Maxim Gorky's brain was taken to a brick building called the Brain Institute in Moskov. Hours after Gorky's death, doctors surgically removed his brain and placed it amongst those of Mayakovsky, Lenin, and other Russian political and cultural heroes at the Neurological Institute in Moscow.

The brain-cataloging continued all the way until 1989 when the fall of the USSR put an end to this peculiar experiment. Since then, the Institute remains open, but few reporters, Russian or foreign, have been allowed to visit.