Preparing the body for funeral in the morgue. Independent organization and conduct of funerals. Embalming a body in a morgue: what kind of event is it?
25.09.17 127 473 0
How much does it cost, what to do and how not to be deceived
A year and a half ago I lost a loved one.
The death took everyone by surprise. But then a ritual agent appeared and offered help.
Mikhail Kenegesov
lost a loved one and organized a funeral
No one even thought about looking for another agent, didn’t ask about prices, and the thought of going online and asking prices didn’t arise at all. When we came to our senses, we realized that something was wrong: the costs exceeded 100 thousand rubles.
I decided to find out what mistakes we made. To do this, I talked to people with similar experiences, read forums, and carefully studied the legislation and websites of funeral agencies. Here's what I learned.
Confirmation of death and transportation of the body to the morgue
If a person does not die in a hospital, an ambulance and the police must be called to the scene. Doctors will issue a certificate of death, and the police will draw up an examination report. You cannot leave the deceased at home: to establish the cause of death, the body must be examined by a pathologist, and he will do this in a specially equipped place. An exception may be people over 60 years of age who have been regularly monitored by a doctor.
Ambulances do not transport the dead. To deliver the body to the morgue, you need to contact a specialized service - usually this should be done by arriving doctors or police.
In Moscow, transportation services are free if the body is taken to the morgue at the nearest hospital. If you need to deliver a deceased person to a specific morgue or, for example, from a summer cottage in the Moscow region to one of the capital’s morgues, you will have to pay for such transportation.
Receiving death documents
The next day, the person who took charge of organizing the funeral (this may not only be a relative of the deceased) must go to the morgue to obtain a medical death certificate. You need to take with you the passport of the deceased, his medical insurance policy, a certificate of death issued by the ambulance, a protocol for examining the body by the police, as well as your passport. If the deceased's passport is missing, you need to take an extract from the house register at the place of registration - in this case it is considered a full replacement.
The morgue is obliged to issue the document on the day of application free of charge - for this you do not need to order paid services and other ritual supplies. If the death was violent, a forensic medical examination may be needed - the wait will be longer.
Then you need to officially register the person's death and obtain a stamp certificate. It is issued free of charge by the registry office at the place of registration of the deceased or the nearest MFC upon presentation of a medical death certificate. They will also issue a death certificate in form 33, which will be needed to receive funeral benefits.
Preparing for a funeral in the morgue
After determining the cause of death, morgue attendants prepare the deceased for burial. They are required to provide basic services free of charge: storing the body for up to 7 days, washing, dressing and placing the deceased in a coffin.
The morgue also provides paid services: shaving, haircuts, applying makeup, restoring one's lifelong appearance - for example, if a person is the victim of a car accident.
One of the most expensive services is embalming. Sometimes it is necessary: if a funeral service for the deceased is planned in a church, they will require a certificate; To transport the deceased to another city, “double” embalming is necessary. If the deceased is taken home to say goodbye, this procedure may also be necessary. In other cases, you can do without it.
They offer a service - let them show the price in the official price list
Before ordering services, request an official price list with the signature of the morgue management and seals - this way you will make sure that the prices for services are not taken out of the blue. If they offer to make do with a handwritten receipt, you can threaten to call Rospotrebnadzor and the Department of Health.
Getting a place in the cemetery
The law guarantees every resident of Russia a free burial plot. Usually, this takes into account where the deceased was registered: for example, in Moscow cemeteries only people with Moscow registration are buried.
The land for the grave is transferred not into ownership, but for perpetual use to the person responsible for the burial - usually this is a relative of the deceased who is involved in the funeral. For this purpose, a special document is drawn up - a burial passport. It indicates the exact location of the grave, the details of the deceased and the person responsible. Without presenting such a passport, it is impossible to dispose of the site - to carry out repeated burials or install a monument.
Although the site is provided free of charge, you still have to pay. The cemetery administration charges money for digging a grave, installing a fence and other additional services. The minimum set costs 9,070 RUR in summer and 10,880 RUR in winter.
RUB 10,880
It's worth digging a grave in winter. A little cheaper in summer
If there is enough space, you can bury more in an existing grave, but these should only be close relatives of the deceased: parents and children, adoptive parents and adopted children, siblings, spouses who have signed in the registry office. The cemetery administration will ask for a birth or marriage certificate. They won’t allow a cousin or common-law spouse to be buried like that.
If the grave is single, in Moscow re-burial “coffin on coffin” is possible only after a 15-year sanitary period, in some regions - 20 years.
If no one takes care of the grave for a long time, and the person responsible cannot be found, the cemetery administration may seize the plot for new burials.
Cremation
Cremation is considered a less expensive method of burial. There are four crematoria in Moscow, where up to 40% of the dead are cremated annually. The procedure itself costs 3400 RUR. But taking into account the purchase of an urn for ashes and paperwork, the cost of cremation is comparable to the price of digging a free grave.
For cremation, it is recommended to choose modest wooden coffins without synthetic or fusible materials, so as not to damage the crematorium equipment. Usually, wreaths and flowers are not used at a farewell ceremony - there will be nowhere to put them.
3400 R
the cremation procedure is worth it. Another 2000 R - digging a grave for ashes
The urn with ashes must be buried: either in a grave or in a niche in a columbarium. The ashes are given out the next day and only in exchange for a certificate from the cemetery about the planned burial place. Therefore, even if the ashes are scattered or left at home, the burial place will still have to be arranged. On the other hand, you don’t have to rush into this: the crematorium will store the ashes for free for about a month, then for 30 R per day.
Digging a grave for ashes costs 2000 RUR, the urn can be buried in an ordinary grave above the coffin - in such cases the sanitary period does not apply. Another option is a niche in a columbarium. This is a cell in a special wall: the urn is placed there and walled up with a neat marble tablet. The niches require virtually no additional maintenance; you can place another urn in them at any time.
Unlike graves, the niche is rented - it costs approximately 250 R per year. If you don't pay, the niche will be taken away. The price of such a burial depends on the location of the cemetery and the location of the niche itself: from 180 R to several hundred thousand.
There are restrictions on cremation: if the death was criminal in nature, cremation of the body may be prohibited. The Orthodox Church considers cremation undesirable, but in some cases treats the cremated deceased with leniency, allowing his funeral service according to the Orthodox rite.
Installation of the monument
A monument, unlike a grave, is not a mandatory attribute of burial. They do not install it right away: due to large differences in the average annual temperature in Russia, the grave soil needs about a year to shrink. As a rule, the cemetery administration allows the installation of monuments from May to October.
Prices start at 5,000 RUR, but in this case the monument is usually made of low-quality stone that imitates valuable varieties. Such a monument will quickly fade and crack. Natural stone is difficult to extract and process, but it remains like new for decades. Prices for it start at RUR 20,000 and greatly depend on the size of the monument and additional elements - a tombstone, flower bed, table and bench.
The most common material is granite, also known as diabase. It's beautiful, weather-resistant, and great for portraits. Marble is easier to process, and complex compositions can be made from it, but a marble monument will have to be constantly looked after.
It is better to order the monument in autumn or winter
It is best to order a monument in late autumn and winter: at this time, workshops are without orders and are ready to offer clients good discounts. This way you can save up to 20%. On average, a monument takes about 2 months to make; if the project is complex, it will take longer. When choosing a company, check whether it has its own workshop and whether it is possible to drive to the production site. If not, these are resellers who make money on price differences. If you have a workshop, pay attention to ready-made monuments - good companies are full of orders.
The cost of installation in Moscow is usually 30% of the price of the monument itself. It’s better not to save money: if you don’t take into account the features and slope of the terrain, the monument will fall on its side or crack. It's worth asking if there is a warranty and if it covers installation.
Before choosing a monument, you should definitely consult with the cemetery administration: they usually impose restrictions.
Average cost of a funeral in Moscow
| Burial in the grave | RUB 61,680 | Cremation | RUB 52,100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funeral hall | 4000 R | Funeral hall of the crematorium (30 minutes) | 900 R |
| Polished coffin | 12,000 R | Cloth-lined coffin | 6,000 R |
| Bed in a coffin | 1000 R | Bed in a coffin | 1000 R |
| Wreaths (2 pcs.) | 4000 R | Wreaths and flowers | 0 R |
| Digging a grave in a new section of an open cemetery | RUB 10,880 | Burying an urn with ashes in the ground | 2000 R |
| Wooden cross with a sign | 6000 R | Wooden cross with a sign | 6000 R |
| 2800 R | 2800 R | ||
| Hearse without return flight | 6000 R | Hearse without return flight | 6000 R |
| Funeral (1000 R × 15 people) | 15 000 | Funeral (1000 R × 15 people) | 15,000 R |
| Cremation | 3400 R | ||
| Urn for ashes | 6000 R | ||
| Preparation of documents in the crematorium and work with ashes | 3000 R |
Including a place in the cemetery and funeral service, but without agent fees and for additional morgue services
Burial in the grave
RUB 61,680
Funeral hall
4000 R
Polished coffin
12,000 R
Bed in a coffin
1000 R
Wreaths (2 pcs.)
4000 R
Digging a grave in a new section of an open cemetery
RUB 10,880
Wooden cross with a sign
6000 R
Delivery of ritual supplies to the morgue
2800 R
Hearse without return flight
6000 R
Funeral (1000 R × 15 people)
15,000 R
Cremation
RUB 52,100
Funeral hall of the crematorium (30 minutes)
900 R
Cloth-lined coffin
6000 R
Bed in a coffin
1000 R
Wreaths and flowers
0 R
Burying an urn with ashes in the ground
2000 R
Wooden cross with a sign
6000 R
Delivery of ritual supplies to the morgue
2800 R
Hearse without return flight
6000 R
Cremation
3400 R
Urn for ashes
6000 R
Preparation of documents in the crematorium and work with ashes
3000 R
Funeral (1000 R × 15 people)
15,000 R
Funerals are a full-time business. But the funeral of each individual person is always a separate story. The price depends on too many factors: time of year, speed and causes of death, age, city, method of burial.
A decent funeral is always a matter of taste and financial capabilities. In each case, the relatives of the deceased themselves decide which coffin to choose, bury in an ordinary cemetery or in a prestigious one, transport the coffin in a gazelle or Mercedes, say goodbye to the deceased in a mourning hall, in a church or at home, organize everything themselves or contact funeral services.
How to avoid being scammed
In the funeral business they try to deceive at every step, for two reasons:
- Funerals are a relatively rare, painful and emotional event, and most people won't want to delve deeply into the costs. Agents and employees of institutions take advantage of the depressed state of their clients, multiply their expenses and put it on stream.
- During a funeral, it is easy to put pressure on the relatives of the deceased with arguments about dignity, honor, memory and respect. The idea that a coffin for 30 thousand preserves memory better than a coffin for 10 thousand seems dubious to me, but ritualists may have such an argument.
It’s good if, during the funeral preparations, there is a person nearby who did not know the deceased closely, but who can be trusted. Relatives are overwhelmed by grief and cannot always critically evaluate what is happening. Sometimes you can save up to half of all funeral costs by simply asking to see the official price list.
To help relatives organize a funeral and increase the average bill, funeral homes and agencies are created - these are people who, for money, take care of all the organization and paperwork. For them, this is a profitable and in-demand business, because people die all the time, and no one wants to bury their own relatives in cold blood.
What types of scammers are there?
Here's who you might get.
"Black" ritual agents. These are people who knock on the door even before the ambulance and police arrive. Sometimes they come with doctors or police and introduce themselves as a government funeral home or social service.
Everyone who came uninvited bought information about the death from corrupt ambulance and police officials. Such information costs about 20 thousand rubles. Funerals organized by such agents will cost much more, because for each order they have already paid a bribe and now they need to return the money spent with a profit.
RUR 20,000
there is information about the death of one person
In ordinary life, no social or funeral services come to you on their own. On the contrary: if you need any certificates and benefits, you will have to go to the offices. If they come to you, be on your guard: most likely, they want money.
"State" funeral services. Many funeral agencies like to use the words “state” or “municipal” in their names, and display the coat of arms of the city or region on their websites - this gives them more credibility. In their advertising, they call their competitors scammers and say that only they have everything according to the standards established by the state.
But there is no single cost for state funeral services, and those companies that were once created by the state have long since become private. Ask for documents: perhaps somewhere at the end in small letters something like “IP Ivanov” is written.
Funeral bureaus at the morgue. They can even deceive you at the morgue, when relatives come for a medical death certificate. Unscrupulous employees will try to impose their paid services or the help of a funeral home, usually located in the same premises.
If a person does not want to order anything, he may be threatened with delays in issuing documents and bodies.
If another funeral agent is already working with the family of the deceased, they may call and say that he is a fraudster and advise you to break the contract with him by ordering all services at the morgue. There have been cases when people were blackmailed with the disappearance of the body of a deceased person from the morgue.
It happens that people are blackmailed about bodies going missing from the morgue.
They may also require money for an autopsy, although this is a mandatory operation and should be done free of charge. It is needed to find out the true causes of death.
In such a situation, you need to explain to the morgue employees that their actions are illegal, and you already call the health department line, and then the prosecutor’s office.
If ritualists impose their services, you can threaten to file an application with Rospotrebnadzor and the Federal Antimonopoly Service - a complaint can be submitted there via the Internet in five minutes.
Turnkey funeral. Often, grief-stricken relatives of the deceased ask funeral directors how much the funeral will cost. They are told the price without detailing what the money will be spent on. Then they take the client into circulation: either by increasing the budget in various ways, or by slipping cheap services under the guise of expensive ones. Some people charge money for a turnkey funeral (what a cynical business), and then offer the client to pay extra for transport, clothing, a restaurant or something else.
Purchasing a prestigious grave. Cemeteries are divided into two types: open - new plots are allocated for them, but they are located outside the city, and closed - these are old cemeteries within the city, which are considered more prestigious, but only sub-burials in related graves are possible there.
In closed cemeteries there are so-called service areas - these are previously abandoned or ownerless graves, which the cemetery administration removes and prepares for new burials: removing old tombstones, cutting down trees, making a fence and a concrete base. The cost of work can reach hundreds of thousands of rubles. The new customer pays for this, usually called “buying” the grave. But the land in all cemeteries in Russia is considered state-owned and is not sold into private ownership.
Extortionists. No one will allow a person to be buried without a death certificate from the morgue, but anyone who shows the passport of the deceased can receive one. The scammers say that they are from a funeral service, take all the necessary documents from relatives, and then demand money from them, threatening to disrupt the funeral. Never give anyone the documents of the deceased or money for funeral services until you sign an agreement.
Always make a contract
Contacting a funeral agency is a standard case of service provision, which must be documented in a contract. Sometimes funeral services try to replace a full-fledged agreement with a bunch of receipts and receipts that have no legal significance. This way they hide the real cost of their services, and the client risks that in the end the price may increase many times over.
The contract will protect against this, and will also prove who exactly paid for the funeral. This will be required when receiving funeral benefits from the state and compensation from the bank account of the deceased.
How the state will help
Young people are often shocked that their grandparents have a special stash - “coffins”. But when a tragic moment comes, those who avoid thoughts of death simply do not have money for a funeral. You have to go into debt. To help people in this situation, the government has several tools.
Funeral benefit. After the funeral, the relatives of the deceased can receive monetary compensation from the state for burial. If the person was employed at the time of death, you can obtain it from the employer’s accounting department. The Pension Fund pays benefits for pensioners, and the Social Security Administration pays benefits for the unemployed. You will need to write an application and present a stamp death certificate.
This takes into account the basic benefit rate, as well as regional coefficients and other additional payments. They depend on the region, in some places there are none at all. In Moscow, an additional 11,000 R will be paid only for a person who was not working at the time of death. You must apply for payment no later than six months after the funeral.
5562 R
funeral benefit in 2017
Payments for funerals in different cities of Russia
| City | Additional payments | In total with the manual |
|---|---|---|
| Moscow | 11,000 R | RUB 16,562 |
| Saint Petersburg | 3356 R | 8918 R |
| Novosibirsk | 1113 R | 6675 R |
| Ufa | 834 R | 6396 R |
| Nizhny Novgorod | 0 R | 5562 R |
Leave the body of the deceased at home until the funeral
or transport it to the morgue for safekeeping?
To answer this question, it is necessary to decide when the burial will take place and where.
- If the burial is planned more than 12 hours after death, it is better to take the body of the deceased to the morgue for safekeeping. After death, the human body, after a very short period of time, begins to darken, swell and produce unpleasant odors, especially at temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius.
- You also need to know that during the process of decomposition, the number of aerobic bacteria around the body of the deceased increases exponentially, which can subsequently cause serious illnesses in relatives who were near the body of the deceased for a long time. Only special procedures (embalming) can reduce the risk of bacterial influence and properly protect those present at the burial ceremony.
- In the refrigerating chamber of the morgue, these processes slow down, plus, the morgue staff will carry out all the necessary procedures much more professionally to prepare and preserve the body of the deceased for burial or cremation. (embalming, tamponing, washing, dressing, makeup, make-up, etc.).
It is worth additionally considering the following nuances:
- Having a medical death certificate in hand, the deceased can be taken to any pathological department in the city of Stavropol, which provides services for preserving bodies and preparing them for burial.
- Without the documents established by law, the body of the deceased can only be sent for storage to a forensic morgue.
— Will you embalm the deceased? For how long: a week, a month or a year? We can do it for at least 100 years. Our masters are no worse than the Egyptian ones,” the ritual service worker somehow subtly resembled master Bezenchuk from the legendary “12 chairs.” Embalming was once considered more than an exotic type of service. Hundreds of thousands of living people came to see the main client of the masters of “otherworldly” makeup every day. And they thought to themselves: looking decent when meeting that world is the lot of the powerful of this world. An exception was made only for victims of disasters and accidents.
Nowadays fashion has changed. Everything in a person should be beautiful even after death, ordinary people believe. This is probably why last year 90% of dead Muscovites were embalmed in the capital. So much so that during the funeral it seemed as if the deceased was simply sleeping. Without exaggeration, we can say that Moscow embalmers today have no equal in the whole world. The MK reporter spent more than one day with them, learning the intricacies of a craft that had long been considered sacred.
Troyekurovskoe cemetery. It is believed that the best embalmers hide behind this fence. It's funny that the building in which they work was built according to one of the rejected projects... Lenin's Mausoleum. When a place for a cemetery was allocated, specialists from the State Unitary Enterprise “Ritual” dug up this project in the State Archive and realized that it was surprisingly suitable for the future necropolis.
The spirit of the leader generally hovers over the churchyard. Most of the local embalmers are former employees of the secret Institute of Biological Structures, located on Krasin Street. They took a direct part in working with Lenin’s body, creating “balms” that even today allow him to “be in shape.” Finally, everyone calls one of the oldest orderly technicians and embalmers of the Troyekurovsky cemetery... Vladimir Ilyich. Out of purely feminine curiosity, I ask you to show the documents. Damn, he really is the namesake...
On the walls of the building where the corpse storage facility and the morgue are located, like a balm for the souls of specialists in the afterlife, there are diplomas and certificates “for the introduction of new advanced technologies in the field of embalming.” One of the latest awards is a gold medal at the Siberian fair “Necropolis”.
Few people know what happens to the body of the deceased when it is taken away by funeral service specialists. Meanwhile, it goes a long way before descending into the kingdom of Hades. The first address is the refrigeration room. The body is brought here in a dark plastic bag. Each deceased is placed in a separate compartment, on the “doors” of which the number and surname are immediately written. Bodies intended for embalming are placed in a special environment. It requires certain temperatures, microclimate and other storage conditions. From the refrigeration room, the body ends up either on the table of a forensic expert or to specialists who put it in order. The first thing, of course, is to wash it.
“Now we can easily recreate the appearance from photographs,” experts say. — We use special metal plates and artificial leather. We give shape using silicone, plaster, or special plasticine. We can restore almost everything.
“I wash my hair with ordinary shampoo,” Marina, an employee of the corpse storage facility, explains to me, combing the deceased’s hair. - Then we do our hair. As a rule, relatives want everything on the head of the deceased to be as it was during life. You see, this elderly woman wore a bob. That's what I do.
A little hairspray, gel - and the hairstyle will last as long as needed. Marina moves on to makeup. He takes the “Ballet” cream and wax and begins to smoothly lubricate his face and neck with them. Her every movement is so gentle that it seems as if she is making up a living artist, and not a dead grandmother. Basically, all cosmetics are exactly the same as in beauty salons. But sometimes they also use special shadows, blush, and powder for the dead.
It is, of course, more difficult to make up the dead than the living.
“Mainly due to the fact that the skin is cold,” explains Marina. — You have to use a hairdryer to make the cosmetics stick better. We often use imported creams: they are better suited for this makeup. Sometimes we mix several creams to get the desired shade.
The task of cosmetologists is to give the deceased the most “alive” appearance, so that at least the appearance of the deceased does not aggravate the grief of relatives and friends.
In ancient times, the dead were not embalmed “for profit.” They simply sincerely believed that for a person to be reborn in the next life, his body must remain incorruptible. Today people are guided by other, much more prosaic considerations - to preserve the body until the funeral. And so that when bidding farewell to the deceased, his relatives do not notice traces of decomposition. For your information, to prevent the body from deteriorating, in some Russian villages they still cover the deceased in the old fashioned way with nettles and place a needle or blade on the lips. Of course, this is of little use. Modern embalming technologies make it possible to achieve unique results in preserving freshness.
The embalming room is as quiet and clean as an operating room. Ventilation here works at full capacity. The embalming process is quite complex. The body is placed on a table, the vessels are washed under pressure with a special device, the blood is washed out even from the tissues, and then treated with a special preservative. In general, the basis of any embalming is the soaking of the corpse with antiseptic substances that kill bacteria.
In total, the procedure takes about two hours. The job, to be honest, is not for the faint of heart. In general, people with unstable psyches have nothing to do here. It is no coincidence that a lot of attention is paid to the selection of personnel and their psychological testing at the Troekurovsky cemetery. The embalmers themselves say that their profession is no worse than others, and even has its advantages. And they joke that the client, for example, never complains about anything...
Just ten years ago in Moscow, embalming was carried out mainly at home. An uncle arrived on call with a compact suitcase containing a simple tool - syringes, gloves and a pink preservative. He opened the deceased’s artery and pumped the solution into it. Everything took at least four hours. The quality, of course, left much to be desired.
“And in general, embalming at home is not very convenient,” says Dmitry Grinchuk, who has been going to similar “operations” for more than 10 years. — Relatives distract you by crying and shouting (it’s difficult to persuade them to leave you alone with the deceased). Then, when you go to embalm at home, you never know what condition the body is in.
In all of Moscow today there are only 4 embalmers left who travel to homes. They receive no more than 20 orders per month. Mostly, this service is used by those who do not want to take their body anywhere.
In my presence, the body was embalmed for 3 days (with a guarantee of up to 5 days). This means that it will not decompose for just that long. But then death will still win. In general, they usually win up to ten days from the “old woman with a scythe.” Less often - a month (when the body is transported to another city, another country, or when you need to wait for the arrival of some close relative), even less often - a year. Embalmers recall how they “preserved” one deceased person for 6 months. The reason is super respectable - it was after this amount of time that his close friend was supposed to be released from prison. For the longest period (up to three years), dead Gypsies and Georgians are embalmed. They have such a custom - not to bury the body until everyone, even the most distant relatives, has said goodbye to it.
“We can embalm for centuries,” says Vadim Milov, head of the central control room, former researcher at the Institute of Biological Structures. — But Muscovites have not yet made such requests. Preserving a body for tens and hundreds of years costs amounts inaccessible to ordinary people... But if suddenly someone has such a desire, we will do it with interest. The difference between temporary embalming and permanent embalming is the preservative that is used. In addition, in the second case, it is necessary to periodically carry out preventive work on the body and monitor its condition.
Russia has been a leader in the field of embalming for many years. The Institute of Biological Structures is going through hard times today, but even those developments that were made here in the Soviet years are still considered advanced. The secrets of our preservatives, the best in the world in terms of time and quality of embalming, have not yet been revealed. The recipes for “balms” of ancient peoples have been lost, and we have developed our own, no worse in action, but fundamentally different in composition. The exact composition is known to only two dozen scientists and is a state secret. As for temporary embalming (for a short period), the recipes, or instructions, for such “balms” are not a big secret. Although not all embalmers know them.
“In almost all cities except Moscow, formaldehyde is simply diluted with water during embalming,” continues Milov. — As a result, the body of the deceased becomes gray, even spotted. We (four former employees of the institute) created our own solution, which allows us to preserve the structure and, most importantly, the color of fabrics.
Employees have already presented their solution at several exhibitions (and received awards for it). Prototypes were distributed to embalmers in some large regions of the country. If they decide to use it there, we can safely say that a real revolution will occur in Russia in the field of embalming. Europe is hopelessly behind in this regard. Abroad, they mainly use polymer embalming, which, in essence, simply turns the deceased into inert plastic.
Most of the famous “mummies” of the last century are Lenin, Pirogov, Mao Zedong, Choibalsan, Ho Chi Minh, Georgiy Dimitrov, etc. — were embalmed either by Soviet scientists themselves or using their technologies and under their “supervision.” IBS employees especially like to remember how the President of Angola, Agostinho Neto, and the President of Guyana, Burnham, were embalmed. Neto died in the 70s right in Moscow (where he was undergoing treatment). The Angolan Embassy then turned to the USSR government with a request to preserve the body. No one in the world by that time had tried to embalm blacks. Our scientists have already carried out some developments in embalming black skin. However, even they were not sure that everything would work out.
Burnham's body turned out to be even more interesting. When he died, the Guyanese government invited Soviet and American scientists. But after ours presented their developments, the Americans were turned away.
Many “mummies,” however, have already been expelled from mausoleums, reburied or cremated. And there are now heated debates about the ethical side of “eternal” embalming. Representatives of many religions are against it. Some political and cultural figures consider embalming blasphemous. And for greater persuasiveness they exclaim: it is unlikely that Lenin dreamed of such a fate. But, be that as it may, this in no way detracts from the merits of domestic embalmers. And - to be honest - it was largely thanks to the dead leader that our saddest science has stepped so far forward.
During the 25 years of his work, thousands of dead people passed through the hands of the medical technician and embalmer Vladimir Ilyich. And at the same time, he did not forget how to smile and joke. And in general, he sincerely loves his work. He says that it was only here that he understood what life was and began to truly appreciate every moment of it. However, Vladimir Ilyich, when he is left alone at night on duty, locks himself in the farthest room. He admits that he gets scared and sometimes flinches at any rustle. Although he knows for sure that mummies only come to life in the movies...
HOW MUCH DOES EMBALMING COST?
Washing, dressing, storage in a corpse storage facility (does not guarantee that the body will not begin to decompose), placing in a coffin is free for all Muscovites;
Cosmetic and restoration work on the body - from 300 rubles to 1-2 thousand dollars, depending on the condition of the body, how long ago death occurred, the complexity of the work, and the materials used;
Disinfection - 300 rubles;
Embalming for 3 days - from 700 to 1000 rubles;
For 5-7 days - 1200-1500 rubles;
For 10 days - up to 3000;
For 1 month - up to 5000;
More than 1 month - from 7000 to...
Instructions
In any case, a pathological autopsy must be performed if a refusal has not been formalized (a refusal can be issued if death occurred after a long illness or natural aging, and also if the deceased refuses an autopsy in the will). In case of sudden or violent death, the body is sent to a forensic medical examination for an autopsy. If there are no signs of violent death, then they can be sent to any available morgue.
The autopsy is carried out in the morgue on a special table with a sink; it is recommended to carry out this manipulation in daylight. Before the autopsy, the pathologist must carefully read the medical history, and, if necessary, clarify the data with the attending physician (he must be present at the autopsy). The procedure begins with an external examination of the deceased, with special attention paid to the degree, presence of skin damage, scars, wounds, swelling, coloring of the skin, changes in the configuration of body parts.
After the main sectional incision of the integument, an internal examination of the corpse is performed. Using special instruments, the abdominal cavity is opened, exposing the entire sternum with adjacent parts of the ribs. The costal cartilages are cut at the border with the bone part, then the pathologist opens the chest cavity. After examining the cavity, all internal organs are removed and examined in a certain order. Most often, the organs of the neck and chest are removed separately, then the complex of digestive organs (separating the intestines from the mesentery), and the genitourinary organs (including the ureter, kidneys, prostate gland, bladder, uterus with appendages and vagina).
The method of complete evisceration is also used, when the insides are removed in one complex and then examined without separating the bonds. The organs are carefully examined and weighed, cut, the cut surface is examined, as well as the condition of the cavity of the hollow organs, excretory ducts, and mucous membranes. I study the condition of large blood vessels.
The skull is opened using a special saw, and the scalp is removed. The brains are removed from the skull and placed on a tray with the rest of the organs. If necessary, open the eye sockets, paranasal sinuses and middle ear cavity using a hammer or chisel. Everything is carefully studied by a pathologist, and the cause of death is determined. Then the skull is sutured, the skin on the face is stretched and sutured. All internal organs are folded back into the abdominal area and sutured. The body is washed, and if desired, relatives are embalmed and makeup is applied.
The deceased is dressed in funeral clothes. It is very important that the outfit for the funeral is clean (ideally, these should be new things). The female body is dressed in a dress or suit with long sleeves, stockings or tights, slippers or shoes, and a light scarf is tied. A man's funeral attire should consist of underwear, a light shirt, suit, tie, shoes or slippers. The deceased must wear a pectoral cross. The body of the deceased is placed in a coffin and handed over to relatives.
Organizing a funeral yourself is quite a troublesome procedure. It is necessary to visit many different government and commercial institutions, collect all the certificates, and agree on the time of the ceremony. To everything else, add the psychological stress from the urgency of this event and the discomfort due to the loss of a loved one.
Financial resources or moral principles do not always allow outsiders to be involved in such a sensitive issue. However, even among older people, not everyone knows how to properly organize a funeral. Below we will tell you what is necessary for this and the sequence of steps.
Where to start organizing a funeral
The first thing you should do when faced with the death of a loved one is to calm down and cope with the emotional shock. Mobilize all your strength for the next three days, promising yourself to fully indulge in grief after the burial. Stock up on valerian drops and ammonia in case of fainting. Ask someone close to you to accompany you on long trips to various organizations. Firstly, now you need moral support from the outside, and secondly, mortuary and cemetery workers usually do not dare to unreasonably beg for money for various free services in the presence of a third party.
How to organize a funeral yourself: step-by-step instructions
Organizing a funeral yourself is not as difficult as it seems at first. Due to life factors, not every person is able to arrange an elite burial in a yew coffin in one of the central cemeteries of Moscow for his untimely departed relative. Therefore, most often a modest ceremony is held using budget ritual accessories. Nevertheless, even under tight financial circumstances, it is quite possible to honorably see off the deceased into another world.
Instructions for organizing and conducting a funeral yourself:
The death of a loved one can happen at home or in a hospital. In the first case, you should call an ambulance and the police. Warn about the incident in advance, since special transport is required for transportation to the morgue. If you doubt that a death has occurred, it is better to say that the person is in a deep faint. Transportation of the deceased in Moscow is free.
A patient who dies in a hospital is usually taken for an autopsy. This is necessary to eliminate the possibility of death due to negligence or medical negligence. In some cases, when there is suspicion of a violent death, this procedure is also applied to bodies brought by medical teams.
Your next step is to determine in which thanatological department (morgue) the body of your loved one is located. Not every medical institution has a unit of this type. As a rule, one PAO or SME is attached to several hospitals or clinics.
Notify relatives and friends of the untimely deceased about his sudden death as early as possible. It is better to set the traditional date of burial - on the 3rd day after death. If the date falls on one of the Great Church Holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.) or a weekend, you should move it to the next day. The fact is that the priest may refuse to perform the funeral service for the deceased, and the morgue workers will not give you the body on the holiday. Don’t worry about the timing: in the thanatology department, the first 7 days of storage are free.
Take a doctor's death certificate. It can be obtained at the clinic where the deceased was registered, or at the morgue where the body is located. If you are going to have a Christian funeral service for the body, do not forget to take another certificate for church representatives. This ensures that the deceased did not commit suicide. To obtain both documents, you must have with you both passports (the deceased’s and your own), as well as a medical insurance policy and hospital card of the deceased.
Check the address and opening hours of the registry office to which the deceased is registered. This is where you should go to obtain your stamp death certificate. This document must not be laminated or folded. Just in case, make several copies of it.
To apply for a state funeral benefit (for preferential categories of Muscovites - from 16,701 rubles; (2018) for other categories - 5,701 rubles) with documents, contact the relevant institutions:
- for those who worked - at their place of work;
- for pensioners – to the Pension Fund (don’t forget to take the deceased’s pension certificate with you!);
- for registered unemployed – to Social Security;
- for military personnel and veterans - to the military registration and enlistment office.
You can be sent to receive a sum of money in cash from the pension fund or, after a couple of hours, they will issue an order for payment by bank transfer.
You can refuse the benefit and choose a social funeral according to a guaranteed list of services and goods for burial (free funeral). You will be provided with:
- wooden coffin covered with fabric;
- cover;
- white slippers;
- digging a grave;
- transportation of ritual supplies to the morgue indicated by you;
- one-way hearse transport to the cemetery;
- burial or cremation service.
All other funeral attributes and services - clothing, pillow, movers, place in the columbarium, wake, funeral service, etc. - will have to be paid additionally.
Now that you have a guarantee that the state will at least partially compensate your costs, you should go to the cemetery. In the case where the deceased has previously worried about the right to the plot or there is a relative grave in which the burial took place over 15 years ago, you should go to the graveyard indicated in the documents. If the place has not been determined, then it can be allocated free of charge only in open cemeteries. For Moscow it is:
- Alabushevskoe;
- Khovanskoye (Northern);
- Khovanskoye (Western);
- Shcherbinskoe.
The rest are closed to general burials. You should arrive at the churchyard during business hours. For metropolitan institutions this is from 9-00 to 17-00, for those located near Moscow - from 14-00 to 16-00. It is better to arrive in advance and discuss grave digging services, loaders, and hearse transport there.
After determining the burial place, go to a funeral goods store, for example, from the website and order:
- coffin (it should be 20-30 cm longer than the height of the deceased);
- pillow;
- cover;
- other attributes (wreaths, commemorative ribbons, cross, plaque, etc.).
You can also buy clothes for the deceased and white slippers from us.
Coordinate the holding of a religious ceremony. For budget funerals, a funeral service is usually ordered at the cemetery, followed by the presence of a church minister at the wake.
No later than 24 hours before the ceremony, things and hygiene products for the untimely departed should be brought to the morgue.
Toiletries:
- soap;
- towel;
- eau de toilette or cologne;
- comb.
For women:
- underwear;
- stockings or tights;
- long sleeve dress or formal suit;
- hair scarf;
- slippers.
For men:
- underwear;
- socks;
- suit and tie;
- slippers.
Mortuary staff provide services for washing, dressing and removing the body to the funeral room free of charge. If you need embalming or removing cosmetic defects, be sure to ask for a price list. As a rule, prices there will be 2-3 times lower than announced.
On the day of the funeral, the main thing is to stick to time and it is better to arrive at the morgue a little earlier. Do not delay the farewell procedure in the ceremony hall of the thanatology department. You will still have time to say goodbye to the deceased before he is lowered into the grave. It is customary to carry the coffin in your arms from the hearse transport to the burial place. The procession is formed in the following sequence:
- The first to follow are people carrying a photo of the deceased, a cross and a memorial plaque;
- Then wreaths with mourning inscriptions;
- Medals, orders and other regalia of the deceased (if any) are displayed on a separate pad;
- Coffin lid;
- The coffin with the body of the untimely departed;
- Relatives, friends and other accompanying persons, according to the degree of relationship and acquaintance.
Near the grave there is a funeral service and a final farewell to the deceased. The lid is clogged, and the coffin itself is lowered into the ground. Then each person participating in the ceremony throws a traditional piece of earth and wishes the deceased to rest in peace. Next, the diggers bury the grave and erect a cross or temporary monument with a plaque on it.
The ceremony ends with a memorial meal. It is better to have a funeral meal in a cafe. Relatives and friends are usually so worried about the grief that has befallen them that they may not be able to cope with such responsibilities. Only the closest and dearest people to the deceased gather for it. During a wake, it is customary to remember the deceased person.