1749
In Lenin's Mausoleum discovered walled columbarium
"MK" has found out the details of the secret room over the tomb of Lenin
Inside the Lenin Mausoleum is the place where no one had gone before any mere mortal. Where are you most likely will not get ever - not to death, or after. Secret door opens silently and leads to the secret room. And there ... columbarium. The real, with niches for burial ashes. More than a hundred urns with the remains of the best people in the country could stand here in the immediate neighborhood with Ilich. But built right into the Lenin's Mausoleum columbarium was forgotten, pozabroshen for many decades.
The last leader who knew about the secret columbarium - Joseph Stalin. Why he ordered the "preserve" this place? Whose ashes had to lie here? And whether here now to put the remains of the great Russian leaders? All this - in the investigation of the special correspondent "MK».
Lenin, Stalin delivered from "neighbors»
... For me, reader! Secretly, virtually take you into the unknown space Mausoleum. By the way, the whole plan of the tomb of Lenin has not yet declassified. Those cards that walk on the Internet - not real, and there is a lot you can not see, and what to see - a lie. But do not be distracted.
We pass a man in civilian clothes at the entrance to the mausoleum. We go inside. Turn left along the corridor, which ends leading to the memorial hall steps. And few people even notice that on the wall is a coat of arms. Unique, among other things. He carved directly into the rock (and all the circle of black granite and black Labrador), and a wreath of six tapes - the number of republics of the Soviet Union, of which at the time was just enough. Black walls, dim lights, and a deathly silence. All this, of course, prevents make out details. Immediately to the left of the coat of arms barely visible opening. There's the door, studded with copper sheets. Easily feel for square cross-section of the handle, turn, and ... get into the very secret room. A few steps down. Now we can look around. The room is small (but no one had measured, so that the exact area I will not say) and narrow. Like a long corridor. It's all - and ceilings, walls and floor - polished labradorite. Almost all black, red squares only "dance" staggered under their feet.
On the one hand in the stone built four niches. They are quite large. Can be placed in each of the boxes 36 to 56, depending on their size. Neither vases for flowers, no name tags - none at the funeral entourage not. From the decor only lights that seem designed light so that it seems you are in some ancient crypt and now see ghosts.
- Columbarium Mausoleum was built at the same time - says Advisor to the Director of FSO of Russia, doctor of historical sciences, author of a unique book "Red Square" Sergei ninth. - He has designed the legendary architect Shchusev and approved the State Commission for the construction of the mausoleum. Because it is made in the style of the entire tomb. And then after the motto was "functionality and rigor." Nothing more. Most likely there would be no traditional urns and rectangular boxes with ashes, on whose facade in stone inscribed with the names of the deceased.
So columbarium was ready for use. What happened then - we can only guess. No archival documents did not survive. The idea is to close the columbarium could only Stalin personally. Kremlin historians suggest that it showed the general secretary, who was like, and looked verdict. What could be guided by Stalin himself? Maybe he disliked that people who by their rank, greatness can not be compared with the personality of Lenin, will lie, as it were over it? A columbarium is exactly because of the mourning hall where lies the body of the communist leader. Perhaps Stalin imagined himself after death will lie in the mausoleum, and did not want to close proximity with him were companions. Whatever it was, columbarium be locked for many decades. Since then, the secret room is not mentioned anywhere, ever. Stalin was really the last of the country's rulers, who were in the know. For everyone else, including Gorbachev, Medvedev, Putin, the existence of a built-in Mausoleum columbarium same surprise as for you and me.
- I closed on this columbarium told former commandant of the Mausoleum, - says Sergey ninth. - I was very surprised, because before any mention of this unique room neither I nor the employees of the Kremlin museums were not. And the more important to me, as a historian, that 80 years after the construction of the columbarium of it can finally tell people.
Get into the columbarium - a matter of honor
Still, why build the columbarium? If you meditate, it becomes clear two things. Firstly, the mausoleum was originally planned not only as a tomb for one of Lenin. There was an agreement among the top leaders of the Soviet state, which will find here the last refuge and his associates. Moreover, we can assume, who could become a "neighbor". They are the ones who rested after 1930. Among the contenders - the people's commissar of heavy industry Ordzhonikidze, Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky. They then were all buried in the Kremlin Wall.
Second, the columbarium in the mausoleum was kinda PR action in support of a new revolutionary type of burial - cremation. In those "hairy" years, the idea of burning the body instead of the traditional burial actively discussed in Soviet society. On the pages of newspapers, including "MK", described the benefits of the tradition of the body fire, not the ground.
"Propaganda yielded results - a contemporary wrote. - The people rushed straight at the crematorium. Last Will of many was to be buried not in the churchyard, and in the columbarium ».
And because even the Bolsheviks from the "masters of the state" have bequeathed their bodies necessarily burn after death. According to rumors, there was even an ideological rationale: to bury the new government leaders need above ground level, and not under. However, all this is very conditional.
- No need to look for some sacred meaning in it - say experts. - Just like to say that Lenin is buried not Christian. This is nonsense. Because in the Christian tradition, there are different types of burial. And no one is required to take away from the cathedral's all great princes and tsars before Peter the Great, which lie almost exactly the same as Lenin. They also lie in coffins, but that's not the cover glass, and stone, can not see them.
Lie in the ground, in the mourning hall for all to see, or in an urn - which by and large the difference? I, frankly, I wonder more. Why not visually it was evident that inside the mausoleum there is a hidden room? Kremlin old-timers immediately recall the story of the discovery in the 1830s of the whole church, which was once entombed. In those days, the architect Konstantin Ton built the Grand Kremlin Palace. And he seems to be built into the future grandiose building existed separately Chamber temples. So, when he began to measure the area of the palace, which was obtained, it was found that the ground floor is not the same in terms of size with the second and third. And it is not tens of square meters, and hundreds of them! Although visually it seemed that all the floors of the same.
- The beginning of time inside and outside the volume check - say the architects. - Found in one place "missing." Began to open the wall - and there the whole church. It was built by the widow of Dmitry Donskoy in honor of her beloved husband - Prince, who won the Kulikovo field. And it is the oldest building, which is preserved in Moscow and dated 1394 year. Why walled Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus - nobody knows, might want to keep it intact. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that no one imagined the existence of secret columbarium in the mausoleum.
Ilyich left alone?
Not so long ago, authorities said the need to build a cemetery columbarium for the great Russian figures. So maybe it is not necessary, since I found out quite ready necropolis on Red Square?
- It is unlikely that it will be used, - says the architects who prepared the draft of the newest cemetery near Mytishchi. - In the first place because dumping the ashes here was not established tradition. No historical basis. The second point: The mausoleum itself - it is a historical artifact, one of the symbols of Russia. And in the mass consciousness of millions of people it exists the way it is. And for this reason to change anything hardly advisable.
- Like it or not, the Mausoleum - a nationwide brand - say marketers. - And incredibly successful! It works itself time and change something in it, and it would be folly and crime.
By the way, to this day openly and visit the Mausoleum, and the architectural "revolutionary necropolis" between him and the Kremlin wall. I tried to get official statistics: how many people daily visit the mausoleum and how many come here for all of last year 2012? Alas, I imagine the numbers declined. Whether not therefore have coded the data that interest in the body of Lenin began to grow? In Soviet times, the period of visit to the Mausoleum Red Square was closed. And it was a long queue entry from the Alexander Garden. But for many years commandant of the Moscow Kremlin does not interrupt the entrance of tourists on Red Square during the hours of visit to the Mausoleum. Because of this, on the eye to determine the number of walkers to Lenin problematic.
- But now visitors to the Mausoleum will show columbarium? - I'm interested in the Kremlin historian Sergei Devyatova.
- What's there to see? Would be there the ashes of famous Soviet leaders, it could be a question of some form of admission of visitors. And as unlikely.
Ideas and change the appearance of the Mausoleum (for example, cover it with a glass dome) and its purpose (for example, open a museum) appear from time to time, but it does not end there. Mausoleum - it's also a UNESCO monument, part of the historical and cultural reserve "Moscow Kremlin", which means to rebuild or demolish it can not be. However, the Taliban blowing up a statue of Buddha in Afghanistan proved the opposite ...
Which began in the year before reconstruction tomb first alarmed many. But then everything calmed down - turned out to be nothing revolutionary with it will not. Here strengthened the foundation, so now Mausoleum stands stable, will not move. Restored highlighting the top of the complex. Vertical black labradorovye blocks in the top tier of the pyramid is now highlighted inside as it is conceived in his time Schusev.
But ahead - the second stage of the restoration. Approved project, as far as I know, not yet, but it means the return of the original appearance of the Mausoleum, the man who was soon after the construction in 1930. What does this mean? What dismantled, for example, made in the last years of the Brezhnev extension. It is located behind and causes a lot of criticism of modern architects (created quickly, is not in harmony with the whole mausoleum complex, breaking its proportions). And perhaps during this work, we learn a lot about the Mausoleum. Apparently, he has not yet hides a secret. But everything has its time.
Eva Merkacheva
www.mk.ru/social/article/2013/10/10/928861-v-mavzolee-lenina-obnaruzhen-zamurovannyiy-kolumbariy.html
Inside the Lenin Mausoleum is the place where no one had gone before any mere mortal. Where are you most likely will not get ever - not to death, or after. Secret door opens silently and leads to the secret room. And there ... columbarium. The real, with niches for burial ashes. More than a hundred urns with the remains of the best people in the country could stand here in the immediate neighborhood with Ilich. But built right into the Lenin's Mausoleum columbarium was forgotten, pozabroshen for many decades.
The last leader who knew about the secret columbarium - Joseph Stalin. Why he ordered the "preserve" this place? Whose ashes had to lie here? And whether here now to put the remains of the great Russian leaders? All this - in the investigation of the special correspondent "MK».
Lenin, Stalin delivered from "neighbors»
... For me, reader! Secretly, virtually take you into the unknown space Mausoleum. By the way, the whole plan of the tomb of Lenin has not yet declassified. Those cards that walk on the Internet - not real, and there is a lot you can not see, and what to see - a lie. But do not be distracted.
We pass a man in civilian clothes at the entrance to the mausoleum. We go inside. Turn left along the corridor, which ends leading to the memorial hall steps. And few people even notice that on the wall is a coat of arms. Unique, among other things. He carved directly into the rock (and all the circle of black granite and black Labrador), and a wreath of six tapes - the number of republics of the Soviet Union, of which at the time was just enough. Black walls, dim lights, and a deathly silence. All this, of course, prevents make out details. Immediately to the left of the coat of arms barely visible opening. There's the door, studded with copper sheets. Easily feel for square cross-section of the handle, turn, and ... get into the very secret room. A few steps down. Now we can look around. The room is small (but no one had measured, so that the exact area I will not say) and narrow. Like a long corridor. It's all - and ceilings, walls and floor - polished labradorite. Almost all black, red squares only "dance" staggered under their feet.
On the one hand in the stone built four niches. They are quite large. Can be placed in each of the boxes 36 to 56, depending on their size. Neither vases for flowers, no name tags - none at the funeral entourage not. From the decor only lights that seem designed light so that it seems you are in some ancient crypt and now see ghosts.
- Columbarium Mausoleum was built at the same time - says Advisor to the Director of FSO of Russia, doctor of historical sciences, author of a unique book "Red Square" Sergei ninth. - He has designed the legendary architect Shchusev and approved the State Commission for the construction of the mausoleum. Because it is made in the style of the entire tomb. And then after the motto was "functionality and rigor." Nothing more. Most likely there would be no traditional urns and rectangular boxes with ashes, on whose facade in stone inscribed with the names of the deceased.
So columbarium was ready for use. What happened then - we can only guess. No archival documents did not survive. The idea is to close the columbarium could only Stalin personally. Kremlin historians suggest that it showed the general secretary, who was like, and looked verdict. What could be guided by Stalin himself? Maybe he disliked that people who by their rank, greatness can not be compared with the personality of Lenin, will lie, as it were over it? A columbarium is exactly because of the mourning hall where lies the body of the communist leader. Perhaps Stalin imagined himself after death will lie in the mausoleum, and did not want to close proximity with him were companions. Whatever it was, columbarium be locked for many decades. Since then, the secret room is not mentioned anywhere, ever. Stalin was really the last of the country's rulers, who were in the know. For everyone else, including Gorbachev, Medvedev, Putin, the existence of a built-in Mausoleum columbarium same surprise as for you and me.
- I closed on this columbarium told former commandant of the Mausoleum, - says Sergey ninth. - I was very surprised, because before any mention of this unique room neither I nor the employees of the Kremlin museums were not. And the more important to me, as a historian, that 80 years after the construction of the columbarium of it can finally tell people.
Get into the columbarium - a matter of honor
Still, why build the columbarium? If you meditate, it becomes clear two things. Firstly, the mausoleum was originally planned not only as a tomb for one of Lenin. There was an agreement among the top leaders of the Soviet state, which will find here the last refuge and his associates. Moreover, we can assume, who could become a "neighbor". They are the ones who rested after 1930. Among the contenders - the people's commissar of heavy industry Ordzhonikidze, Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky. They then were all buried in the Kremlin Wall.
Second, the columbarium in the mausoleum was kinda PR action in support of a new revolutionary type of burial - cremation. In those "hairy" years, the idea of burning the body instead of the traditional burial actively discussed in Soviet society. On the pages of newspapers, including "MK", described the benefits of the tradition of the body fire, not the ground.
"Propaganda yielded results - a contemporary wrote. - The people rushed straight at the crematorium. Last Will of many was to be buried not in the churchyard, and in the columbarium ».
And because even the Bolsheviks from the "masters of the state" have bequeathed their bodies necessarily burn after death. According to rumors, there was even an ideological rationale: to bury the new government leaders need above ground level, and not under. However, all this is very conditional.
- No need to look for some sacred meaning in it - say experts. - Just like to say that Lenin is buried not Christian. This is nonsense. Because in the Christian tradition, there are different types of burial. And no one is required to take away from the cathedral's all great princes and tsars before Peter the Great, which lie almost exactly the same as Lenin. They also lie in coffins, but that's not the cover glass, and stone, can not see them.
Lie in the ground, in the mourning hall for all to see, or in an urn - which by and large the difference? I, frankly, I wonder more. Why not visually it was evident that inside the mausoleum there is a hidden room? Kremlin old-timers immediately recall the story of the discovery in the 1830s of the whole church, which was once entombed. In those days, the architect Konstantin Ton built the Grand Kremlin Palace. And he seems to be built into the future grandiose building existed separately Chamber temples. So, when he began to measure the area of the palace, which was obtained, it was found that the ground floor is not the same in terms of size with the second and third. And it is not tens of square meters, and hundreds of them! Although visually it seemed that all the floors of the same.
- The beginning of time inside and outside the volume check - say the architects. - Found in one place "missing." Began to open the wall - and there the whole church. It was built by the widow of Dmitry Donskoy in honor of her beloved husband - Prince, who won the Kulikovo field. And it is the oldest building, which is preserved in Moscow and dated 1394 year. Why walled Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus - nobody knows, might want to keep it intact. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that no one imagined the existence of secret columbarium in the mausoleum.
Ilyich left alone?
Not so long ago, authorities said the need to build a cemetery columbarium for the great Russian figures. So maybe it is not necessary, since I found out quite ready necropolis on Red Square?
- It is unlikely that it will be used, - says the architects who prepared the draft of the newest cemetery near Mytishchi. - In the first place because dumping the ashes here was not established tradition. No historical basis. The second point: The mausoleum itself - it is a historical artifact, one of the symbols of Russia. And in the mass consciousness of millions of people it exists the way it is. And for this reason to change anything hardly advisable.
- Like it or not, the Mausoleum - a nationwide brand - say marketers. - And incredibly successful! It works itself time and change something in it, and it would be folly and crime.
By the way, to this day openly and visit the Mausoleum, and the architectural "revolutionary necropolis" between him and the Kremlin wall. I tried to get official statistics: how many people daily visit the mausoleum and how many come here for all of last year 2012? Alas, I imagine the numbers declined. Whether not therefore have coded the data that interest in the body of Lenin began to grow? In Soviet times, the period of visit to the Mausoleum Red Square was closed. And it was a long queue entry from the Alexander Garden. But for many years commandant of the Moscow Kremlin does not interrupt the entrance of tourists on Red Square during the hours of visit to the Mausoleum. Because of this, on the eye to determine the number of walkers to Lenin problematic.
- But now visitors to the Mausoleum will show columbarium? - I'm interested in the Kremlin historian Sergei Devyatova.
- What's there to see? Would be there the ashes of famous Soviet leaders, it could be a question of some form of admission of visitors. And as unlikely.
Ideas and change the appearance of the Mausoleum (for example, cover it with a glass dome) and its purpose (for example, open a museum) appear from time to time, but it does not end there. Mausoleum - it's also a UNESCO monument, part of the historical and cultural reserve "Moscow Kremlin", which means to rebuild or demolish it can not be. However, the Taliban blowing up a statue of Buddha in Afghanistan proved the opposite ...
Which began in the year before reconstruction tomb first alarmed many. But then everything calmed down - turned out to be nothing revolutionary with it will not. Here strengthened the foundation, so now Mausoleum stands stable, will not move. Restored highlighting the top of the complex. Vertical black labradorovye blocks in the top tier of the pyramid is now highlighted inside as it is conceived in his time Schusev.
But ahead - the second stage of the restoration. Approved project, as far as I know, not yet, but it means the return of the original appearance of the Mausoleum, the man who was soon after the construction in 1930. What does this mean? What dismantled, for example, made in the last years of the Brezhnev extension. It is located behind and causes a lot of criticism of modern architects (created quickly, is not in harmony with the whole mausoleum complex, breaking its proportions). And perhaps during this work, we learn a lot about the Mausoleum. Apparently, he has not yet hides a secret. But everything has its time.
Eva Merkacheva
www.mk.ru/social/article/2013/10/10/928861-v-mavzolee-lenina-obnaruzhen-zamurovannyiy-kolumbariy.html
