Lenin’ (The Guardian, 1924): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/death-of-lenin-archive-1924
• ‘Lenin’s Body Improves with Age’ (Scientific American, 2015): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lenin-s-body-improves-with-age1/
• ‘Russia: 100 Years on from Revolution’ (BBC News, 2017):
#Macabre #Russia #Revolution
ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
The Nellie Bly Express - DAY BEFORE:
27 Years in the Jungle - DAY BEFORE THAT:
Rock N Roll’s Big Night - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Lalli and the Axe
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OLLY MANN
Olly Mann made his name with another trivia-wielding podcast, Answer Me This! with Helen Zaltzman – and now presents The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped, and Four Thought for BBC Radio Four. He also has an A-Level in History, so Dan Snow beware.
REBECCA MESSINA
Rebecca got a passion for podcasting working at The Week magazine and a passion for trivia appearing on University Challenge in 2011, making The Retrospectors her natural home.
ARION MCNICOLL
Arion started out in satirical news in Australia, then moved to the UK to work for ostensibly serious publications including The Times, CNN, and The Week… before realising that since around 2016 the news has all been satire really.
Do you have a day of note that we should cover? Or would you or your business like to support the podcast? Get in touch!
