New Europe College Regional Program Yearbook 2001-2002

NIKOLAI VUKOV
Shipka, mausoleum-monument to Al. Batenberg, mausoleum to T.
Kableshkov and N. Popstoyanov in Koprivshtitsa, mausoleum to Bacho
Kiro and Pop Hariton in the Dryanovo monastery, etc. (cf. Trufeshev 1981).
The situation in Romania was – immense mausoleums to the fallen in the
First World War were built in Braºov, Buzãu, Mãrãºti (1928), Soveja (1929),
Tîrgu Ocna (1925-1928), Topliþa (1925), Tulcea, and Valea Mare-Pravãþ.
Cf. Tucã & Cociu 1983.
33 Examples of communist leaders embalmed and/or exhibited in mausoleums
were widespread throughout the communist world, ranging from China
and Vietnam to Angola. Cf. Zbarsky and Hutchinson 1999.
34 The body, as Jankelevitch points out, is “not only means for the individual
for expression and communication, it is also … the place of the principle of
finality and the use of time” (cf. Jankelevitch 1966:407).
35 The symbolism of the color of the Lenin mausoleum (as well as of the other
mausoleums built for socialist leaders) had special importance. As the symbol
of the revolution, the red was the color considered to symbolize struggle for
revolution and to inspire feelings of pride in the victory achieved by the
people under Lenin’s leadership. Black, as the color of mourning, “expressed
convincingly the infinite sorrow with the loss of the favorite leader” (cf.
Stoyanov 1950:65). Fof more about the Lenin mausoleum and the evolving
Lenin cult v. Zbarsky 1946; Stoyanov 1950; Tumarkin 1983; Heathcote
1999:50-52; Zbarsky and S. Hutchinson 1999; Dickernan 2001.
36 Cf. Dickerman 2001:79.
37 Cf., for example, the mythological image of tombs and caves as places of
regeneration and mystical rebirths of exemplary heroes (cf. Dragan & Ioan
1996:28).
38 Ancestors, as K. Verdery reminds us, were buried in the soil around the
dwelling; their presence consecrated that soil, and continuous rituals
connecting them with their heirs created a single community consisting of
the dead, their heirs, and the soil they shared… The dead were thought to
live underground and to require frequent nourishment with food and prayers;
in return, they offered their descendants protection (Verdery 1999:104).
39 As A. Boime puts it, monuments reconfigure the memory of the past in order
to structure the present (Boime 1998:11) and expectations of the future; they
create a link with the past, which, in its turn, facilitates a passage into another
state and another time (Heathcote 1999:207).
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