The embalmed body of Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh popularly referred as "Uncle Ho" has been on show under a glass sarcophagus since 1975 at his towering tomb located at a stately mausoleum in Hanoi.
On September 2nd, huge crowds are expected to come out and view his corpse on his 50th anniversary, which also happens to be Vietnam's National Day.
Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died in 1924 aged 53, and was the original communist leader to be embalmed, starting a trend among hard-left regimes around the world.
His body is preserved in a mausoleum on Red Square, where he remains, attracting visitors curious to see the Bolshevik founder of the Soviet Union.
The Chinese revolutionary leader, also known as Chairman Mao, died on September 9, 1976. He was embalmed and his corpse on show since 1977 in a glass cubicle in the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Eva Peron, Argentina's emblematic first lady of the 1940s and 50s, was embalmed when she died of cancer in 1952 at age 33.
The bodies of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il are on permanent display at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun mausoleum in Pyongyang.
Their embalmed corpses rest in glass coffins on biers in separate halls suffused with dim red light, soldiers stand guard in each corner as a steady stream of visitors – foreigners are allowed and everyone must adhere to a strict dress code – bows before them three times.
Kenya’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978 and was buried on August 31, 1978 after the corpse had been embalmed.
He remains the only African leader to have been embalmed.
