The Atlas Obscura Guide to Communist Mummies

You know about Lenin's body and Mao's body, embalmed and on display to inspire the citizens of their countries. But there are plenty of other communist leaders in the same boat, and they all have a story behind them. Atlas Obscura has the stories of the mummies of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Vietnam, North Korea, and even a couple of non-communists who remained above ground many years after their demise. Joseph Stalin is one who is no longer on display.
Seen now as one of the worst dictators in history, in his personal life Stalin lived like he meant it; a heavy smoker and drinker, most historians and specialists agree that vice-induced atherosclerosis led to a series of debilitating -- and ultimately fatal --strokes. Others claim that Stalin was assassinated by means of warfarin, an odorless and tasteless poison that causes strokes.

Regardless of the cause, Stalin's dead body was embalmed and placed along side Lenin's mummy immediately after his death in 1953. Mourners could gaze up on both of the Republic's founding fathers in conjunction until Halloween of 1961 when Stalin (sort of) rose from the dead. Officials had him buried next to the Kremlin as part of the process of de-Stalinization. Lenin has been lonely ever since.

Stalin is only one of ten corpses profiled at Atlas Obscura. Link

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