Do you know the story that the bodies of only five leaders in the world are preserved forever? Behind it, breakthroughs in science and technology and the era’s political judgments are intertwined in a complex way.

Lenin became a pioneer of permanent body preservation, but it was actually by chance. After his death in 1924, a normal burial was planned, but the public’s outpouring of mourning surged rapidly, leading to the emergency freezing of his deteriorating body. Soviet scientists then began full-scale research. They developed a special embalming solution and established a technique to suppress bacterial growth by replacing the body’s water content.

A constant-temperature cooling system is installed in Lenin’s tomb, and laboratory experts are constantly responsible for maintaining and managing it. It is repaired weekly, receives regular comprehensive care, and sometimes even requires minor transplant surgery. Through these strict processes, the body’s condition has been kept intact for nearly 100 years.

What’s particularly interesting here is how Stalin’s body was handled. Stalin was also a Soviet leader, and in 1953 he was interred in Lenin’s tomb. However, in 1961, Stalin’s body was moved for cremation. A shift in the era’s values greatly changed Stalin’s fate. Fluctuations in political assessment are directly tied to the decision to preserve—or not preserve—a body. This is not just a technical matter, but a matter of choice made by history itself.

Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam had wanted cremation during his lifetime, but his successor decided to preserve him. During the Vietnam War, his body was secretly stored in a mountain cave for 5 years, and there is a rather dramatic story that Soviet experts completed the embalming treatment while avoiding bombings.

The preservation of Nétú’s body in Angola posed even more technical challenges. Soviet specialists, facing the problem of pigment leakage from Black skin, needed to develop pigment preservation technology especially for this purpose. It’s also interesting that his body is only displayed to the public once a year, on his birthday.

Because Gottwald’s embalming technology was insufficient, his body decayed and was cremated in 1962. Dimitrov had been preserved for more than 40 years, but amid upheavals in Eastern Europe, he was moved for cremation and buried in a cemetery.

The body of Joba Mountain in Mongolia was also cremated in 2005 after the mausoleum was destroyed, following Buddhist rituals. Changes in the times can even alter the body’s final disposition.

In the end, the permanent preservation of bodies is a dual product of technology and history. The body inside a crystal coffin is not only an achievement of science and technology, but also evidence of the era’s political decisions. The case of Stalin’s body shows this most symbolically. Having the technology alone is not enough. Only with an awareness of the times and political decisions does the fate of a body finally get determined.