“It’s time, father,” answered the doorman, smiling joyfully, “to our Soviet columbarium.”
(I. Ilf, E. Petrov. The Golden Calf)
“As children, we ran to watch how the dead were burned in the crematorium. We sneaked to the small window and looked at the coffin engulfed in flames. After a couple of minutes, the domovina disintegrated, and a terrible thing happened: the corpse began to writhe, arms and legs moved, sometimes the deceased rose. that they were burning a living person. We ran away in horror. Then at night I was tormented by nightmares. But still we were drawn to the window like a magnet..." I remember this passage from my aunt’s childhood memories often. More often than I would like, because in recent years I have had to participate in the farewell ceremony more than once in last way. And often these farewells took place in the crematorium building.
There are many incredible, soul-chilling stories about crematoria, about what happens in the building itself, where access to relatives and friends of the deceased is denied. Where is the truth and where is fiction, we will try to figure it out.
In Europe, the Etruscans burned their dead, then the Greeks and Romans adopted this custom. Christianity declared cremation paganism. In 785 Charlemagne is under threat death penalty banned cremation, and it was forgotten for about a thousand years. But in the XVI–XVII centuries. cities in Europe began to gradually turn into metropolises, and arose a big problem from cemetery organizations. In some graveyards, the dead began to be buried in large common graves, which were open for many days. Often, cemeteries were located in human habitats, which caused the spread of diseases. The idea of burning the bodies of the dead arose again. Since the 16th century. In Europe, funeral pyres began to be used for sanitary and hygienic purposes. However, the problem was creating a suitable burning method - fires were not suitable. This method was invented only in late XIX century. On October 9, 1874, the first cremation was performed in a stream of hot air in a regenerative furnace designed by the German engineer Friedrich Siemens. And the first modern crematorium was built in 1876 in Milan. Currently, there are more than 14.3 thousand crematoria in the world
On the territory of Russia, the first crematorium was built not after the 17th year, as many people think, but even before the October revolution, in Vladivostok, using a Japanese-made oven. Probably for the cremation of the country's citizens Rising Sun(at that time there were many people from Nagasaki living in Vladivostok). Today, a crematorium operates in this city again, this time for Russians.
The first crematorium in the RSFSR (Metallurg furnace) was opened in 1920 in the bathhouse building, house No. 95-97 on the 14th line of Vasilyevsky Island in Petrograd. Even the act of the first in history has been preserved Soviet Russia cremation, signed by the chairman of the Standing Commission for the construction of the 1st State Crematorium and Mortuary, the manager of the management department of the Petroguys Executive Committee, comrade. B.G. Kaplun and other persons present at this event. The act, in particular, states: “On December 14, 1920, we, the undersigned, carried out the first experimental burning of the corpse of Red Army soldier Malyshev, 19 years old, in a cremation oven in the building of the 1st State Crematorium - V.O., 14 line, no. 95/97. The body was pushed into the oven at 0 hours 30 minutes, and the temperature of the furnace at this moment was on average 800 C under the action of the left regenerator, the coffin burst into flames at the moment it was pushed into the combustion chamber and collapsed 4 minutes after it was inserted there.". The following are details that I decided to omit so as not to traumatize impressionable readers.
The furnace only worked for a short time, from December 14, 1920 to February 21, 1921, and was stopped “due to lack of firewood.” During this period of time, 379 bodies were burned there, most of which were burned administratively, and 16 at the request of relatives or according to a will.
Finally and irrevocably, fire funerals entered everyday life Soviet people in 1927, when in Moscow, in the Donskoy Monastery, the “department of atheism” was opened, as atheistic propaganda then called this crematorium. The monastery church was converted into a crematorium St. Seraphim Sarovsky. The first clients of the establishment were trusted comrades - “knights of the revolution”. In the columbarium located in the temple, on the cremation urns you can read inscriptions such as: “Bolshevik-Chekist”, “member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), staunch Bolshevik”, “one of the oldest figures of the Bolshevik Party”. In general, ardent revolutionaries were entitled to a flame even after death. After 45 years, another crematorium was built in the city - this time the largest in Europe - at the Nikolo-Arkhangelskoye cemetery, in 1985 - at Mitinskoye, and after another 3 years - at Khovanskoye. There are also crematoria in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, and Vladivostok; On July 7 last year, a crematorium opened in Novosibirsk.
Despite intensive propaganda, citizens of the USSR treated this type of burial with distrust and fear. This is partly (but only partly) explained by the negative attitude of traditional religions towards cremation, because in monotheistic religions cremation is prohibited or, at a minimum, not encouraged. Judaism strictly prohibits cremation of the body. Jewish tradition views cremation as an abusive custom, dating back to the pagan practice of burning the dead on funeral pyres. Burning a person's body is unacceptable in Islam. If this happens, the sin falls on those who committed the burning. The Orthodox Church views cremation as an “alien custom,” a “heretical method of burial.” The Greek Orthodox Church stubbornly resists the introduction of cremation. As stated by the official representative of the Holy Synod, Bishop of Alexandroupolis Anthimos, commenting on a bill introduced by seven members of parliament allowing this rite for members of non-Orthodox (!) congregations in Greece: “Cremation is an act of violence, an insult to humanity, an expression of nihilism...”. The overwhelming majority of Russian Orthodox priests are categorically against fire burial. “The burning of the dead may be a violation of the teachings of the Church on the veneration of the remains of holy martyrs and saints and deprive Orthodox Christians of holy relics,” says priest I. Ryabko. “And as for mere mortals, burning, among other things, deprives believers of that spiritual edification and reminder of death, which they receive when burying bodies in the ground. It follows that, from a purely Orthodox point of view, the burning of the dead is considered alien and unacceptable. Christian faith innovation." The official position of the Russian Orthodox Church was voiced by the deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: "We have a negative attitude towards cremation. Of course, if relatives ask for a funeral service for the deceased before cremation, church ministers do not refuse them. But people who profess Orthodoxy must respect the dead and not allow the destruction of the body created by God." However, there is also a lobby in the Russian Orthodox Church that advocates not to anathematize crematoria. Moreover, they say that it opened last year the crematorium in Novosibirsk was consecrated. Lately There are persistent rumors (which representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church do not confirm) that the construction of crematoria for all major cities has long been agreed upon with the church authorities and there is actually a blessing from the Russian Orthodox Church high level. Probably, the rumors arose due to the fact that in all crematoria in Russia there are priests who perform funeral services for the deceased before cremation, and some crematoria have chapels.
Other branches of Christianity look at this method of burial somewhat differently. Lutherans and Protestants were the first to approve cremation. And in 1963, although with reservations, cremation was allowed by the Catholic Church.
But, I repeat, the reason for the cool (pardon the pun) attitude towards fiery funerals is not only the religious beliefs of our citizens. main reason– numerous horror stories, which have been told by word of mouth for many years now, about the “horrors” happening in crematoria. I, like many other citizens, have repeatedly heard that the dead are undressed, gold teeth and crowns are taken out, coffins are rented, and clothes taken from the deceased are handed over to second-hand stores. At one time, Mikhail Weller’s story “The Crematorium” added fuel to the fire, which describes how the workers of this establishment in Leningrad undressed the dead before cremation, and handed over the clothes to a nearby thrift store. Let me briefly remind you what the essence of the story is: a man won a car in a cash and clothing lottery, drank to celebrate, and died. He was cremated (allegedly along with the ticket, which was in his suit pocket). A few days later, the widow of the deceased went to a second-hand store, where she saw her husband’s suit. In my pocket, of course, there was that same ticket... By the way, as my mother told me, this story about a suit and a ticket (a bond with big win) she heard in childhood, when Weller still couldn’t hold a pen in his hands.
I managed to talk with an employee of one of the Moscow crematoria. Of course, I wanted to find out “the whole truth” about what was going on there. An attempt was even made to get Ivan drunk (his name was changed at his request, since employees in the funeral services industry generally prefer not to advertise their place of work). Ivan willingly drank with me, but did not tell any terrible secrets. And in response to a question about the clothes allegedly removed from corpses, he laughed: “Old man, how do you imagine this? In order to rite the deceased, the suits on the back are cut, and the shoes are also cut. marketable condition, we need to hire a team of sewing machine operators and shoemakers. So, what? In general, this is complete nonsense." "What about gold? – I didn’t let up. – Surely you remove jewelry from the dead? Don’t let something good go to waste..." But Ivan just waved his hand, saying, leave me alone.
And yet, where do the jewels go? In general, agents, when filling out documents for cremation, offer the customer to remove jewelry from the deceased. But if relatives leave everything as it is, then during cremation the following happens. There is such a thing in cremation equipment - a cremulator. It is designed to grind bone remains left after cremation. Using an electric magnet, all metallic inclusions are removed from the ashes: nails, coffin handles, metal prostheses, etc. When the first crematoriums first appeared in the USSR, in order to avoid the theft of gold from dentures by the operator of the cremation furnace from the machines, wedding rings etc., control was established over the delivery of all non-magnetic metals to the state. All metal that did not catch fire was required to be handed over to the state by a special commission (these rules still exist today). However, as it turned out, the temperature in the furnace is so high that gold, silver and other valuable metals melt and, combining with the remains, turn into dispersed dust, from which it is almost impossible to extract anything valuable. Of course, there is a possibility that the crematorium staff may seize valuables even before sending the deceased to the oven. However, until now, since the existence of crematoria, there has not been a single similar criminal case. In principle, this can be explained by the mutual responsibility of the crematorium workers, but somehow it’s hard to believe that information about the crimes did not leak to law enforcement agencies.
As for the coffins, which are supposedly allowed to go “to the left,” both my new acquaintance Ivan and quite official officials unanimously assure that the technological feature of modern ovens is such that they cannot work without a coffin. In general, the cremation process occurs as follows. After the coffin, which is boarded up or closed with latches, enters the storage unit, a metal plate with an engraved number is nailed onto the domino, and the coffin is sealed. If it is decorated with metal or plastic crosses or handles, they are removed so as not to pollute the atmosphere harmful emissions, and also to ensure that the stove nozzles last longer. After the cremation is completed, along with the remains, the number plate is removed from the ashes and the numbers are checked to eliminate confusion with the release of someone else's ashes (one of the common fears is that someone else's remains will be given away). By the way, some crematoria provide a glass-enclosed viewing room for relatives and friends, from where you can watch the coffin go into the oven. Only one deceased person can be cremated in the oven at a time; before loading the next one, it is thoroughly cleaned. Another interesting detail is that in modern crematoria, in order to turn on the oven, you need to have a key with a code and know a special code.
In general, rumors about outrages in crematoriums, as they say, are greatly exaggerated. However, the crematorium, like the entire sphere of funeral services, is a good feeding trough for those who work there. You can always get extra money from the relatives and loved ones of the deceased who are poorly informed by grief. So, for example, employees of the ritual hall of a crematorium - it seems they are called masters of ceremonies - often ask to give “for candles”, for a “memorial service”, for “remembering the deceased dearly”... And people, of course, give. By the way, one of my friends cherished the dream of getting a job at a crematorium, because she heard that they paid well there. But she failed. It turned out that getting into this institution without patronage is as difficult as it was once to get into MGIMO without bribes and cronyism. The amount she had to pay for employment turned out to be unaffordable for her.
Today it goes again, as at dawn Soviet power, increased promotion of fire burial. There are even arguments in favor of crematoria historical examples, which show that committing the dead to fire was the norm among many peoples, including the ancient Slavs. Also used as an example are countries where cremation has become widespread: the USA, Japan, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Denmark... Cremation is presented as the most hygienic and environmentally friendly clean way burials. But the point is not about ecology (at least, not only about it), but about the land. Cities are growing and demanding new territories. Cremation does not allow cemeteries to grow greatly and “seize” priceless land. But ordinary people Of course, it’s not all this that worries us, but the funeral costs. Cremation is cheaper than a regular funeral. That is why, in the last ten years, the tradition of cremating the deceased among poor residents of large Russian cities (primarily Moscow and St. Petersburg) has been gaining popularity. Wealthier people can afford to pay for a traditional funeral and cemetery land, while those who are poorer have to resort to fiery burial.
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES: AND OTHER LESSONS FROM THE CREMATORY
Copyright © 2014 Caitlin Doughty
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2015
© Bannikov K.V., translation into Russian, 2018
© Design. LLC Publishing House E, 2018
* * *
To my dear friends,
So faithful and generous,
Terrible haiku 1
Haiku is the national Japanese form of poetry, a genre of poetic miniature. – Approx. ed.
From the author
Mata Hari, the famous exotic dancer who spied during World War I, refused to wear a blindfold as she was led to execution by the French in 1917, according to a journalist witness.
– Do I have to wear this? – Mata Hari asked her lawyer as soon as she saw the bandage.
“If madam doesn’t want it, it won’t change anything,” the officer answered, hastily turning away.
Mata Hari was not tied up and blindfolded. She looked her tormentors straight in the face as the priest, nuns, and lawyer stepped aside.
It's not easy to look death straight in the eye. To avoid this, we choose to wear bandages, hiding in the dark from the realities of death and dying. However, ignorance is not a blessing, but only an even greater fear.
Contact with death can be avoided at all costs by storing dead bodies behind stainless steel doors and leaving the sick and dying in hospital wards. We hide from death so hard that it feels like we're the first generation immortal people. However, it is not. It's no secret that one day we will all die. As the great cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker said, “The idea of death and the fear of it haunt man like nothing else.” It is because of the fear of death that we build cathedrals, give birth to children, declare war and watch videos about cats on the Internet at three in the morning.
Death controls all our creative and destructive actions.
The sooner we realize this, the better we can understand ourselves.
This book describes my first six years in the American funeral industry. If you don't want to read realistic descriptions of death and dead bodies, then you're probably in the wrong book. The stories here are true and the people are real. Some names and details (not the salacious ones, I promise) have been changed to preserve the privacy of some people and protect the identities of the deceased.
Attention!
Restricted area.
California Code of Regulations
Title 16, section 12, article 3, section 1221
Caring for the deceased and preparing for the funeral.
(a) Care of the deceased and preparations for funeral (or other disposition of human remains) must be strictly confidential...
Warning poster about funeral preparation requirements
How I shaved Byron
The girl will never forget the first body she shaved.
This is the only moment in her life that can be called even more awkward than the first kiss or the loss of virginity. The hands of the clock move painfully slowly as you stand over the dead body of an elderly man, clutching a pink plastic razor.
In the fluorescent light, I stared at poor, motionless Byron for a full ten minutes. That was the man's name, or at least that was the name on the tag hanging from his thumb his legs. I didn't know how to perceive him as a man or as a body, but it seemed necessary to at least know his name before I began performing very intimate procedures.
Byron was a 70-year-old man with thick white hair growing on his face and head. He was naked except for a sheet wrapped around his lower body. I don't know what that sheet covered. Probably, it was required to preserve the posthumous dignity of a person.
His eyes, fixed on infinity, became flat, as if lowered Balloons. If a lover's eyes are a clear mountain lake, then Byron's eyes were a swamp. His wide-open mouth froze in a silent scream.
- Um, Mike! – I called my new boss. – Do I understand correctly, I need to use shaving cream, or what?
Mike came into the room, took out a can of shaving foam from a metal cabinet and asked me to be careful.
“It will be difficult to fix anything if you cut his face open.” Be careful, okay?
Yes, neat. I need to be no less careful than the last time I shaved people. Although this has never happened to me before.
Pulling on rubber gloves, I brought the machine to Byron’s cold, hard cheeks, covered with thick stubble. I didn't feel like I was doing anything important at all. I always thought that mortuary workers should be professionals in their field, able to do with the deceased what others cannot. I wonder if Byron’s family members realized that a 23-year-old girl with no work experience was shaving the face of someone dear to them?
I couldn’t close Byron’s eyes, because his wrinkled eyelids wouldn’t obey and rose again, as if he wanted to watch me shave him. I tried again. To no avail. “Hey Byron, I don’t need any observers!” – I said, but no one answered me.
The same thing happened with the mouth. I closed it, but it remained in that position for only a few seconds, after which the jaw dropped again. No matter what I did, Byron didn't want to do what every gentleman should do, which is shave. I ended up clumsily covering his face with shaving foam, reminding myself of a one-year-old finger painting.
While working, I tried to convince myself that it was simple dead man. Just rotting meat, Caitlin. Animal carcass.
However, this persuasion technique did not prove effective: Byron was not just rotting meat. He was also a noble and magical creature, like a unicorn or griffin, combining something extraterrestrial with the mundane.
By the time I realized that this job was not for me, it was already too late. I could no longer avoid shaving Byron. Armed with a pink machine and making a high-pitched sound, audible only to dogs, I brought it to my cheek. Thus began my career as a hairdresser of the dead.
Even in the morning of that day, I didn’t think at all that I would have to shave my bodies. Of course, I understood that I would be dealing with corpses, but I had no idea that I would need to shave them. It was my first day at Westwind Family Funeral Home: Cremation and Burial.
I woke up early, which had never happened to me before, pulled on trousers that I had never worn before, and put on massive leather boots. The trousers were too short and the boots too big. I looked ridiculous, but in my defense I can say that I had no definite idea of what a worker who burns dead people should look like.
The sun was just rising when I left my house on Rondel Place. Discarded needles and evaporating puddles of urine glinted in its rays. A homeless man dressed in a tutu was dragging an old car tire along the alley. In all likelihood, he intended to make a toilet out of it.
When I first moved to San Francisco, it took me three months to find a place to live. I eventually met Zoe, a lesbian and law student who had a room to rent out. We started living together in her hot pink duplex 2
A duplex is a house consisting of two sections united by one roof and side walls and designed for two families. – Approx. ed.
On Rondel Place. On one side of our nice house was a Mexican diner, and on the other was Esta Noche, a bar famous for Latino drag queens and blaring ethnic music.
As I walked along Rondel towards the train station, a man approached me, opened his coat and showed his penis.
-What do you think about this, sweetie? – he asked me, joyfully waving his dignity.
“Eh, guy, it could be better,” I replied. His face immediately darkened.
On high speed train I got to Oakland and only had to walk a few blocks to Westwind. View of my new workplace, which appeared to me after a ten-minute walk from the station, was amazing. I don't know what I expected from a funeral home (maybe I thought it would look like my grandmother's living room with several stoves), but the metal fencing made it look quite normal. An ordinary white one-story building that could easily pass for an insurance company.
There was a small sign next to the gate asking people to ring the bell. I gathered my courage and called. A moment later, the door creaked open and my new boss, Mike, appeared on the threshold. I had already seen him once and mistakenly assumed that he was completely harmless: a balding man in his forties, of average height and weight, wearing camouflage pants. However, despite his friendly khakis, Mike looked intimidating that morning. He looked at me intently from under his glasses, and his whole appearance spoke of how much he regretted hiring me.
– Good morning“,” Mike said in a quiet, expressionless voice, as if only he should hear these words. He opened the door and left.
After a few awkward moments, I realized that I should follow him: after entering the room, I turned the corner several times. A muffled roar was heard in the corridors, which gradually became louder.
We walked into a large warehouse where this roar came from: inside there were two large but squat machines, located in the very center of the room, like Tweedledee and Tweedledum of Death, made of corrugated metal. Pipes came out of them and went up through the roof. Each car had a metal door that opened upward.
I realized that there were cremation ovens in front of me. There, right at that very moment, there were people dead people. At that moment I had not yet seen them, but the realization that they were nearby excited me.
– All these cremation ovens? – I asked Mike.
- They take up the entire room. It would be strange if these weren't cremation ovens, wouldn't it? – he answered, going out the nearest door and leaving me alone again.
What is a nice girl like me doing in this place? No one in their right mind would prefer working with the dead to, say, being a bank teller or a teacher. kindergarten. Most likely, it would have been much easier for me to get a job as a bank clerk or a teacher, because the death industry was very suspicious of 23-year-old girls who wanted to join its ranks.
While looking for a job, I typed the words “cremation”, “crematorium”, “morgue” and “funeral” into the search bar.
When emailing me with my resume, employers responded (if they responded at all): “Do you have experience in the cremation industry?” Funeral homes seemed to insist on work experience, as if the skills to burn bodies could be learned from regular lesson V high school. I sent out hundreds of resumes and received many “Sorry, but we have found someone more experienced” responses until six months later I found a job at Westwind Cremation and Burial.
My relationship with death has always been quite complex. When, as a child, I learned that the inevitable end of the existence of any living organism is death, I was overcome by wild fear and intense curiosity. As a little girl, I would lie in bed for hours, unable to sleep, until the headlights of my mother's car lit up the driveway. For some reason, I was sure that my mother was lying somewhere on the road, bleeding, and at the same time, pieces from the broken windshield were glistening on the tips of her eyelashes. Despite the fact that the theme of death, disease and darkness literally consumed me, I still managed to seem like a half-normal schoolgirl. In college, I decided to stop hiding my interests and started studying medieval history. As a result, over the course of four years, I read articles with titles like these: “Necrofantasies and Myths: Interpretations of Death by the Indigenous People of Pago Pago” (Dr. Karen Baumgarter, Yale University, 2004). I was fascinated by all aspects of death: bodies, rituals, grief. The articles answered some of my questions, but this was not enough for me. I needed real bodies and real death.
Mike returned, pushing in front of him a creaking gurney with my first corpse lying on it.
“I don’t have time today to introduce you to cremation ovens,” he said indifferently, “so I’ll ask you a favor: shave this guy.”
Apparently the dead man's family wanted to see him one more time before he was cremated.
Next, I followed Mike as he wheeled the gurney into a sterile white room located right next to the crematorium. He explained that it was in this room that the corpses were “cooked.” He walked over to a large metal cabinet and pulled out a pink plastic disposable razor. After handing it to me, Mike turned and walked away, leaving me alone for the third time. "Good luck!" – he shouted, walking away.
As I noted above, shaving the corpse was not part of my plans, but I had no choice.
Coming out of the room, Mike watched me closely. It was a test of sorts to see if I could work under his strict sink-or-swim philosophy. I was new, hired to burn (and sometimes shave) bodies, and I might or might not be up to the task. Mike was not willing to give me any training time or a probationary period.
He returned a few minutes later and, standing behind me, looked at my work: “Look, you need to shave in the direction of hair growth. Jerky movements. Right".
When I wiped the remaining foam from Byron's face, he looked like a newborn. There wasn't a single cut.
Later that morning, Byron's wife and daughter came to last time take a look at him. Byron, draped in white sheets, was taken to the farewell hall. The lamp on the floor and the pink lamp on the ceiling softly illuminated his open face; it looked much nicer this way than under the harsh light of the fluorescent lamps in the preparation room.
After I shaved Byron, Mike, using some kind of funeral magic, closed the eyes and mouth of the deceased. Now illuminated by soft pink rays, the gentleman's face looked peaceful. I expected a cry to come from the farewell hall, something like: “What a horror! Who shaved him like that?!”, but, fortunately, this did not happen.
From his wife I learned that Byron worked as an accountant for 40 years. An organized man like him would probably appreciate a carefully shaved face. Toward the end of his battle with lung cancer, he was unable to even go to the bathroom on his own, let alone shave.
After Byron's family said goodbye to him, it was time to proceed with the cremation. Mike placed Byron inside one of the huge ovens and adjusted all the settings on the front panel with amazing dexterity. Two hours later the oven door swung open again and I saw the red embers that had once been Byron's bones.
Then Mike brought out a tool that looked like a metal rake and showed him how to remove the bones from the oven. As all that was left of Byron fell into the container, the phone rang. His call came through the speakers on the ceiling, which were installed specifically so that the phone could be heard despite the roar of the stoves.
Mike handed me his safety glasses and said:
“Finish raking the bones, I need to pick up the phone.”
When I took Byron's bones out of the oven, I noticed that his skull remained intact. I turned around to see if anyone, living or dead, was watching me, and then began to drag the skull towards me. As it approached the oven door, I picked it up: it was still warm, and I could feel its smooth but dusty surface even through industrial gloves.
Byron's lifeless eye sockets stared at me as I remembered what his face had looked like before it was on fire just two hours ago. I should have remembered this face well, given our client-hairdresser relationship. However, everything human that was in his face was gone. Mother Nature with “her cruel laws,” as Tennyson wrote 3
Many years ago, my uncle owned a funeral home and I worked part-time at his crematorium during the summer. It wasn't the most fun job, but it paid well, and as a poor student, I definitely needed the money. Working with corpses was very creepy at first, but after a few days I seemed to get used to everything... sort of...
One morning I was sweeping the floor of the crematorium when a black hearse pulled into the parking lot outside the building. A man in a black suit came out and my uncle approached him to talk.
After some time, he called me and told me to help him carry the coffin into the crematorium. I thought this was strange, because usually the coffin was first carried into the funeral home next door, but I didn’t ask any more questions.
We placed the coffin on the floor, and my uncle began to prepare the oven for cremation. For a few minutes I was left alone with a man in a black suit. There was an awkward silence. I didn't know what to say. I assumed that it was a relative of the deceased who was lying in the coffin, but the man did not seem too upset to me.
When the oven was ready, my uncle and I lifted the coffin and placed it on a metal bench. We removed the lid of the coffin, and I saw that the corpse inside belonged to a man who looked to be no more than 30 years old. Usually corpses were very pale, but this one seemed to have a blush on his face.
My uncle lit a fire, then pressed a button, turning on the conveyor belt. The coffin slowly went into the oven. Once he was inside, my uncle closed the door, and I just stood there and waited. It usually takes about an hour before the entire contents of the oven burn to the ground. After that, my duties included collecting the ashes and putting them in an urn to then give them to the family of the deceased.
My uncle and the man in the black suit headed towards funeral service. I assumed they went to fill Required documents. I was left alone in the crematorium and continued sweeping.
After about 10 minutes, I heard a strange noise from the oven. It sounded like a faint knock. At first, I thought that my imagination was just running wild, but then the knocking began to sound quite loud. I tried to convince myself that it was just metal being deformed by the heat.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
These were definitely the knocks of someone desperately trying to get out.
A chill ran down my spine and the broom fell from my hands. I was sure that the person inside was still alive. Frightened, I ran to the funeral home and, shaking uncontrollably, told my uncle what I had heard. Walking back to the crematorium with them, I told them to listen.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
“I don’t hear anything,” said my uncle.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Me too,” said the man in the black suit.
I looked at them, shocked and stunned. I even began to doubt my own sanity. The uncle and the man in the black suit shrugged and returned to the funeral home. And I just stayed standing in the middle of the crematorium and listened.
I didn't know how to safely open the oven door, but even if I did, I was scared of what I might find inside. Can someone survive after spending 10-15 minutes in a crematorium oven?
Gradually the noise began to sound weaker and weaker, until finally it disappeared completely. All I could hear was the hissing and crackling of the flames. No one else knocked.
An hour later my uncle returned to turn off the stove. Together we collected the ashes and poured them into an urn. The man in the black suit took it and, with a wide smile on his face, returned to his car and drove away.
: “I would advise not to exaggerate the difficulties associated with burial”
– Father Vladislav, why does the Russian Orthodox Church not approve of cremation?
– The negative attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards cremation is explained, first of all, by the fact that this method of burial is at odds with church tradition. There is also a certain theological problem here, because such a method of burial does not correspond Christian teaching about the Resurrection from the dead. The point, of course, is not that the Lord is unable to resurrect the cremated. But the human community is expected to respect the remains of the deceased.
– The Church does not categorically prohibit cremation, under the threat of excommunication from Communion, of those loved ones who decided not to bury, but to cremate the remains of their relatives. The fact is that there are different circumstances. There are difficulties. For example, in Japan. This, of course, is not the case for Russia, but in Japan there are also Orthodox people who belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. And there it is legally prohibited to bury the body. There is only one way, so to speak, of burial - cremation. Only this method is allowed by the laws of the country.
– What, in your opinion, are the reasons for the growing popularity of cremation in Russia today?
– I think there is a common reason. It is connected with the fact that traditions are abandoned and forgotten. After all, in Soviet time both believers and non-believers were still buried, as a rule, in the traditional way, that is, they were buried. Although, of course, there was cremation. It was advertised. Traditions are being abandoned today. Urbanization plays a role. Rural residents, who are usually the most traditional, are becoming fewer and fewer. If 50 years ago there were half of urban residents, now the connection with the countryside for the vast majority of compatriots is already relative, distant. Already grandfathers and grandmothers in the second and third generations are city dwellers. But, on the other hand, it would seem that the restoration of normal church life should have replaced cremation. However, we observe what we observe.
– Father Vladislav, what counterarguments could there be that would allow a person not to make a hasty decision to cremate his relative?
– First of all, it is necessary to remind about church teaching, about the bodily resurrection from the dead and about church traditions and rituals. The fact that although such a method of burial is allowed by the Church, in the sense that it is not subject to reprimand: those who themselves wanted to be cremated are not denied a funeral service, but, nevertheless, the Church does not bless this method of burial. We can appeal to the church and Orthodox conscience.
– Often, supporters of cremation in Russia cite the example of civilized Europe with clean, well-groomed and neat cemeteries, where there is no place for sad memories. Many people don’t want to think about bad things in a cemetery...
The cemetery should be a place of reminder of the most important things: death, mortality human life, about eternity
– The cleaner and tidier the cemetery, the better, of course. But this does not mean that the cemetery should not be a place of reminders of death, the frailty of human life, and eternity. It is intended to be a place of reminder of what is most important. One of the Russian thinkers of the early 20th century said that a cemetery is a school of philosophy.
These are still different things. Yes, in fact, both the roads and sidewalks in many Western cities (I would not say that in all, for example, Southern Italy is not that clean at all) are neater, cleaner and tidier, especially in Northern and Central Europe. Also, the cemeteries there are cleaner and tidier. But I don't think cremation predominates there. I think that the remains of the deceased are still more often buried there. Cremation has nothing to do with the cleanliness and tidiness of cemeteries. No matter how clean and tidy a cemetery is, it should still remain a reminder of human mortality and eternity.
– How can one react to the position of a person who supports cremation solely for financial reasons?
– If this is a non-religious person, then what can you say to him?! Only that in this case he also doesn’t care about traditions. Still, irreligious people are able to respect traditions. If he is a church person, then everything that we have already talked about should be authoritative and convincing for him.
– Father Vladislav, perhaps now your words are being heard by our readers who have lost their loved one and loved one, but who cannot decide between a traditional funeral and cremation. What advice would you give to people who find themselves in such a difficult situation?
We must do everything possible to ensure that church norms church traditions were respected
“I would advise them not to exaggerate the difficulties associated with burying a body in the traditional way of burial. And I would remind them that they have a duty to their deceased loved ones. And this duty still most of all relates to concern for the salvation of one’s loved ones and the deceased. Of course, we do not at all claim that salvation is not available to those who have been cremated. Not at all like that. But we, for our part, must do everything possible to ensure that church norms and church traditions are observed.
– There are times when mature and church-going Christians find out that one of their relatives has been cremated. And many are starting to worry about this. They worry about the posthumous fate of their loved ones. How can you calm them down?
“They shouldn’t worry, because in general any looking back, regretting that something should have been done differently than was done, is unproductive. They should only work hard. They are not to blame if this is done to them against their will. And if they themselves wanted it... Well, it was a sinful thought and deed. We must pray to God for the forgiveness of sins.
Keeping up with the times?
The ideologists of Bolshevism today could stand to applaud the data released by Mr. Pavel Kodysh, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoriums of Russia. Let us once again quote his comment to the Russian News Service: “In Moscow and St. Petersburg, 60% of the dead are cremated.” Today there are no banners calling for cremation, no one is forced from a high rostrum to burn the body after death.
The only restraining force that openly opposes the construction of new crematoria is the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, Metropolitan of Izhevsk and Udmurtia Victorin in July 2015 sent the head Udmurt Republic An appeal to Alexander Solovyov about the inadmissibility of building a crematorium in Izhevsk:
“It is with deep sorrow that I received the news of the construction of a crematorium in Izhevsk. This is not my personal concern, but the concern of all Orthodox residents of the Udmurt Republic,” noted Metropolitan Victorin.
To those who believe that the Church should make concessions in this issue, let us recall the words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' on this matter:
“Of course, we are talking here only about, for a human body buried in the earth also turns into dust, but God, by His power, will restore everyone’s body from dust and corruption. Cremation, that is, the deliberate destruction of the body of the deceased, looks like a rejection of faith in the general Resurrection. Of course, many who believe in the general Resurrection still cremate the deceased for practical reasons. In the event of the death of a person close to you, you will be able to perform the funeral service for him, but if you have the opportunity to convince him not to insist on cremation, then try to do it!
Here are the words from the official document “On the Christian Burial of the Dead,” which was approved by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on May 5, 2015:
“The Church believes that the Lord has the power to resurrect any body and from any element (Rev. 20: 13). “We fear no harm in any method of burial, but adhere to the old and better custom of interring the body,” wrote the early Christian author Marcus Minucius Felix.”
Even today, the Russian Orthodox Church considers cremation to be undesirable and does not approve of it.
Attitude to cremation in the ROCOR
ROCOR is uncompromising on the issue of cremation, prohibiting its children from burning the bodies of the dead in crematoria
Any person who familiarizes himself with the final document of the ROCOR Council of Bishops will see that the decisions of the Synod are principled and do not allow different interpretations. The document is distinguished by its uncompromising attitude regarding the cremation of the bodies of the deceased.
“Supporters of cremation are atheists and enemies of the Church. The Greek and Serbian Churches also reacted negatively to this practice. The cremation of the bodies of the dead is contrary to what has been established in the Christian Church from the very beginning,” the document says.
“Based on all the facts considered, the Council of Bishops prohibits the members of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia from burning the bodies of the dead in crematoria. Priests are obliged to explain to their parishioners the non-Christian nature of such funerals. They should not serve a church funeral service for those whose bodies are intended for cremation. The names of such dead Christians can only be commemorated at Proskomedia.”
The document examines in detail the question of how Christians can relate to the will of a relative who wanted to be cremated after death:
“It may happen that some Orthodox believer, out of his ignorance, instructs close relatives to cremate his body and then dies without receiving a blessing and without repenting of his intention... If relatives promised the deceased to cremate his body, then they can be freed by the Church from this unreasonable promises through the prayer established for such cases. The soul of the deceased after death, seeing the stupidity of his desire to cremate his body, will only be grateful to his loved ones for such a decision.”
The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia at the session of August 20 / September 2, 1932 on the issue of cremation of the bodies of the deceased decided: “In principle, the burning of the bodies of Orthodox Christians in crematoria is not permitted due to the fact that this custom is introduced by atheists and enemies of the Church. In all particular difficult cases, leave the decision to the diocesan bishop.”
Attitude towards cremation of the Greek Orthodox Church
The Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church stated in October 2014 that the Church will not perform funeral services for those who have wished to be cremated. The Church also considers it its duty to notify the clergy and pious people about the canonical consequences that come with the cremation of the bodies of the deceased.
- Cremation is not consistent with the practice and Tradition of the Church for theological, canonical and anthropological reasons.
- In order not to fall into theological and canonical error, it is necessary to respect religious beliefs and clarify the own will of the deceased, and not to comply with the will of his loved ones.
If the fact is established that the deceased allowed the cremation of his body, then succession is not performed over him.
Why is burning a reproach?
Saint Nicholas of Serbia: “Burning the body of the deceased is violence”
Some Orthodox Christians continue to sincerely doubt and wonder what is wrong with burning bodies, since the soul is incomparably more important than the flesh. For example, here is a comment from Anna, our reader, who is outraged that cremation is being questioned:
“It seems that everything just comes down to the opinion of the priests that the vessel of life must be treated with reverence. Is burning a body a desecration? After all, old torn books are burned, and even icons that are completely out of use. What is the desecration here? In my opinion, this is all “straining out a mosquito and swallowing a camel.”
These questions can be answered in the words of St. Nicholas of Serbia:
“You ask me: why is the Christian Church outraged by the burning of the dead? Firstly, because she considers it violence. To this day, the Serbs are horrified by the crime of Sinan Pasha, who burned the dead body of Saint Sava on Vracar. Do they burn people of the dead horses, dogs, cats or monkeys? I haven't heard about it, but I have seen them being buried. Why, then, commit violence against the dead bodies of people - the rulers of the entire animal world on earth? Is it really possible to burn dead animals, especially in big cities, can serve as a justification for burning dead people?
Secondly, because this pagan and barbaric custom was driven out of Europe by Christian culture almost 2000 years ago. Whoever wants to renew this custom does not want to introduce something cultural, modern, new, but, on the contrary, to bring back old things that have long since become obsolete. In America I saw the graves of great presidents: Wilson, Roosevelt, Lincoln and many other famous people. None of them were burned."
Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets on his attitude towards the remains
It is difficult to find statements by the holy fathers of the first centuries of Christianity about cremation due to the fact that at that time they wrote, as they say, “on the topic of the day”: the topics of their works concerned the emergence of various kinds of heresies and false teachings, while debates about the cremation of the dead had not yet acquired on the scale that we see today. But we can find out what the respected modern spiritual elders, many of whom are glorified as saints, thought.
The Athonite elder Paisius the Svyatogorets was told that in Greece “for reasons of hygiene and to save land space” they were going to burn the dead. His answer was simple and clear:
Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets: “The fact that they polluted the whole atmosphere is nothing, but the bones, you see, got in the way!”
“For reasons of hygiene? Just listen! And aren’t you ashamed to say this to them? The fact that they polluted the whole atmosphere is nothing, but the bones, you see, got in the way! And about “saving land”... Is it really impossible to find a place for cemeteries in the whole of Greece with all its forests? How can it be that they find so much space for garbage, but they don’t find space for sacred remains. Is there a shortage of land? How many relics of saints can there be in cemeteries? Didn't they think about this?
In Europe, the dead are burned not because there is nowhere to bury them, but because cremation is considered a progressive matter. Instead of cutting down some forest and making room for the dead, they would rather make room for them themselves, burning them and turning them into ash. The dead are burned because nihilists want to decompose everything - including humans. They want to make sure that there is nothing left that would remind a person of his parents, of his grandfathers, of the life of his ancestors. They want to tear people away from Sacred Tradition, they want to make them forget about eternal life and tie them to this temporary life.”
Instead of an epilogue
Recently I made a special visit to the Donskoye Cemetery. I looked at the closed columbarium. It is located to the left of the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov. The building was completely quiet. I didn’t see any living people. I caught myself thinking that I was not at all used to the fact that a grave could look like this: a pink wall, plastic flowers that would never lose their shape, and at a height of three meters a sign with the name and surname. And there are hundreds of such signs. I noticed a new wall: something like a massive shelf with glass doors. Apparently new, since many cells are still empty. They reminded me—please forgive me for this perhaps inappropriate comparison—of the compartments in the supermarket where you can put your bag. This was my first trip to the columbarium. And I hope it's the last one.
The first cremation oven in Russia was built in Petrograd, on Vasilyevsky Island, in 1920. The stove worked for only two months and was stopped for technical reasons and lack of fuel - firewood. From December 1920 to February 1921, only 379 corpses were burned. A crematorium began operating in Moscow in 1927 near the former Donskoy Monastery. In 1973, a crematorium was built in Leningrad. In the 70s, about 10 corpses were burned here every day. In the 90s, up to 50 dead people passed through cremation ovens every day. Today, 100-120 dead people are burned in cremation ovens per day.
The deceased usually arrive at the crematorium from the city's morgues ready-made - dressed, shod, combed, powdered... The deceased is placed in a coffin made of coniferous wood, covered with red cloth. Then the coffin with the body of the deceased is displayed in the mourning hall for funeral rites. It sounds in the hall classical music, within 30 minutes the relatives say goodbye to the deceased. If this time is not enough, then for an additional fee you can rent the hall for 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half... After saying goodbye, the coffin is covered with a lid and, by pressing a button, it is moved along the escalator to the basement where the cremation ovens are located.
On average, every tenth deceased person has gold teeth. Before burning the deceased, the gold crowns are pulled out with pliers. Some relatives (approximately 50%) take gold teeth with them and sell them to jewelers or dental technicians. Other relatives often refuse such an inheritance out of disgust. In this case, the crematorium workers draw up a special act in which they indicate the number of gold teeth and their weight. Once a year, the gold accumulated in this way (approximately one kilogram is collected) is sent to Moscow to the gold depository for examination. The gold vault evaluates the yellow metal and its value is transferred to the crematorium bank account.
After the “dental intervention,” the coffin is closed again with a lid and placed in line next to the oven. Initially, English stoves were installed, which worked for 10 years. Then they were replaced by Czechoslovak ones - they served for another 10 years. In 1994, 13 furnaces made in Russia were installed at the Aprelevsky pilot plant for thermal insulation products. But the domestic experience was unsuccessful. The furnaces were made without any automation, often failed, and the entire process of burning the body of the deceased took place manually: from setting the coffin on fire with a rag to the complete combustion of the corpse.
Recently the St. Petersburg State unitary enterprise Funeral Services put into operation four new Czech-made cremation ovens. Investments in this project amounted to 20.8 million rubles. The entire cremation process is automated. All furnaces run on natural gas. Information about the weight of the coffin with the body is sent from the cart to the computer, one of the three necessary cremation programs is selected with the mouse, and then the “OK” key is pressed. The coffin is guided into the firebox using hydraulic trolleys. Combustion takes place at a temperature of 850 degrees and lasts from 40 minutes to an hour and a half.
In Tsarskoe Selo in 1917, a crowd of revolutionaries dug up the coffin with the body of Grigory Rasputin, as is known, and dragged it to burn it. Vyborg side- to the place where the mansion of the “elder”’s friend and comrade, Tibetan clergyman Badmaev, had previously been burned down. According to eyewitnesses, when the boards of the black glazed coffin were burned, Rasputin’s body began to move. He stood up, waved his arms, tried to get out of the fire, but drowned in the flames.
In the St. Petersburg crematorium, we have not yet observed anyone trying to get up, giving signs that “this” should not be done, and asking to turn off the stove. We only saw how some of the dead had their arms lying on their chests straightened.
The so-called machinists-operators of cremation furnaces work directly at the furnaces. The men are 25-30 years old, do not drink, and most do not smoke. Mostly they are former athletes, which means they are strong-willed and weak-hearted and do not adapt to such work. Educational institutions does not exist for work in crematoriums. Personnel are found based on recommendations from employees working here. Usually they hire people who are qualified as gas-powered plant operators. Additional training takes place on site at the crematorium. The furnaces are serviced by 16 people, they work two days after two from 8.00 to 20.00. The only day off at the crematorium is New Year. Working in a crematorium is not considered harmful, but nevertheless they are given milk, 6 days are added to their vacation, and the salary is 8,800 rubles. If a crematorium employee dies, his corpse is burned free of charge. For 50 percent of the cost, deceased close relatives of crematorium employees are cremated.
After cremation of the corpse, the oven is turned off and switched to cooling mode. Then the oven is opened and the ashes are raked into a metal container, or, in other words, an ash pan. Nails and latches from the coffin are removed from it using a magnet.
Ashes weigh on average three to three and a half kilograms. One person made a very interesting remark when they gave him an urn with ashes. He said, "This is how it works. When we come into this world and when we leave, we weigh exactly the same."
Urns cost from 100 to 1000 rubles. The cheapest ones are made of hardboard, the most expensive ones are made of ceramics or granite. 60-70% of the ashes are poured into an urn, sealed hermetically, the surname, first name and patronymic of the deceased and the dates of birth and death are written on it.
Around the crematorium there is a columbarium (Latin columbarium, original meaning- dovecote, from columba - dove) - storage of urns with ashes after cremation. The St. Petersburg Columbarium is a concrete slab with cells (niches) on 4 floors. An urn is placed in a niche in the columbarium and the cell is covered with a slab, on which the surname, first name and patronymic of the deceased and the dates of birth and death are also written. Often a photograph of the deceased is installed. The urn with the ashes is located in a columbarium above the ground, and it turns out that this violates the Christian custom that the ashes must be interred.
But there is one "but". Columbariums were made in Soviet times, and, perhaps, for reasons of saving cement and other building materials, the cells for the urns are made very small; all the ashes will not fit into these niches, so they pour as much ashes into the urn as will fit in the cell. The remains of the ashes, under cover of secrecy, are dumped into a large common pit and then covered with earth. And in this case, it seems that the Christian custom is not partially violated: 30-40% of the ashes of the deceased are buried in the earth, albeit in a mass grave interspersed and “embraced” with other ashes.
There is a cemetery at the crematorium where, by paying an additional 2,500 rubles, you can bury an urn and erect a monument.
In cases where the deceased have no relatives or the relatives are no better than the deceased - they do not pay money for the funeral, they fall into the category of relatives. There were about 2,500 such dead people last year. They were buried by the state, if, of course, it can be called a funeral. The deceased's naked body is placed in a plastic bag and cremated without any funeral ceremony. On the territory of the crematorium there is a so-called Memory Field the size of a football field. The ashes of the rootless are scattered over it.
In just 29 years of operation of the St. Petersburg crematorium, about one million corpses were burned here. Great, famous, recognizable people very little. In the city on the Neva, about 65,000 people die a year. Of these, an average of 60 percent is burned. Cremation costs 3-4.5 thousand rubles, while burial in a cemetery costs 15-30 thousand rubles. "When you die, would you like your body to be buried or cremated?" - an NG correspondent asked the acting director. Director of the St. Petersburg Crematorium Evgeniy Kulinichev. “You know, I haven’t thought about it yet,” came the answer.
