People don't always want to talk about death, much less think about their own funeral in the future. But, as you know, the human body is not eternal, and the time comes when the relatives of the deceased need to resolve the issue of funeral. Modern funeral services are not limited to the generally accepted burial of a deceased person in a coffin, but offer several options for sending them on their last journey.

Increasingly, in modern society they try not to bury the body underground, but to cremate it. This process consists of burning a corpse in special ovens (crematoriums) at high temperatures over 1000 degrees. Under such conditions, even hard bone tissue becomes brittle and turns to ash. The tradition of burning bodies dates back to prehistoric times and is popular even today.

Cremation is chosen due to its convenience and practicality. In addition, some people are squeamish about the fact that their body will rot and be eaten by worms underground.

Crematorium

To cremate a body, certain conditions are required, which can be achieved thanks to a special Crematorium oven. Inside it, an incredible temperature is reached - up to 1092 degrees Celsius, which allows you to turn the body into a small handful of bones and ash. After burning, large bone remains are crushed in a centrifuge, if there is permission from relatives.

Modern crematoria run on gas, electric or special fuel. The entire cremation procedure for an average person takes about 2 hours, but it all depends on the characteristics of each body. For example, a person who suffered from cancer or tuberculosis during his lifetime requires more time for cremation. The same can be said about drug addicts and those people who often took various drugs.

To ensure that the resulting ashes are homogeneous, all remains are sorted and sifted. Metal crowns or dentures present in the body are selected using a powerful magnet.

How does cremation happen?

After preliminary preparation of the body, the closed coffin with the deceased is loaded into the oven chamber. Next, the automatic electronics of the device come into play.

1. The initial stage of cremation is the burning of the coffin. This process takes about 10 minutes. It all starts with the ignition of the walls of the coffin, which begin to disintegrate, after which the ignition affects all combustible materials. The soft tissues of the body begin to decompose when exposed to high temperatures (carbonization process).
2. Starting from the second stage, the furnace automation sets the temperature regime so that the destruction of the body occurs in certain sequences. The main thing is that these processes occur according to standard patterns, otherwise it will not be possible to achieve full mineralization of bone and soft tissues.

There are several factors that are taken into account when cremating each body, and thanks to which the required oven mode is set. These include:

• Age of the deceased.
• Body mass.
• The time that elapsed from pronouncing death to cremation.
• Features of the lifestyle of the deceased (habitual diet, drug therapy, presence of diseases).

These parameters are of great importance for crematorium workers, because the required combustion mode will depend on them. Thus, some factors provoke dehydration of the body, others, for example, leaching of calcium from bones, and all this affects the final result of cremation.

Processing of ashes

Burning is not the end of a complex process. Another, no less important stage of cremation is the final processing of the remains, because after the thermal effect of the oven, they remain in a heterogeneous consistency. The remains include ash, bone fragments and possible metal parts. The homogeneity of the ashes is ensured in the Cremulator - a special device for crushing the remains to the state of homogeneous ash, sifting out all that is unnecessary.

But many crematoria operate without this equipment, using old methods of processing ashes (crushing particles with a hammer and sifting the ashes by hand).

After cremation, the ashes of the deceased are placed in an urn and handed over to relatives, who dispose of them at their own discretion, or follow the will of the deceased.

What the law says

There is a certain law according to which ashes are released to relatives. After the burning of the body is completed and the remains are loaded into an urn, it is handed over to the close relatives of the deceased in a specially prepared room - a farewell hall, where a “farewell” ceremony is performed. But you can’t just get an urn with ashes, since it is issued only after the presentation of certain documents:

1. Certificate of death of a person.
2. Passport of a relative who wants to pick up the ballot box.
3. Conclusion on cremation (taken from the crematorium where the procedure was carried out).
4. Certificate of availability of a burial plot (this can be obtained from the cemetery where relatives plan to bury the urn). There may be several options:

• Burial in a separate area - burial of the remains after release by the crematorium can be carried out in a cemetery, similar to a standard burial in a coffin. The cemetery administration must allocate a site in advance and prepare a hole. Burying an urn does not require the same area as a coffin, so it will cost a little less.
• IN Lately began to practice burying ashes in existing graves of relatives. As stated in the laws, a free plot in the local cemetery is provided for one resident of a locality, but in reality, the relatives of the deceased always pay a considerable amount of money for this. If you bury the urn in a family grave, you will only need money to dig a hole, but if you need to change the monuments, you will again have to pay a lot of money.
• Urns containing ashes are often buried in the Wall of Sorrow columbariums. In this wall there are many cells in which an urn is placed and covered with a memorial plate with data about the person resting in this place.

Common traditions

Burying an urn with the ashes of the deceased is not the only option. For example, in many Western countries, many people leave trash cans for storage at home. For us, this may sound unacceptable and creepy; after all, it contains the remains of the deceased, but if this was the will of the deceased, then hardly anyone will argue with this.

Another tradition of saying goodbye to the deceased is scattering the ashes. Typical dispersal sites are meta-pilgrimages. But occasionally, fulfilling the last will of the deceased, relatives scatter the ashes over his native places. There are special services that scatter the ashes of a cremated person, which will deliver and scatter the ashes anywhere in the world.

The section is very easy to use. Just enter the desired word in the field provided, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Here you can also see examples of the use of the word you entered.

Meaning of the word crematorium

crematorium in the crossword dictionary

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

crematorium

crematorium, m. A building intended for cremation.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

crematorium

I, m. Specially equipped building for cremation.

adj. crematorium, -aya, -oh.

New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

crematorium

m. A specially equipped room in which cremation takes place.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

crematorium

CREMATORIUM (Novolat. crematorium, from Latin cremo - I burn) a building with special equipment for cremation.

Crematorium

(Novolat. crematorium, from Latin cremo ≈ I burn), a specially equipped building intended for burning (cremation) of the dead. The first K. was opened in Milan in 1876. The modern K. houses cremation ovens, a mourning hall for funeral rites, and other premises. In the area surrounding the urn, an area is usually reserved for the burial of urns and columbariums are built. In the USSR, the first K. was opened in Moscow in October 1927.

Wikipedia

Crematorium (disambiguation)

Crematorium :

• A crematorium is an oven for burning (cremating) corpses, as well as the building where such an oven is located.
• "Crematorium" - Soviet and Russian rock band

Crematorium

Crematorium- a furnace for burning the dead, as well as the building where such a furnace is located.

In addition to the oven itself, crematoriums usually provide one or more halls for the farewell ceremony, which can be either secular or include a religious ceremony.

Examples of the use of the word crematorium in literature.

Artemenko had a simple attitude towards the material side, he stole enough, there are no heirs, in crematoria no money required.

Crematorium in Balakovo there is no, and the burning temperature of red roses is too low.

On the way to crematorium Berger suddenly noticed Weber and Wiese walking towards him.

He doesn’t even know that a lot is already known about him: where he came from, where he fought, when he was captured, why he ended up in Buchenwald, he’s just moving away from the frightening thought that he’s being taken to a concentration camp, he’s just starting to get used to the dim halo of flame above the chimney crematorium.

Happiness, I think to myself, again or still, I should invite her, though now I don’t see her anymore, because we are already driving towards the Rhine, invite somewhere - direction to Hamm - maybe in cinema or to the theater, to see Grundgens, now it sends its greetings, the yellow brick building, yes, yes, invite, not necessarily to the theater, crematorium blows her smoke over the half-naked trees, and what do you think, Sister Gertrude, if only once, for a change?

Alexander Kayumov knew very well that the funeral company, which once belonged to Beloukh, was not working that day; he also knew that, in addition to the old man, he was a drunkard and also a stoker. crematorium, there was no one there.

The member of the underground Central Committee, to whom Rupp was traveling, was hiding in the pastor's house on Ludwig Klapp Street, not far from the cemetery near crematorium.

In Nazi Germany there were at least three special companies engaged only in design crematoria and construction of cremation facilities.

Near the village, smaller islands were visible: a wastewater disinfection plant, a waste incinerator, crematorium.

Having learned over time to process metals, they built wastewater treatment plants, waste incinerators and crematoria.

The level of performance fell, the corpses did not want to burn, blood oozed from the graves after they were compacted, in the summer the stench of burning corpses made itself felt even in remote areas. crematorium houses of the camp staff, but death, at least, always remained certain.

And if you behave badly, I’ll cut it on a circular saw and throw it in the oven crematorium.

And indeed, when the excited Clara, who worked at the opposite end of the chain from Beuys, brought news to Franz about the danger threatening Jon Scher, it turned out that this message should be delivered to Neckölln to a safe house in the area crematorium.

And it depended on what was written on the card whether you would fly into the air through the oven crematorium or get on the block and move on with life.

Waterhouse, having calmed down, takes a deep breath of smoke, exhales, and then, of course, he catches the smell of burnt meat and realizes that this concrete island, among other things, - crematorium.

A crematorium is a special building in which the bodies of deceased people are burned. For some this sounds scary, others consider this procedure practical. Some even bequeath to scatter their ashes in a place that was dear to them during their lifetime. There are many opponents of this method of destroying a body, because according to the Christian religion it should be buried. But in any case, everyone is free to decide for themselves what is more acceptable for the last farewell: cemeteries, crematoriums or other non-traditional burial rites, in accordance with their beliefs, religion and worldview. Modern technologies allow you to make the process quick and aesthetic.

How it works

A crematorium is a complex of services that allows you to say goodbye to the deceased with dignity. Relatives and friends invited to the ceremony should at least briefly familiarize themselves with how all this will happen, because many are frightened by the very thought of what they might see there. Often crematoria are located next to cemeteries. They have their own morgues in which they preserve the body of the deceased for three days. They also provide hair styling, makeup, and dressing services. In addition, they have halls for farewell, as well as hosts who will conduct the ceremony in a solemn atmosphere. After being said last words and flowers and bouquets are laid, the coffin is taken to the oven. Watching him go into the fire is not at all necessary, and not everyone will be able to withstand such a moral load. But there are those who, on the contrary, want to see everything that will happen to the body of a loved one, as if being next to him until the last minute. They are given this opportunity (there is a special window in the oven for this), but for a fee.

How do you get ashes?

A crematorium is not only a building, but also an oven where the body of the deceased is exposed to a stream of hot gas, the temperature of which reaches 900-1000 degrees C. It would seem that everything that is exposed to such thermal effects should turn to ashes. However, the bones remain intact. To obtain ashes for the columbarium, workers grind them in a cremulator. Then, mixed with ash from the oven, a special capsule is filled. With this method of “disposing” of the body, a “product” weighing 2.5-3 kg or a volume of 3 liters is obtained. The process itself takes place within 1-1.5 hours. Unfortunately, according to our laws, you cannot store the ashes of a loved one received from a crematorium at home. It is necessary to bury him in a special columbarium or bury him in the ground in a cemetery. In some cases, if permission from the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service has been obtained, you can disperse it in the chosen location.

Positive sides

A crematorium is a place for a dignified farewell to the deceased. For many people, it is psychologically easier to bury ashes than to think about what happens to the body of a loved one underground. In addition, in some cases, for example, if a person died in another country, cremated remains are easier to transport to the funeral site. Also possible long storage ashes is a big plus when, for some reason, you need to postpone the farewell ceremony for some time.

There is no need to fear that an unpleasant odor will appear during the cremation process. Nowadays, improved stoves are used, so that relatives will not even see smoke. In addition, the ashes are sterile, making burial a hygienic procedure. After all, sanitary services often receive complaints that harmful substances are released into the water and soil, formed during the decomposition process underground of bodies buried in cemeteries.

Is this acceptable

The Christian religion condemns cremation as a pagan rite. Therefore, in our country it is not as widespread as abroad. But at the same time, several crematoria were built, equipped with everything necessary. Also in these buildings, unidentified corpses or the bodies of those people whose relatives refused to bury them are burned.

For example, it has been operating in Moscow for 31 years. Address: 6th kilometer of Pyatnitskoye Highway. It is located next to the cemetery, has its own morgue and a hall for the farewell ceremony. This is a crematorium where prices are affordable and depend on what kind of coffin and funeral accessories are ordered. The economy option will cost only 18,500 rubles.

Some people do not want to know what will happen to their body after death. Others, on the contrary, want to be aware of everyone possible options to make it as comfortable as possible. Be that as it may, cremation is a dignified and, with the right organization, a solemn ceremony, which for some peoples is the only possible method of burial.

Every 10 minutes, the operators of the Minsk crematorium are required to open the valve in the furnace and stir the ashes of the deceased. They do this with absolutely equanimity, repeating that there is nothing supernatural in their work: “People are born, people die.” TUT.BY journalists personally observed the cremation process and found out why it is not customary to sprinkle ashes on your head while working here.

(Total 17 photos)

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Source: tut.by

In 2013, 39 percent of those who died were cremated.

The monumental red brick building, surrounded by columbar walls and cemetery graves, is not a pleasant place to work. The air here seems to be saturated with human grief. If in the 80s there were about 1,000 cremations a year, today their number exceeds 6,300. Last year, about 39 percent of the deceased were cremated.

1. The Minsk crematorium was opened in 1986 not far from the Northern Cemetery.

2. Unfilled cells in the columbarium - reservation. Relatives worry in advance about being “nearby” after death.

Deputy head of the crematorium Alexander Dubovsky explains the increased demand by the fact that, compared to a cemetery grave, a columbarium cell does not require special care. In addition, there are fewer and fewer places in the cemetery every year. And in the future, experts predict, the load on the crematorium will only increase. In Europe today, about 70 percent of the deceased are cremated, and in Japan - up to 98 percent.

3. Ritual hall

4. Those who have had the misfortune of visiting a crematorium know only its external side - ritual halls (there are three of them) and a store with the appropriate assortment (flowers, urns, tombstones, etc.). The cremation workshop and other utility rooms are located on the level below, and outsiders are not allowed to enter here.

5. The long and dark corridors along which coffins with the deceased are transported on a cart are connected to the ritual hall through a lifting mechanism.

6. With its help, the coffin is raised to say goodbye to relatives.

Ritual equipment operators - 5 people throughout the republic

Despite the specifics of the work, there is also “life in full swing” below. Strong-willed people work in the cremation workshop - with a tempered psyche and a healthy outlook on things. In official documents they are called “ritual equipment operators” - they are representatives of a rare, if not unique, profession in our country.

7. In the only crematorium in the republic, this work is performed by only 5 people - exclusively men. They themselves are sincerely surprised when their profession is called difficult or unpleasant. And then they remember that the morgue workers (perhaps the most experienced people in the prose of life) are also wary of the cremation workshop workers, calling them “kebab makers.” However, contrary to popular belief, there is no smell of either burnt or fried here. A cadaverous smell occurs occasionally - most often when a person dies at an advanced age and very quickly begins to decompose. On the day of our visit, we did not notice any unpleasant odors.

The work experience of the local stove makers is impressive. Both Andrei, one with a mustache, the other without, have been working at the crematorium for more than 20 years. They came, as they say, as young, strong, slender guys. It’s clear – with the expectation of working here temporarily. And then they “worked hard”, and now half their life has already passed within the walls of the crematorium. Men talk about this without a shadow of regret. They really seem quite happy with their situation. They say they don’t come face to face with the dead (dead people are cremated only in closed coffin and together with the coffin), and all the main work is entrusted to the machine.

Previously, “smoke was coming out like a pillar”, today the driver’s work is dust-free

The cremation process is now truly automated. The workshop has four fairly modern Czech stoves. In one of them, post-operative oncological waste is burned, and the rest is used for its intended purpose. According to Alexander Dubovsky, with the old equipment there was “a column of smoke.” Now the driver's job is relatively dust-free.

After a memorial service is served for the deceased, the coffin is transported from the ritual hall either to the refrigerator (if all the ovens are occupied) or straight to the workshop. Crematorium workers say that they are often faced with the idea that before burning, they allegedly take gold and watches from the coffin, and also remove good clothes and shoes from the deceased. “Are you going to put on the clothes of the deceased?” - Andrei asks the question point-blank, clearly tired of such conversations. And without opening the lid of the coffin, the driver quickly loads it onto the lift.

8. Now you need to wait until the computer gives the green light, and only after that you can send the deceased into it. The program automatically sets the required temperature (usually not lower than 700 degrees Celsius). Depending on the weight of the body and its condition, cremation takes from an hour to two and a half hours. All this time the driver is obliged to control the process. For this purpose, there is a small glass hole in the oven, which faint-hearted people are unlikely to dare to look into.

9. “You just treat it like this: you have to do it, and that’s it. And even at the very beginning I tried to think that I just threw the box. I used to work for one day. We should fear the living, not the dead.”

“If Ivanov came, it means they will give away Ivanov’s ashes”

The main thing, men say, is to do their work efficiently. And the criterion for quality work for a crematorium is the absence of confusion. In the words of the heroes of the article, “if Ivanov came, then they will give away Ivanov’s ashes.” For each deceased, something like a passport is created: on paper they indicate the name, age, date of death and time of cremation. Any movement of the coffin or ashes is possible only with this document.

10. After the cremation is completed, the data is recorded in a special journal.

11. “Here it all depends on the driver, how carefully he removes the remains,” Andrey continues the story. “Look how the deceased is raked out. There are only bones here, the organic part is all burned. And then the ashes go to the crematorium, where the remaining calcium bones are ground in a ball mill. And this is what remains of a person.”

13. Ashes ground in a cremulator

Andrey shows us a container with fine powder. If you don’t try to turn events back and don’t imagine what this person was like in life, you can safely work. The driver pours the ashes into a special bag and attaches a “passport” to it. Then the “powder” goes to the ashes collection room, where the organizers will pack it into an urn and give it to the customer. Or they won’t give it to the customer, because he simply won’t come for it. Although this is a rare case, it is regularly repeated. Urns can wait months for their relatives until crematorium workers start looking for those who ordered cremation and somehow forgot about it.

“The only thing that’s hard to get used to is child cremations.”

14. Every day, about 10-18 people are cremated in this workshop - with different destinies and life stories. The average age of the deceased, say the drivers, is about 60 years. Usually they try not to go into the reasons for their death here. But when it comes to children, even the stern “stove-makers” change their faces. And the worst thing, according to men, is when they bring a child one year or older. Fortunately, such cases are rare.

15. Rest room for tough men

— I remember, I raked the little one, and among the ashes there was an iron machine (it didn’t burn. - TUT.BY). So I dreamed about her for a long time. It's racing. You get up at night, shed your sweat, go to the toilet and think, how could this happen in a dream? The only thing that is difficult to get used to is child cremations. The first child who was cremated was a girl, she was one year old. Okay, there’s a newborn, but when he’s older... And you also see how the parents cry...

Money doesn't smell

Children are the only reason for stingy male sympathy. 22-year-old Alexander Kanonchik tries to reason dryly: “People are born, people die. What's the big deal? When he first started working at the crematorium, he was warned that people often come here for 2 weeks, and then they can’t stand it and leave.

16. In this matter, a very clear distinction between “work and home” is necessary, otherwise even an “above average” salary will not be able to calm you down. Machinists of ritual equipment earn about 7.5-8 million a month (approximately 27,700-29,700 rubles). “Money doesn’t smell,” the driver Andrey, who showed us the cremation procedure, hastens to remind us. Men are proud that recently dead people have been brought to them even from Russia. Rumor spread that “everything is fair” with them.

17. Saying goodbye to the crematorium

“Goodbye,” the crematorium workers say briefly. “We hope that we will meet you very soon,” we answer and happily leave this, albeit curious, but sad place.

- Well, old man, is it time to go to the crematorium?
“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 dead man 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 we would like, because last years More than once I had to participate in the farewell ceremony. 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 banned cremation under threat of death, 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 a big problem arose with the organization of cemeteries. In some churchyards, 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 cremation in the history of Soviet Russia, signed by the chairman of the Permanent Commission for the construction of the 1st State Crematorium and Mortuary, the manager of the management department of the Petrogubis Executive Committee, comrade, has been preserved. 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 of St. Seraphim of Sarov was converted into a crematorium. 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 recognized as an alien and unacceptable innovation in the Christian faith." 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 to allow the destruction of the body created by God." However, there is in Russian Orthodox Church and a lobby that advocates not making crematoriums anathema. Moreover, they say that the crematorium opened last year in Novosibirsk has been consecrated. And in general, recently there have been persistent rumors (which representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church have not confirmed) that the construction of crematoria in all major cities has long been agreed upon with the church authorities and there is a blessing from the Russian Orthodox Church at the highest 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. In order to bring all this into marketable condition, a team is needed hire seamstresses and shoemakers. So, in general, this is complete nonsense.” “What about the gold?” I continued. “Surely you take jewelry from the dead? Don’t let it go to waste...” But Ivan just waved his hand, saying, leave me alone.

And yet, where do the jewels go? In general, agents, when preparing documents for cremation, offer the customer to remove Jewelry. 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 crematoria first appeared in the USSR, in order to prevent the operator of the cremation furnace from stealing gold from dentures, wedding rings, etc. from the machines, 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 is 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 with harmful emissions, and also so 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, the employees of the ritual hall of the 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, as at the dawn of Soviet power, there is again intensified propaganda for fire burial. Even historical examples are given in favor of crematoria, 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, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Denmark... Cremation is presented as the most hygienic and environmentally friendly method of burial. 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.