When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, he wasn’t buried. Instead, his body was embalmed and placed inside a mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square, where it remains on public display more than a century later. But this isn’t traditional embalming. Roughly every 18 months, a specialist team of scientists performs an intensive preservation procedure. The body is submerged in a chemical solution of glycerol, potassium acetate, alcohol, and formaldehyde to prevent decay. Because Lenin’s blood vessels were seve