Nowadays, cemeteries are simply overcrowded, this is especially noticeable in large cities with a population of more than a million, so an alternative ritual service, cremation, is gaining popularity, because it is not only economically beneficial, but also more aesthetically pleasing. In large cities, crematoria are no longer a rarity, for example, the firstcrematoria in the Moscow region appeared back in the 70s, and now they are available in more than fifteen large cities of the country.

Benefits of human cremation

First of all, it is beneficial for the relatives of the deceased person, because they do not have to erect an expensive monument, purchase a high-quality coffin, and other ritual products, that is, the cost of cremation is more profitable than the cost of traditional burial of people in a cemetery. Also, cremation is convenient in the sense that you can bury the urn with the ashes anywhere, or simply scatter the ashes, as relatives often do. The fact is that cemeteries are not always reliable for burial, because they are usually located on the outskirts of cities, and since modern megacities are expanding rapidly, cemeteries are simply demolished, and residential complexes are built in their place. And of course, this service is aesthetically pleasing, because, unlike cemeteries, crematoria do not pollute the environment, so it is not surprising that in the Moscow region more than 50% of funerals are carried out in crematoria.

How is the cremation process going?

Cremation is the burning of a coffin with a body in a cremation oven specially designed for this purpose. This process is fully automated, because the coffin is delivered to the oven with the help of a special conveyor, inside which gas is let in, due to which the combustion temperature reaches 900 °C. At such a high temperature, the body of a deceased person burns out very quickly, and this is the main feature of this service, because at such a temperature all bacteria and microbes die. Further, the ashes are collected by the crematorium workers, and transferred to relatives, who have the right to decide what to do with it next. Many believe that cremation is not a Christian way of burying people, but this is not at all true, because our ancestors also burned the bodies of dead people at the stake. Often relatives refuse cremation because they want at least some memory of the deceased person to remain, a place where they could come, but not everyone shares this opinion, because most people do not want to rot underground after death.

The correspondent of "KP" found out how the dead are made up and how much the most expensive coffin costs

Those who, by misfortune, had a chance to visit the Barnaul crematorium, know only its outer side - farewell and memorial halls, a ritual store, a small temple and a columbarium. The entrance to the cremation shop and other utility rooms is strictly prohibited for outsiders. But not to KP correspondents!

Crematorium director Andrey Chumachenko arranged for the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" a whole tour of the mourning institution.

Andrei admitted that from the tenth grade he dreamed of working in the ritual business. And when he was offered the position of director, without hesitation, he moved from Novosibirsk to Barnaul.

Lots of controversy over cremation. Personally, I think that cremation is a more humane way than burial in the ground, our hero said.

The crematorium was opened in the regional capital in May 2015. Since then, about 200 people have been cremated here.

The range of prices for a complex of crematorium services - from

19.5 to 45.2 thousand rubles. The store, which is located at the institution, has a large selection of coffins, funeral linen, clothes for the deceased and other things.

The most expensive coffin here is a varnished cedar sarcophagus worth 124,000 rubles.

This one was bought last year by a traffic police officer who died in the line of duty in September, - Andrey noted.

It is impossible to cremate in such a coffin, only to bury (by the way, the crematorium also provides burial services - Ed.). Due to its large size, it will not enter the oven. According to the director, they mostly take wooden coffins. Their cost is from 2.5 thousand rubles.

Funeral linen is here for every taste and color.

There are budget sheets - hebash and satin - for 700 rubles, and more expensive options - for 3.6 thousand rubles, - Andrey said.

Two small pillows lying next to me caught my eye ...

These are children's, - the narrator explained. - Children are also cremated here, fortunately, rarely. It used to be that parents of stillborn babies turned to us. But due to the lack of certain documents, we cannot yet cremate them.

The crematorium has two farewell halls. The smell here is specific, apparently saturated with human grief. During the ceremony, the coffin stands in the middle, on the sides of it are soft comfortable sofas for relatives, there are others around the perimeter of the hall.

Soon we will install a spotlight here, which will highlight the area with the deceased with light, - Andrey said.

During parting, the lights are dimmed, the music sounds softly, as a rule, they choose the classics. There is a plasma TV on the wall where you can watch a film about the deceased. According to Andrei, no one has used this service yet.

But they ordered a video from the funeral. The deceased had relatives in Germany. Here we cut them. In the future, we are going to make it possible to watch the funeral online, - the director of the crematorium explained.

In order to get away from gossip that before sending the body to the oven, jewelry is removed from the deceased, there is a service in the crematorium - viewing the beginning of cremation. This takes 30 minutes. Relatives are behind the glass and watch as the machinist sends the coffin with the body to the oven.

Glass is armored, you know, death is always grief, so people can behave inappropriately, including hitting glass. We had such a thing, - the narrator shared.

Andrey said that they somehow cremated the deceased, to whom relatives from Buryatia came, as expected, with a shaman.

So they performed their rituals while watching the beginning of the cremation: they lit lamps, read prayers, - the director recalled.

The cremation oven was brought here from the Czech Republic. The price is about 18 million rubles. The operator controls it. At a temperature of 1100 degrees, the human body completely burns out in 1-1.5 hours. All this time the operator controls the process through a small glass window in the furnace.

By the way, there are things that cannot be put in a coffin during cremation.

From the experience of colleagues from Novosibirsk, I know that phones are put down, and other things. Therefore, before the body is sent to the furnace, the thanatopracticist inspects the coffin so that there is nothing superfluous. It happened that pacemakers were taken out of the "cores" - since these are also prohibited items, Chumachenko said. - After all, they have batteries that can explode in a fire and damage the stove.

After the furnace, the remains of the body of the deceased (as a rule, these are small bones - Ed.) are placed in the cremulator room. There, in a ball mill, they are ground into a fine homogeneous mass.

Then, the operator pours all the ashes into a capsule (it can be buried in the ground) or into a special bag, which is then placed in an urn.

Relatives choose the urn in advance. The most expensive here costs 33 thousand rubles. It is made from solid stone.

If the room with the stove is always warm, then the morgue is eternally cold. Even the doors here are heat-tight.

Preparing a body for burial in the ground and for cremation is not much different. Only during the cremation of the dead, as a rule, they do not embalm, - Chumachenko explained.

The dead women in the crematorium can be combed, made up. There is a whole set of cosmetics for this: foundation, blush, shadows, mascara, lipstick and more.

A temple was built on the territory of the crematorium. They enter it to light a candle in memory of the deceased. Today a candle burned here....

A priest is assigned to the temple. By the will of relatives, he can bury the deceased.

A bell is installed on the alley of memory. After the farewell procedure, relatives and relatives of the deceased call him, thereby paying tribute to the memory of the deceased.

Behind him is the family crypt of the founders of the crematorium. The large territory of the crematorium, 2.5 hectares, allows you to install other crypts.

A columbarium rises nearby. It is designed for 9 thousand urns. So far, there are plenty of vacancies. However, there are - reserved. These people made sure that they were cremated.

You can draw up a contract during your lifetime, it costs 1.4 thousand rubles, pay for a range of services and appoint an executor who will monitor its execution, the narrator explained.

After the death of the customer, you will not have to pay anything extra for his cremation.

So a man came to us and said: “In two weeks I have a difficult operation, I’m afraid that I won’t survive.” We made a cremation contract.

A separate building is reserved for cremation of animals and biowaste. There are two ovens here.

They bring cats, dogs, rabbits and even hamsters, - Andrey shared.

The cost of cremating an animal depends on the weight. The minimum price is 2.5 thousand rubles.

There are also urns for animals. I found them pretty funny. Although, according to the director of LLC "Vetrituals" Mikhail Serdyukov, sometimes the owners of dead animals are killed more than people.

Every 10 minutes, the drivers of the Minsk crematorium are required to open the valve in the furnace and stir the ashes of the deceased. They do it with an absolutely deadpan air, 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 one's head during work.

(Total 17 photos)

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

The monumental red brick building, surrounded by columbar walls and graveyard 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 dead went through cremation.

1. The Minsk crematorium was opened in 1986 near the Northern cemetery.

2. Unfilled cells in the columbarium - reservation. Relatives are worried in advance about being “close” after death.

The deputy head of the crematorium, Alexander Dubovsky, explains the increased demand by the fact that, compared with a cemetery grave, the columbarium cell does not need 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.

3. Ritual hall

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

5. Long and dark corridors, along which coffins with the dead are transported on a cart, are connected to the ritual hall through a lifting mechanism.

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

Machinists of ritual equipment - 5 people for the whole republic

Despite the specifics of the work, life is also “boiling” below. Strong-minded people work in the cremation shop - with a tempered psyche and a healthy outlook on things. In official documents, they are called “machinists of ritual equipment” - they are representatives of a rare profession in our country, if not piecework.

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 wary of the workers of the cremation shop, calling them "barbecue people". However, contrary to popular belief, there is no smell of either burnt or fried here. Cadaverous smell occurs occasionally - most often when a person dies at a respectable age and begins to decompose very quickly. On the day of our visit, we did not notice any unpleasant odors.

The work experience of local "stove-makers" is impressive. Both Andreis, one with a mustache, the other without, have been working in the crematorium for more than 20 years. They came, as they say, young, strong, slender guys. Of course, with the expectation of working here temporarily. And then they "worked in", and now - already half a life has passed within the walls of the crematorium. Men talk about it without a shadow of regret. They seem to be quite content with their position indeed. Face to face with the dead, they say, they do not intersect (deceased people are cremated only in a closed coffin and together with the coffin), and all the main work is entrusted to the machine.

Previously, "smoke was coming in a column", today the work of the machinist is dust-free

The cremation process today is truly automated. The workshop has four fairly modern Czech furnaces. In one of them, postoperative oncological waste is burned, and the rest are used for their intended purpose. According to Alexander Dubovsky, with the old equipment, “there was a column of smoke here.” Now the work of the driver 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 often come across the opinion that, allegedly, before burning, they take gold, watches from the coffin, and also take off good clothes and shoes from the deceased. “Will you put on the clothes of the deceased?” - Andrey asks a question in the forehead, who is clearly fed up with such conversations. And without opening the lid of the coffin, the machinist quickly loads it onto the lift.

8. Now you need to wait until the computer gives a "green light", and only after that you can send the dead person 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. To do this, there is a small glass hole in the furnace, which the faint of heart is 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 one day. The living should be feared, not the dead."

“If Ivanov came, then they will give Ivanov’s ashes”

The main thing, men say, is to do your job well. 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 would give Ivanov's ashes." For each deceased, something like a passport is made: the name, age, date of death and time of cremation are indicated on paper. Any movement of the coffin or ashes is possible only with this document.

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

11. “It all depends on the driver, how carefully he rakes out the remains,” Andrey continues the story. “Look how the deceased is being raked out. There are only bones, the whole organic part burns. And then the ashes go to the cremulator, where the remains of calcium-bones are ground in a ball mill. And that's what's left of a man."

13. Ashes ground in a cremator

Andrei shows us a container with fine powder. If you do not try to turn events back and do not imagine what this person was like in life, you can safely work. The machinist pours the ashes into a special bag and attaches a “passport” to it. Then the "powder" goes to the room for the issuance of ashes, where the organizers will pack it in an urn and give it to the customer. Or they won’t give it to the customer, because he simply won’t come for him. Although this is a rare occurrence, it happens regularly. The urns can wait for months for their relatives until the crematorium workers start looking for those who ordered the cremation and in some amazing way forgot about it.

“The only thing hard to get used to is baby cremations”

14. Every day, about 10-18 people are cremated in this workshop - with different destinies and life stories. The average age of the dead, the machinists say, is about 60 years. Usually, they try not to go into the causes of their death here. But when it comes to children, even the harsh "stove-makers" change their faces. And the worst thing, according to men, is when they bring a child from a year and older. Fortunately, there are few such cases.

15. Rest room for tough men

- I remember, I was raking a little one, and among the ashes there was an iron typewriter (it didn’t burn down. - TUT.BY). So I dreamed about her for a long time. Racing like this. You get up at night, throw off the sweat, go to the toilet and think, how could this be a dream? The only thing that is difficult to get used to is children's cremations. The first child who was cremated was a girl, she was a year old. Well, there is a newborn, and when he has lived ... And you also see how the parents are crying ...

Money doesn't smell

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

16. In this case, a very clear distinction between “work and home” is necessary, otherwise even an “above average” salary will not be able to reassure. Operators of ritual equipment dirty earn about 7.5-8 million per month (approximately 27,700-29,700 rubles). “Money doesn’t smell,” Andrei, the driver, who showed us the cremation procedure, hurries to remind. Men are proud that lately the dead have been brought to them even from Russia. The rumor spread that they "everything is fair."

17. Saying goodbye to the crematorium

“Goodbye,” the crematorium workers throw a short phrase. “We hope that we will meet with you very soon,” we answer, and we are happy to leave this curious, but sad place.

The section is very easy to use. In the proposed field, just enter the desired word, 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-building dictionaries. Here you can also get acquainted with 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. The 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. crematory, th, th.

New explanatory and derivational 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 lat. cremo - I burn) a building with special equipment for cremation.

Crematorium

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

Wikipedia

Crematorium (disambiguation)

Crematorium :

• Crematorium - a furnace for burning (cremation) corpses, as well as a building where such a furnace is located.
• "Krematorium" - 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 furnace itself, crematoria usually have one or more halls for the farewell ceremony, which can be both secular and include a religious ceremony.

Examples of the use of the word crematorium in the literature.

Artemenko treated the material side simply, he stole enough, there are no heirs, in crematoria money is not required.

Crematorium not in Balakovo, 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 comes from, where he fought, when he was taken prisoner, for which he ended up in Buchenwald, he is only moving away from the frightening thought that he is being taken to a concentration camp, he is just starting to get used to the dim halo of flame above the pipe crematorium.

Happiness, I think to myself, again or still, I ought to 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 theater, watch Grundgens, now it sends its greetings, yellow brick building, yes, yes, invite, not necessarily to the theater, crematorium blows its smoke over half-naked trees, but what do you think, sister Gertrude, if once, for a change?

Alexander Kayumov knew perfectly well that the funeral company, which once belonged to Belouh, was not working that day, he also knew that, in addition to the old drunkard, part-time 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 fascist Germany, there were at least three special firms engaged only in the design crematoria and construction of cremation facilities.

Smaller islands could be seen near the village: a sewage disinfection plant, an incinerator, crematorium.

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

The level of execution fell, the corpses did not want to burn, blood oozed from the graves after they were compacted, in the summer the stench of burned corpses made itself felt even in remote places. crematorium the camp staff's cabins, but at least the death was always certain.

And if you misbehave, I'll saw it on a circular saw and throw it in the stove crematorium.

And indeed, when the excited Clara, who worked at the opposite end of the chain to Beuys, brought Franz news of the danger threatening Ion Sher, it turned out that this message should be delivered to Neukölln to a safe house in the district crematorium.

And from what is written in the card, it depended on you to fly up into the air through the furnace crematorium or get on the block and get on with life.

Waterhouse, having calmed down, fully absorbs the burning, exhales, and then, of course, he catches the smell of burning meat and understands that this concrete island, among other things, - crematorium.

“As a child, 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. that they burn a living person. We ran away in horror. Then at night I was tormented by nightmares. But all the same, we were drawn to the window like a magnet ... ". I often think of this passage from my aunt's childhood memoirs. More often than I would like, because in recent years I have had to participate in the farewell ceremony on my last journey more than once. And often these farewells took place in the building of the crematorium.

About crematoria, about what happens in the building itself, where access to relatives and friends of the deceased is closed, there are many most incredible, chilling stories. 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 to be 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 graveyards, the dead began to be buried in large common graves, which were open for many days. Often cemeteries were located in the human habitat, which was the cause of the spread of diseases. The idea of ​​burning the bodies of the dead arose again. Starting from the XVI century. in Europe, funeral pyres began to be used for sanitary and hygienic purposes. However, the problem was to create a suitable method of burning - fires were not suitable. This method was invented only at the end of the 19th century. On October 9, 1874, the first hot-air cremation took place in a regenerative oven 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 operating 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 furnace. Probably for the cremation of citizens of the Land of the Rising Sun (at that time, many people from Nagasaki lived in Vladivostok). Today, a crematorium is again operating in this city, this time for the Russians.

The first crematorium in the RSFSR (the "Metallurg" oven) was opened in 1920 in the building of baths, house No. 95-97 on the 14th line of Vasilevsky Island in Petrograd. Even the act of the first cremation in the history of Soviet Russia has been preserved, signed by the chairman of the Standing Commission for the construction of the 1st State Crematorium and Morgue, the manager of the administration department of the Petrogubispolkom comrade. B.G. Kaplun and other persons present at this event. In the act, in particular, it is written: "On December 14, 1920, we, the undersigned, carried out the first experimental burning of the corpse of the Red Army soldier Malyshev, 19 years old, in a cremation oven in the building of the 1st State Crematorium - V.O., 14 line, 95/97. The body is pushed into the oven at 0 hours 30 minutes, and the temperature of the furnace at that moment was equal to an average of 800 C with the action of the left regenerator. The coffin flared up at the moment it was pushed into the combustion chamber and fell apart 4 minutes after its introduction there ". The following are details that I have chosen to omit so as not to injure impressionable readers.

The furnace did not work for long, from December 14, 1920 to February 21, 1921, and was stopped "for lack of firewood." During this period of time, 379 bodies were burned in it, most of which were burnt in an administrative manner, and 16 - at the request of relatives or according to a will.

Finally and irrevocably, fiery funerals entered the life of Soviet people in 1927, when in Moscow, in the Donskoy Monastery, a "department of godlessness" was opened, as the atheistic propaganda then called this crematorium. The monastery church of St. Seraphim of Sarov was converted into a crematorium. The first clients of the institution were trusted comrades - "knights of the revolution". In the columbarium, located in the temple, on cremation urns one can read inscriptions, such as: "Bolshevik-Chekist", "member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, steadfast Bolshevik", "one of the oldest figures of the Bolshevik Party". In general, fiery revolutionaries were supposed to have a flame even after death. After 45 years, another crematorium was built in the city - this time the largest in Europe - at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery, in 1985 - at Mitinsky, and after another 3 years - at Khovansky. There are also crematoria in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Vladivostok; On July 7 last year, a crematorium was opened in Novosibirsk.

Despite the increased propaganda, the citizens of the USSR treated this type of burial with distrust and fear. Partly (but only partly) this is due to the negative attitude towards cremation of traditional religions, because in monotheistic religions cremation is prohibited or at least not welcomed. Judaism categorically forbids the cremation of the body. Jewish tradition regards cremation as an offensive custom, dating back to the pagan practice of burning the dead on funeral pyres. Burning the body of a person is unacceptable in Islam. If this happens, the sin falls on those who committed the burning. The Orthodox Church regards cremation as an "alien custom", a "heretical way of burial". The Greek Orthodox Church stubbornly opposes the introduction of cremation. As stated by the official representative of the Holy Synod, Bishop of Alexandroupolis Antimos, commenting on a bill submitted by seven members of parliament that allows this ceremony for members of non-Orthodox (!) Congregations of Greece: "Cremation is an act of violence, an insult to humanity, an expression of nihilism ...". The overwhelming majority of Russian Orthodox priests are also categorically against fiery burial. “The burning of the dead may be a violation of the Church’s teaching on the veneration of the remains of the holy martyrs and saints and deprive Orthodox Christians of holy relics,” says priest I. Ryabko. “As for ordinary mortals, burning, among other things, deprives believers of that spiritual edification and reminder of death, which they receive when burying bodies in the ground. From this 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. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, voiced the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church: “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. prevent 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 the crematorium opened in Novosibirsk last year was consecrated. And in general, rumors have been persistently circulating lately (which representatives of the ROC do not confirm) that the construction of crematoria in all major cities has long been agreed with the church authorities and there is a blessing from the ROC at the highest level. Probably, the rumors arose due to the fact that priests work in all crematoria in Russia, who bury the dead 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, albeit with reservations, cremation was allowed by the Catholic Church.

But, I repeat, the reason for the cool (forgive the pun) attitude towards fire funerals is not only in the religious beliefs of our citizens. The main reason is the numerous horror stories that have been passed from mouth to mouth for many years about the "horrors" happening in crematoria. I, like many other citizens, have repeatedly heard that the dead are undressed, gold teeth and crowns are pulled out, coffins are rented out, and clothes taken from the dead are handed over to commission shops. At one time, Mikhail Veller's story "The Crematorium" added fuel to the fire, which describes how the employees of this institution 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 money and clothing lottery, drank to celebrate, and died. He was cremated (allegedly along with the ticket, which was in the pocket of the suit). A few days later the widow of the deceased went to the commission shop, where she saw her husband's suit. Of course, the same ticket turned out to be in her pocket ... By the way, as my mother told me, she heard this tale about a suit and a ticket (a bond with a big win) in her childhood, when Weller also 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 know the "whole truth" about what was going on there. An attempt was even made to get Ivan drunk (the name was changed at his request, since employees of the funeral services 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 supposedly taken from the corpses, he laughed: “Old man, how do you imagine it? to hire seamstresses, mechanics and shoemakers. So, or what? In general, this is complete nonsense. " “What about gold?” I persisted. “Are you sure you are removing jewels from the dead?

And yet, where do the jewels go? In general, agents, when they draw up documents for cremation, offer the customer to remove jewelry from the deceased. But if the relatives leave everything as it is, then the following happens during cremation. In cremation equipment there is such a thing - a cremulator. It is designed to grind the remains of bones after cremation. With the help of an electric magnet, all metal 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 oven from stealing gold from dentures, wedding rings, etc., control was established over the delivery of all non-magnetic metals to the state. All the metal that the fire did not take, the special commission was obliged to hand over to the state (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, when combined with the remains, turn into dispersion dust, from which it is almost impossible to extract anything of value. Of course, there is a possibility that the crematorium servants can seize valuables even before the deceased is sent to the furnace. However, until now, since the existence of crematoria, there has not been a single such 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 allegedly allowed "to the left", both my new friend Ivan and quite officials unanimously assure that the technological feature of modern furnaces is such that they cannot work without a coffin. In general, the process of cremation is as follows. After the coffin, which is boarded up or closed on the latches, gets into the domino drive, a metal plate with an engraved number is nailed, the coffin is sealed. If it is decorated with metal, plastic crosses, 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 end of the cremation, along with the remains, the number plate is removed from the ashes and the numbers are checked to eliminate confusion with the issuance of someone else's ashes (one of the common fears is that someone else's remains will be given out). By the way, in some crematoria there is a glazed viewing room for relatives and friends, from where you can watch how the coffin goes into the oven. Only one deceased can be cremated in the oven at a time; before loading the next one, it is carefully cleaned. Another interesting detail is that in modern crematoria, in order to turn on the furnace, you need to have a key with a cipher and know a special code.

In general, rumors about outrages in crematoria, as they say, are greatly exaggerated. However, the crematorium, however, like the entire sphere of funeral services, is a good feeder for those who work there. You can always steal extra money from the relatives and relatives of the deceased who are not thinking well from grief. So, for example, employees of the ritual hall of the crematorium - it seems they are called masters of ceremonies - are often asked to give "for candles", for "requiem", for "remember dearly the deceased" ... And people, of course, give. By the way, one of my acquaintances cherished the dream of getting a job in a crematorium, because she heard that they earn good money there. But she didn't succeed. It turned out that getting into this institution without patronage is just as difficult as it used to be to enter MGIMO without bribes and blasphemy. The amount she had to pay for employment turned out to be unbearable for her.

Today, as at the dawn of Soviet power, there is again an intensified propaganda of fiery burial. Even historical examples are cited in favor of crematoria, which show that the burning of the dead was the norm among many peoples, including the ancient Slavs. The countries where cremation is widespread are also cited as an example: USA, Japan, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Denmark... Cremation is presented as the most hygienic and environmentally friendly way of burial. But the point is not in ecology (in any case, not only in it), but in the earth. Cities are growing and demanding new territories. Cremation does not allow cemeteries to grow strongly and "capture" priceless land. But ordinary people, of course, are not concerned about all this, but about the cost of the funeral. Cremation is cheaper than regular burial. That is why in the last ten years the tradition of cremating the dead among poor residents of large Russian cities (primarily Moscow and St. Petersburg) is gaining popularity. Wealthier people can afford to pay for traditional funerals and land at the cemetery, while those who are poorer have to resort to fire burial.