The Study of Vladimir Lenin's brain

Vladimir Lenin was a Russian communist revolutionary and politician who played a key role in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He became the first head of the Soviet Union and served in that position until his death in 1924. Lenin's leadership and ideas were instrumental in the establishment of a socialist state in Russia and the spread of communism around the world. Lenin's death in 1924 sparked a debate among Soviet scientists and intellectuals about the nature of his genius. Some argued that his abilities were the result of his upbringing, education, and political experience, while others believed that they were rooted in his brain's unique structure. The latter view prevailed, and the Soviet government commissioned Vogt to study Lenin's brain.

The study of Lenin's brain by Vogt was conducted in the context of the emerging field of neuropsychology, which aimed to understand the relationship between brain function and behavior. At the time, the dominant theory in neuropsychology was phrenology, which held that the shape of the skull was indicative of a person's personality and intellectual abilities. Vogt, however, rejected phrenology and instead used the more modern technique of histological analysis to study Lenin's brain. This involved examining tissue samples under a microscope to identify any structural differences that could account for Lenin's abilities.

Vogt's study had a lasting impact on neuroscience. It helped to establish histological analysis as a viable method for studying the brain and led to further research into the relationship between brain structure and function. Today, the study of brain anatomy and function is a thriving field that has contributed to our understanding of cognition, behavior, and neurological disorders.

Building of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research

One of the limitations of Vogt's study was that it was conducted postmortem and relied on a small number of tissue samples. Additionally, Vogt's study did not take into account the possibility of functional changes in the brain resulting from environmental factors, such as learning and experience.

Despite these limitations, Vogt's study remains an important historical and scientific landmark, highlighting the role of neuroscience in understanding human behavior and the complex interplay between biology and environment in shaping cognition and personality.

The study and dissection of Lenin’s brain is directly attributed to the field of phrenology, the neuroscientific field developed by Franz Joseph Gall that examines the relationship between mental ability and brain structure.[5] The reasons behind dissecting Lenin’s brain was by no means a pursuit of Soviet deification of Lenin, nor was it a unique event; rather, it was due to the fact that Lenin was considered to be a genius and that his geniusness was identifiable within his brain structure.[6]

The historical search for biological roots of extraordinary brain capacity was of particular interest throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It built off of Franz Joseph Gall’s late 18th century idea that it would be scientifically beneficial to examine the brains of geniuses as mental qualities and faculties are derived from the brain.[6][7] In conjunction with the lifelong consideration of Lenin as one of the greatest geniuses of the time, the immediate action to examine his brain upon his death sought to provide insight on the relationship between intellectual capabilities and brain structure.[5] The expectation of the results of dissecting Lenin’s brain was that due to Lenin being a mentally extraordinary and gifted individual, his brain must be unique and identifiable as such within his brain structure.[5]

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov’s death occurred on January 21, 1924, in Gorki, near Moscow. On January 24, an autopsy was performed by Professor Aleksey Abrikosov, with 27 Russian pathologists and Professor Otfried Foerster in attendance, and his brain was examined.[1] Lenin's brain weighed 1340 grams and showed signs of degeneration, particularly in the left hemisphere.[8] Additionally, two areas of softening were observed in the right occipitotemporal border. The blood vessels above the corpora quadrigemina were congested with blood, and there were signs of hemorrhage. Abrikosov diagnosed the deceased with diffuse atherosclerosis primarily in the brain arteries. However, researchers have since argued that Lenin should have been diagnosed with neurosyphilis or, according to recent studies, with a mutation of the NT5E gene. Given the Soviet Union’s attempts to conceal Lenin's venereal disease as well as to hide his illness entirely, the diagnosis remains up for debate.

Neuroscientists Oskar Vogt and Cécile Vogt-Mugnier

Neuroanatomical research in pursuit of identifying intellectual genius had been a recurrent in Russian universities. Medical faculties collected the brains of medical professors and other notable individuals who had donated their organs for scientific research. Lenin “was considered to be the greatest of geniuses, and his brain was expected to be unique”.[5] Therefore, following his death, Oskar Vogt - a neuroanatomist from the University of Berlin - was requested to conduct histological examinations at the Brain Research Institute in Moscow.[5] The institute was especially established for Vogt to conduct analyses on Lenin's brain.[2] Between 1925 and 1927, Vogt conducted a comprehensive analysis of Lenin's brain, involving 153 pages, fifteen albums, and 30,953 brain slices.[9][10] Some of the methodologies adopted by Vogt included the “cutting, mounting, and staining in serial sections the entire brain” to obtain a “a minute parcellation of the cerebral cortex”.[1][5]  The most significant finding was an unusually high number and size of pyramidal cells in the third layer of the cerebral cortex. Vogt called these “association neurons” and were seen as confirmation of Lenin's supposed genius.[5]

On November 10th, 1929 Vogt presented his findings to high-ranking officials in the Pantheon Hall of the Moscow Brain Research Institut.[1] The abundance of pyramidal neurons was attributed to Lenin's exceptional intellectual and organizational skills as well as to his rigorous mental training and political activities.[5] Wilder Penfield wrote a letter to his mother in 1929, confirming the validity of Vogt's study on Lenin's brain. According to Penfield, during his visit to the Brain Research Institute in Berlin, he and other visitors were shown many large nerve cells in the third layer of the gray matter of Lenin's brain. The lack of reliable morphometric and statistical controls limited the significance of the cytoarchitectonic observations, but the finding of association neurons was sufficient to please the Politbureau without compromising Vogt's integrity or Germany's relationship with Russia.[1] At the presentation, Vogt emphasized the need for further comparative quantitative research including the brains of “elite” individuals, as well as those from diverse ethnic groups. Due to Hitler's rise to power, the changing political climate between Germany and Russia was now bringing an end to their cooperation on neuroscientific research. Vogt’s activities at the Moscow Brain Research Institute ceased and he did not proceed with the comparative experimentation. In 1937, Vogt was fired from the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research.[11]

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

Contrary to Lenin’s autopsy which found many irregularities related to his deteriorated condition upon the last years of his life, the dissection of his brain for the purpose of physically identifying extraordinary mental prowess was generally unreliable.[3][12] Today it is of general agreement among neuroscientists that broad concepts of genius or extraordinary mental prowess cannot be pinned down to physical locations in the brain.[3] Furthermore, upon the conclusion of the dissection of Lenin’s brain, there existed many indications expressing perplexity on the matter amongst the neuroscience community as well as regret within Vogt about potentially overexposing himself in his project.[3] This in turn brings the question of validity and acceptance to the project’s conclusions. Despite this, Vogt concluded his dissection of Lenin’s brain by exclaiming Lenin to have been "a brain athlete and association giant" with a heightened ability in his brain, a conclusion on Lenin still prevalent to this day.[3][13]