What happened at Stalin's funeral. Stalin's funeral and other terrible stampedes in the USSR. How I saw off the leader on his last journey

Grigory Rosenberg, preschooler:
My grandfather - a former member of the former Society of Former Political Prisoners, an old Bolshevik, in whose illegal apartment Khalturin himself was hiding, the brother of some former bigwig in the State Bank of the USSR - sighed heavily and said very sadly:

Mom was so shocked by this sacrilege that at first she was simply speechless. And then, without looking back, through gritted teeth she ordered me to leave the room. Of course, I left, but I remembered my grandfather’s words very well.

Vladimir Sperantov, student: The conversations in the first days were like this: whoever speaks the funeral eulogy will do so. Then everyone noted: it was Beria who spoke! After the mausoleum, when the actual funeral took place; This was discussed at home too. But the official successor, not a party one, was Malenkov, and then, a few days later, they somehow began to say that Malenkov, at the very first meeting of the Central Committee or the Politburo, when everyone clapped, said: no, I’m not a ballerina, please, so that there was no more. And we realized that the style began to change.

The recently opened archives of the Security Service of Ukraine contain non-public and previously unknown testimony from contemporaries about Stalin’s death, captured by employees of the USSR Ministry of State Security:
Worker of the Kharkov breeding station Krivoshey, 67 years old, non-partisan; Deputy secretary of the party organization "Glavelektrosbyt" in Kharkov Kaganovich, 60 years old, and doctor of the Zhitomir regional hospital Guzman, nervously shocked by the news of the death of Comrade Stalin, suddenly died while speaking at rallies.

On the night of March 7th. in the village Ostashevtsy, Zborovsky district, Ternopil region, two flags and a portrait of Comrade Stalin were stolen from a school building and a store, which the task force found with traces of mockery of them. The criminals are local residents Kvasnitsky, born in 1935, works in a construction crew at railway, and Popovich, born in 1934, who were detained and confessed to the crime. An investigation is underway.

March 6, at 20:40, 2nd year cadet of the Odessa Naval medical school Fedorov, born in 1934, after being criticized for reading a book at a funeral meeting, saying that “I am not indifferent and not an enemy,” ran out into the street and, despite the measures taken, threw himself under a passing tram and was killed.

On March 6, a 7th grade student at Lvov Secondary School No. 50 Ogorinskaya, a Jew, during preparations for the funeral meeting, in response to the regret expressed by student Kiyashko about the premature death of Comrade Stalin, said: “That’s where he belongs.” Outraged by this statement, a group of students in the class beat Ogorinskaya.

Agent "Worker", citizen Terekhova N.E. reported that a worker from plant No. 446, Aleksei Mitrofanovich Berenko, came to her apartment and asked Terekhova if she cried when she heard about the death of Comrade Stalin, and when Terekhova, in turn, asked Berenko if he had cried, Berenko replied:

“Yes, I cried when I went to bed, because he /Stalin/ had not died before.”

The director of the store in the city of Stanislav Kotlyarsky, a member of the CPSU, a Jew, at the end of his speech at the funeral meeting of city trade workers, said: “Our beloved dear enemy.”

At a funeral meeting in Kherson City Hospital No. 2, the secretary of the party organization Rosenblat ended his speech with a cry of “Hurray.”

Exactly half a century has passed since Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum. And all this time, the event, significant for the whole country, was shrouded in a dark secret. The time has come not just to remember it, but to restore everything in detail. Down to the smallest detail. And finally find out why the embalmed remains of the Secretary General were reburied under the cover of darkness in an atmosphere of special secrecy? Who and how decided to touch the body of the tyrant, whom they never ceased to fear even after death? And most importantly, to what madness were those who bowed to the leader ready to reach? We have at our disposal grandiose projects to perpetuate the memory of the Secretary General. The projects are incredible, sometimes even absurd. Among them is the construction of the Stalin Pantheon in the Kremlin. With its height, the necropolis-memorial would have eclipsed the bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Spasskaya Tower. What it was supposed to become - today you can see it for the first time.

Why wasn't Stalin buried next to his wife?

Joseph Stalin was buried in the Mausoleum in March 1953. Before this, his body was embalmed using the same technology as Lenin’s body. The remains of the Secretary General were also placed next to Vladimir Ilyich. Both leaders lay on the same pedestal in the Mausoleum for almost 8 years. Stalin was reburied on October 31, 1961.

To be honest, throwing a bridge back half a century was not easy. None of the direct participants in the events of this day lived to this day. But there is archival documents, eyewitness accounts, including those preserved only on tape recordings and still not transcribed on paper. Now is the time to declassify them. But first, a little history.

The idea of ​​Stalin’s reburial was born at the party congress, which took place from October 17 to October 31, 1961, says Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Sergei Devyatov. - But by this moment the ground, as they say, was already prepared. Even at the 20th Congress, Khrushchev voiced a document entitled “On overcoming the personality cult of Stalin and its consequences.” By the way, the reason for the tense relations between the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties of China and Albania was precisely the criticism of Stalin’s personality cult. And at that very congress, a certain Spiridonov, the first secretary of the Leningrad party organization, spoke. So he, in fact, voiced the idea of ​​removing Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum. And an appropriate decision was immediately made.

A burial commission was created, which included the first secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia Vasily Mzhavanadze, the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU (future minister of culture) Pyotr Demichev, the chairman of the KGB Alexander Shelepin (he was called “iron Shurik”). Nikolai Shvernik (head of party control) became the chairman of the commission. The Kremlin regiment was assigned to deal with all technical issues. The commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, General Vedenin, received a command “from above” to begin preparing the burial procedure without delay.

From the memoirs of the commander of a separate regiment, Fyodor Konev:

“At exactly noon on October 31, I was called to the government building and told to prepare a company for Stalin’s reburial at the Novodevichy cemetery. At first they were going to rebury it there, next to my wife.”

13.00. Within an hour, another decision was made - to bury Stalin near the walls of the Kremlin. Members of the Politburo seemed to be afraid that at the Novodevichy graveyard the General Secretary might... be dug up and stolen by admirers. After all, there is no proper security at the cemetery.

14.00–17.00. A grave two meters deep was dug right behind the Mausoleum. Its bottom and walls were laid with 10 reinforced concrete slabs, each measuring 1 meter by 80 cm. At the same time, the commandant of the Mausoleum was given the command to prepare the body for removal from the sarcophagus.

The coffin was prepared in advance, says Devyatov. - The most common one. High-quality, solid, but not made of valuable wood and without any inlay with precious metals. They covered him with red cloth.

17.30–21.00. Preparing the body for reburial. They decided not to change Stalin’s clothes, so he remained in the same uniform. True, the gold embroidered shoulder straps of the Generalissimo were removed from the jacket and the Star of the Hero of the USSR was taken away. They are still preserved. The buttons on the uniform were also replaced. But the talk about a smoking pipe being placed in the coffin is just a tale. According to eyewitnesses, there was nothing there. Stalin was transferred from the sarcophagus to the coffin by four soldiers. Everything was done quickly, carefully and extremely correctly.

22.00. The coffin was closed with a lid. But then an incident arose - in the haste, they completely forgot about the nails and hammer. The military ran to get the instrument - and twenty minutes later they finally nailed the coffin shut.

22.30–23.00. 8 officers carried out the coffin with Stalin's body. A funeral procession of two dozen people proceeded to the dug grave. There were no relatives or friends of Stalin among those present. The coffin was lowered into the grave on ropes. According to Russian custom, some threw in a handful of earth. After a short pause, the military buried the grave - in silence, without volleys or music. Although they were preparing the body for reburial to the sound of drums, a parade rehearsal was taking place on Red Square. By the way, thanks to this we managed to avoid curious spectators (the entire area was blocked off).

23.00–23.50. A funeral table was prepared for the members of the burial commission. According to the unpublished recollections of one of the then members of the Politburo, it was in a small building behind the Mausoleum (there is a kind of passage room there). Immediately after the grave was buried, everyone was invited there. Cognac, vodka and jelly stood between various snacks. Not everyone touched the table. Someone left defiantly. Someone was crying in the corner.

1.00–2.00. The servicemen covered the grave with a white stone slab, where the name and year of birth were written - 1879. By the way, the year of birth was indicated incorrectly - and this error was not corrected. In reality, Joseph Vissarionovich was born in 1878.

We saw his metrics, where exactly the year 78 appears, say expert historians. - But there is no question of any mistake. Stalin deliberately wrote off a year and a month for himself. Interesting fact, isn't it? He alone can say a lot about a person.

Somewhere between 2.00 and 6.00. The inscription above the entrance to the Mausoleum is replaced by another. There was a whole story about her. Even on the first day of Stalin’s “movement” into the Mausoleum, it was decided to immediately paint over the letters “LENIN” with black (granite-like) paint. To be more similar to natural stone There were bluish “sparkles” interspersed in the paint. And a new inscription “STALIN LENIN” was placed on top. But the first rains and cold weather did their job - the paint began to wear off, and the original letters treacherously appeared above the Mausoleum. Then they decided to completely replace the slab with the inscription. For your information, it weighs 40 tons. And this is not just a slab - it also served as a support for the railings of the stands located on top of the Mausoleum. The Kremlin commandant instructed the commandant of the Mausoleum, Mashkov, to take the old slab to the Golovinskoye cemetery and cut it... into monuments. But he took it and disobeyed. The stove was taken on his personal instructions not to the churchyard, but to the factory. There it lay untouched until the moment when Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum. The factory workers said that the hand did not rise to break it. And who knows? And they turned out to be right. The old stove was returned to its original place, and the one with the inscription “STALIN LENIN” was taken to the same factory. It is still kept there. You never know...

On the morning of November 1, a huge line lined up at the Mausoleum. Many were surprised not to see Stalin inside. The military personnel standing at the entrance to the Mausoleum and in the premises were constantly approached and asked: where is Joseph Vissarionovich? The employees patiently and clearly explained what their superiors told them to do. Of course, there were visitors who were outraged when they learned that the body was interred. They say, how is it possible - why didn’t they ask the people? But the vast majority took the news completely calmly. One might even say indifferent...

How Georgia was almost renamed in honor of Stalin

The fact that the removal of the body of the Secretary General from the Mausoleum did not cause a stir is, in principle, understandable and explainable. Unlike what happened immediately after his death. When Stalin first died, people seemed to go crazy, making proposals to perpetuate his name. I have unique documents in front of me. They have never been published anywhere. When you read them, it seems like this is some kind of joke. But scientists, ministers, architects and other intelligent people cannot offer SUCH!

It was planned to build an entire district in Moscow “In Memory of Comrade STALIN”. It was supposed to have a Stalin Museum, the Stalin Academy of Social Sciences, a sports center for 400 thousand people (that is, several times larger than Luzhniki) and a number of other buildings.

“Central Committee of the CPSU Central Committee to Comrade Malenkov. The area “In Memory of Comrade Stalin” should become a concentration of displaying the most advanced science and technology in the world, the best achievements of all types of arts, a meeting place at world congresses, meetings, conferences, competitions and festivals of the best people of our country with the working people of the whole world. Everything built in the area “In Memory of Comrade Stalin” should be built to last, according to best projects, one of the most the best materials, the most advanced, perfect methods."

And also, judging by the document, this should be a nationwide construction project - and the main contribution (20–25 billion rubles) would have to be collected by the country's workers. It was planned to hand over the area by December 21, 1959, on the eightieth birthday of the Secretary General. And, by the way, it would be located in the South-Western District, directly adjacent to Moscow State University. Moskovsky himself state university would bear the name not of Lomonosov, but of Stalin.

In general, there are about 40 items on the list. Just look at the proposal to rename the Leningradskoye Highway in honor of Stalin. They also wanted to call the Soviet Army “after Comrade Stalin.” Point 23 states that the Georgian SSR will be renamed into the Stalin SSR. If they had done this then, it would clearly be more difficult for Georgia today to seek support abroad. But seriously, the list of absurd projects can be supplemented with the idea of ​​moving March 8th to another day (the Secretary General died on the 5th, and the whole week after this date would be considered mourning, and March 9th would be the day of remembrance of Stalin). Less ambitious proposals include the establishment of the Order of Stalin or the writing of an oath in honor of the leader, which every worker would take, the creation of the Stalin region in Uzbekistan (at the expense of certain districts of the Tashkent and Samarkand regions)... But this is already so, “little things”.

This is what Stalin's pantheon in the Kremlin might have looked like:

Necropolis of Stalin

If all these proposals were simply discussed (of course, in all seriousness), then the construction of Stalin’s pantheon was practically a resolved issue. If the idea had required less significant effort and Khrushchev had not come to power, I assure you, now there would be a Stalinist necropolis in the center of Moscow. The corresponding resolution of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was even signed, after which the best architects of the country got to work.

Three versions of the pantheon project were developed. According to one of them, the building was supposed to be installed on the site of GUM, just opposite the Mausoleum.

“The size of the area enclosed by walls is 200x165 m, the walls are erected in two rows and are used for burials. In this case, the building is round with two rows of columns and a platform for the leaders of the Party and the Government. Under the stands there are two floors with an area of ​​about 2000 square meters. meters for the museum. It will be necessary to move, move or dismantle the building of the Historical Museum, which crowds the site and does not allow a wide passage.”

The Pantheon would look like a huge rotunda with a dome. The entire building from the outside would be surrounded by two rows of slender granite columns.

I quote the architect Ionov: “In terms of its architectural and color expressiveness, the building must be maintained in strict forms, the color of the walls and columns is dark, but cheerful, speaking of the victorious march of communism (dark red granites and marbles or dark gray with inlay decoration from different stones flowers and metal)".

It was also planned to decorate the pantheon with ceramics and bronze. The dome would be covered with durable scaly materials, and the spire... with pure gold. On the spire - of course - there would be a red ruby ​​star!

"Approximate calculations of the total cost of construction of the Pantheon:

a) territory 90,000 sq. m for 200 rub. sq. meter

90,000 x 200 = 18 million rubles.

b) wall 400 x 15 = 6000 sq. m for 1500 rub. sq. meter

1500 x 6000 = 90 million rubles.

c) a building of about 150,000 cubic meters. m for 1000 rubles. for 1 cubic m

1000 x 150000 = 150 million rubles.

G) finishing work 22 million rubles.

Total 280 million rubles.”

For your information, Stalin’s body would have been transferred to the pantheon, and in the future all famous personalities would have been buried there. Moreover, the leaders and leaders of the party, members are in sarcophagi, and others of lower rank are in urns. By the way, the pantheon would have a volume of 250–300 thousand cubic meters.

Another version of the project (the Central Committee was more inclined towards it) involved the construction of a pantheon behind the “mergs” - in the Kremlin itself in the south-eastern part, on the left side at the entrance through the Spasskaya Tower. In this case, it would be much smaller in size (should not exceed 100 thousand cubic meters). Well, and, accordingly, only the leaders would rest there.

The pantheon project (fortunately or unfortunately, as you wish) remained on paper. And Stalin still rests at the Kremlin wall. There is talk among scientists that the body is still in good condition. However, not once in 50 years has it occurred to any of the state leaders to exhume the remains of the Secretary General. Some are even convinced that it is impossible to open Stalin’s grave without consequences for the entire country. And they draw an analogy with Tamerlane’s grave - according to legend, it was because it was opened that the Second World War began.

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Parting

Leaders of the Party and Government at the tomb of I.V. Stalin. Column Hall of the House of Unions March 6, 1953. L.P. Beria’s face is blurred out in the photo.

As a farewell, Stalin's body was exhibited on March 6 in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. From 16:00 the first streams of people came who wanted to say goodbye to Stalin.

Stalin lay in a coffin, on a high pedestal, framed by red banners, roses and green branches. He was wearing his favorite everyday uniform of a grayish-green color with a turn-down collar, onto which the general's overcoat buttonholes were sewn. It differed from the lifetime uniform only in the sewn shoulder straps of the generalissimo and gold buttons. In addition to the order bars, the “Golden Star” and “Hammer and Sickle” medals were attached to the tunic (although Stalin wore only the latter during his lifetime).

Crystal chandeliers with electric candles were covered in black crepe. Sixteen scarlet velvet panels, bordered with black silk, with the coats of arms of the Union republics are fixed on white marble columns. A giant USSR banner was bowed over Stalin's head. In front of the coffin, on the atlas, lay the Marshal's Star, orders and medals of Stalin. Funeral melodies of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Mozart were played.

Residents of Moscow and other cities, representatives of various enterprises, institutions, Armed Forces. Near the coffin of I.V. Stalin in a guard of honor were the leaders of the CPSU and the government: G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria, V. M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, N. S. Khrushchev, N. A. Bulganin, L. M. Kaganovich, A. I. Mikoyan.

On the streets of Moscow, floodlights mounted on trucks were turned on; they illuminated the squares and streets along which columns of thousands of people were moving towards the House of Unions.

At night, the streets of Moscow were full of those who were waiting for their turn to say goodbye. The doors of the House of Unions were opened early in the morning, while it was still dark, and farewells in the Hall of Columns resumed. In addition to Soviet citizens, representatives of many other countries took part in the ceremony.

The Chinese delegation brought wreaths from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Tse-tung. The honor guard included Chou En-lai, Clement Gottwald, Boleslav Bierut, Matthias Rakosi, Vylko Chervenkov, George Georgiu-Dej, Palmiro Togliatti, Walter Ulbricht, Otto Grotewohl, Dolores Ibarruri, Harry Pollitt, Johann Koplenig, Ville Pessi, Pietro Nenni, Yumzhagiin Tsedenbal. Also standing at the coffin were Prime Minister of Finland Urho K. Kekkonen and Chairman of the All-India Peace Council Saifuddin Kitchlu.

The farewell lasted for three days and three nights. Around midnight on March 8, the farewells stopped and preparations for the funeral began. At 2 a.m., numerous wreaths began to be brought out. Since it was decided to carry only 100 wreaths from the country’s leadership, the largest party organizations, foreign communist parties and relatives behind the coffin, the remaining wreaths, the number of which numbered in the thousands, were installed by morning on both sides of the Mausoleum.

March 9 - funeral day

Marshals and generals carried Stalin's awards on satin pillows: the Marshal's Star (Marshal S. M. Budyonny), two Orders of Victory (Marshals V. D. Sokolovsky and L. A. Govorov), three Orders of Lenin (Marshals I. S. Konev, S. K. Timoshenko, R. Y. Malinovsky), three Orders of the Red Banner (Marshals K. A. Meretskov, S. I. Bogdanov and Colonel General Kuznetsov), Order of Suvorov, 1st degree (Army General Zakharov). The medals were carried by Vice Admiral V. A. Fokin, Air Marshal K. A. Vershinin, Army General I. Kh. Bagramyan, Colonel General M. I. Nedelin and K. S. Moskalenko.

Following the coffin were members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, then family, members and candidates for membership of the Central Committee, deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, heads of delegations of fraternal communist parties and an honorary military escort.

At 10:45 a.m. the coffin was removed from the carriage and placed on a red pedestal in front of the Mausoleum. Preparations for the rally began (the participants ascended to the podium of the Mausoleum). The workers of Moscow, delegations of union and autonomous republics, territories and regions gathered on the square; representatives of China, people's democracies, delegations and representatives of other states were also present.

The Chairman of the Commission for organizing Stalin's funeral N. S. Khrushchev, who opened the meeting, gave the floor to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee G. M. Malenkov. The following speech was made by the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR L.P. Beria. Then the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR V. M. Molotov made a speech.

At 11:54 a.m., Khrushchev declared the funeral meeting closed. Gheorghe Georgiu-Dej, Boleslav Berut, Pach Dem Li, Walter Ulbricht, Dolores Ibarruri, Otto Grotewohl, Vylko Chervenkov, Matthias Rakosi, Pietro Nenni, Palmiro Togliatti came down from the Mausoleum's rostrum , Jacques Duclos, Clement Gottwald, N. A. Bulganin, V M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, G. M. Malenkov, N. S. Khrushchev, L. P. Beria, M. Z. Saburov, Zhou En-lai, M. G. Pervukhin, L. M. Kaganovich, N. M. Shvernik, A. I. Mikoyan.

G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria, V. M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, N. S. Khrushchev, N. A. Bulganin, L. M. Kaganovich, A. I. Mikoyan raised the coffin and They slowly carried him into the Mausoleum.

At 12 o'clock an artillery salute was fired over the Kremlin. The sounds of the funeral march were followed by the beeps of Moscow industrial enterprises, and five minutes of silence began throughout the country. The funeral march gave way to the solemn Anthem Soviet Union. The State Flag of the Soviet Union, lowered after Stalin’s death, was raised over the Kremlin. At 12:10 a.m., troops passed in front of the Mausoleum and planes flew in formation in the sky.

The speeches made at the rally were published and later included in the film “The Great Farewell.” Stalin's embalmed body was placed on public display in the Lenin Mausoleum, which in 1953-1961 was called the “Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin.” A special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU of March 6 provided for the construction of the Pantheon, where it was planned to transfer the bodies of Lenin and Stalin, as well as burials at the Kremlin wall, but these projects were actually curtailed very soon.

Stampede during Stalin's funeral

During the funeral there was a stampede in the Trubnaya Square area. The stampede killed from several hundred to two to three thousand people (official data on the number of victims is classified).

Dorman O. Interlinear

Reburial of Stalin's body

On the last day of the congress, the first secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee, I.V. Spiridonov, rose to the podium and, after a brief speech, made a proposal to remove Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum. The proposal was adopted unanimously.

Fyodor Timofeevich Konev, the former commander of the Kremlin regiment, recalled that day: “To find out the mood of the people, I changed into civilian clothes and went out to Red Square. People in groups were having excited conversations. Their content can be reduced to the following: “Why was this issue decided without consulting the people?”

N. S. Zakharov and the Kremlin commandant, Lieutenant General A. Ya. Vedenin, learned about the impending decision in advance. N.S. Khrushchev called them and said:

Please keep in mind that today a decision on Stalin’s reburial will probably take place. The place is marked. The commandant of the Mausoleum knows where to dig the grave,” added Nikita Sergeevich. - By the decision of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, a commission of five people was created, headed by Shvernik: Mzhavanadze - first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, Javakhishvili - chairman of the Council of Ministers of Georgia, Shelepin - chairman of the KGB, Demichev - first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and Dygai - chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow Soviet.

N. M. Shvernik told the performers how to secretly organize the reburial: since there was a parade on Red Square on November 7, it should have been cordoned off under the pretext of a parade rehearsal. General control over the progress of work was entrusted to Zakharov's deputy, General V. Ya. Chekalov. The commander of the Separate Special Purpose Regiment of the Moscow Kremlin Commandant's Office, Konev, was ordered to make a coffin from dry wood in a carpentry workshop, which was made on the same day. The wood was covered with black and red crepe. The Kremlin commandant's office assigned six soldiers to dig the grave and eight officers to first remove the sarcophagus from the Mausoleum to the laboratory, and then lower the coffin with the body into the grave. General A. Ya. Vedenin was instructed by the Zakharovs to select reliable, proven and previously proven people.

The camouflage was provided by the head of the economic department of the Kremlin commandant's office, Colonel Tarasov. He had to cover the right and left sides behind the Mausoleum with plywood so that the place of work could not be seen from anywhere. At the same time, in the workshop of the arsenal, the artist Savinov made a wide white ribbon with the letters “LENIN”. It had to be used to cover the inscription “LENIN STALIN” on the Mausoleum until the letters were laid out in marble. At 18:00, the passages to Red Square were blocked, after which the servicemen began digging a hole for the burial.

All members of the commission, except Mzhavanadze, arrived at the Mausoleum at 21:00. Eight officers took the sarcophagus and carried it down to the basement where the laboratory is located. In addition to the members of the commission, there were also scientific workers who had previously monitored the condition of Stalin’s embalmed body. The glass was removed from the sarcophagus, and the officers transferred Stalin's body to a coffin.

N.M. Shvernik ordered the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor to be removed from his uniform (there was no other award, the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, in the sarcophagus). The chairman of the commission ordered to replace the gold buttons of the uniform with brass ones. All this was carried out by the commandant of the Mausoleum, Colonel K. A. Moshkov. He transferred the removed award and buttons to a special Security Room, where the awards of all those buried near the Kremlin wall were kept.

When the coffin with Stalin's body was covered with a lid, Shvernik and Javakhishvili burst into tears. The officers lowered the coffin into the plywood-lined grave. Someone threw a handful of earth, as required by Christian custom. The grave was buried. A slab of white marble with the inscription: “STALIN JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH 1879−1953.” Then it served as a tombstone for a long time, until a bust was erected in 1970.

Lenin's sarcophagus was installed on central place, to where it stood before Stalin's funeral in 1953.

In 1970, a monument was unveiled at the grave (bust by N.V. Tomsky).

On October 21, 1962, a year after Stalin’s reburial, the Pravda newspaper published Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem “Stalin’s Heirs.”

Joseph Stalin is greatest personality XX century. He is called the “father of nations” and a traitor, a great ruler and a man who committed genocide of his people. Contemporaries and historians still cannot give an unambiguous assessment of the activities of this person. It is known that he died only because his subordinates were afraid to approach him at the right moment and provide help. Where is Stalin buried? What were the last days of his life like? You will find answers to all questions in this article.

Disease

The first attack of the disease overtook the leader of the people on March 1, 1953. He was found unconscious at his official residence - at the Kuntsevskaya dacha, where Stalin settled in the post-war years. Personal doctor The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars was so frightened that for a long time he could not admit that a high-ranking patient had suffered a stroke. However, the next day the doctor found the strength to make a diagnosis and determine the paralysis of the right side of the leader’s body. That day Stalin did not get up anymore. He only occasionally raised his active hand, as if asking for help. But she never came. Some historians believe that fear was not the only reason why the leader did not receive the necessary treatment on time. The fact is that the closest associates of the “father of nations” - Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov - were interested in his speedy death. Many people are interested in where Stalin is buried. After all, the story of his burial could turn out to be no less strange than the fact of his sudden death.

Demise

According to official sources, the guards who discovered the leader's prostrate body on the floor in the dining room could not call a doctor without special orders from Beria. That night Lavrenty Pavlovich could not be found. Only ten hours later the necessary permission was received. Only after this the patient received medical care. And the next day he had another stroke. Beria knew from the evening that the “father of nations” was not well. Documentary sources testify to this. The story of Stalin is the fate of a man betrayed by his closest comrade at the most crucial moment. On March 5, 1953, the leader died. The entire huge country plunged into deep mourning. People came in an endless stream to say goodbye to the great leader and teacher. Everyone knows where Stalin was buried immediately after his death: on March 9, his body was placed in the Lenin Mausoleum. There it rested until 1961.

Anti-Stalinist sentiments

Soon the long-awaited “thaw” came to the country. Anti-Stalinist sentiments began to develop. At the XXII Congress of the Communist Party, which took place on October 17-31, 1961, several fateful decisions were made at once. Just a day before the closing of the event, a proposal was made to remove the body of the deceased leader from the Mausoleum and rebury him in an ordinary grave. The speaker expressed the opinion that staying in the Kremlin tomb next to Lenin is incompatible with the lawlessness that Stalin committed during his reign. It is interesting that this proposal came from the mouth of the unremarkable head of the Leningrad Regional Committee, Ivan Spiridonov. Prominent party figures like Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Suslov, Frol Kozlov chose to remain silent. However, they decided to support Comrade Spiridonov’s initiative. So where is Stalin buried? Read about it below.

Reburial

So, at the XXII Party Congress, a decision was made to rebury the leader on Red Square, near the walls of the Kremlin, behind the Mausoleum. The country's leadership was afraid of unrest in the country, so the removal of Stalin's body took place in the strictest secrecy. On October 31, late in the evening, under the pretext of another rehearsal for the solemn parade on November 7, Red Square was cordoned off. The dug grave and the entrance to the Mausoleum were covered with plywood shields. The only witnesses to the transfer of the body were numerous security guards, the reburial commission and the funeral team. At the tomb, the officers placed Stalin's body in a wooden coffin draped in red and black crepe. The leader's body was covered with a black veil, leaving only half of his chest and face exposed. The head of the carpentry workshop, Shanin, on command, closed the coffin with a lid and nailed it. With the help of eight officers, the leader's body was removed from the Mausoleum. The coffin was moved to the grave. At its bottom, a kind of sarcophagus of eight slabs was built. After a short pause, the coffin was carefully lowered into the grave. According to ancient Russian custom, those present threw a handful of earth onto the lid of the coffin. The soldiers then buried Stalin's body.

Consequences

Contrary to expectations, the citizens of the country received the news that the “father of nations” was taken out of the Mausoleum calmly. They soon found out where Stalin was buried. But no riots followed. In 1970, a monument created by the sculptor Tomsky was erected at the leader’s grave. It is known that reburial at the Kremlin wall was not the only solution proposed at the congress of party leaders. For example, Nikita Khrushchev wanted to bury Joseph Vissarionovich not far from his daughter and wife, at the Novodevichy cemetery. However, this idea was abandoned. For some reason, the party feared that the leader’s body might be stolen from the grave and taken to Georgia. As a result, everyone at the congress voted for the initiative of the leader of Uzbekistan Nuritdin Mukhitdinov. He proposed burying the leader near the Kremlin, next to other important Soviet military leaders, politicians, and other government figures. Many people now know where Stalin is buried. You can see photographs of his grave in our article.

New versions

History does not stand still; many decades have passed since the death of the leader. Over the years, the question of where Joseph Stalin is buried began to acquire fantastic details. The information that the great leader rests in the center of the capital began to be questioned. For example, Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin Sinko Grega believes that one of Stalin’s doubles rests in the grave on Red Square. And Joseph Vissarionovich himself allegedly secretly moved to the Himalayas. They say that in his youth he was fond of Buddhist literature, so he hoped that local miracle workers would help him find health and eternal immortality. In the press, under headlines like “Secrets of the 20th Century,” suggestions periodically appear that the “father of nations” died much earlier from a serious illness. And his role was played for a long time by talented doubles, “dolls”, who replaced each other more than once. It's hard to take such fantasies seriously. However, the reign of Stalin is fraught with a lot of sinister secrets, many of which most of us will never know.

Conclusion

Now you know where Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin is buried. His death shocked millions of his compatriots. And his life is the subject of interest to an unusual number of meticulous researchers. One thing is for sure. It was great man, who left an indelible mark on world history. And the death and mystery of the burial of such people is always surrounded by fantasies, secrets and riddles.

I have long wanted to imagine what happened in the March days of 1953, when Stalin was buried. What people looked like, what they were wearing, what Moscow looked like, how these human rivers moved. It is interesting to look at the country at the moment of a turning point. Among other things, this event can be called the greatest unsanctioned rally: the spilling out of the will of hundreds of thousands of people, united by one goal, which was faced by those who were taken aback and unaccustomed to such power. There is also my interest in family history - many times my father, who was then five years old, mentioned what a joyful event it was when, a day later, his older brother returned home - his parents were afraid that he had died in a stampede. I asked my uncle, who is many years old, and his memoir is among others on a wonderful thematic site. But the visual side of things was worse - almost everything that comes up in the search engine images of “Stalin’s funeral” is two or three photographs from Ogonyok, from which little is clear.

Recently, I came across an interesting newsreel - just two and a half minutes - a cut-up of footage of different streets of Moscow. I took it apart frame by frame and my wife and I reconstructed the approximate points from which the camera filmed. In addition, on the site with photographs of old Moscow there were several other photographs of those days or those places. It is very interesting to look at the people and how Moscow has changed. I hope it's interesting not only to me.

It's worth starting from the end. In this shot, people enter the Hall of Columns, where Stalin's body is displayed. It happens at night - people tried to get through “to Stalin” around the clock for four days - from March 6 to 9.

All color footage is taken from the propaganda documentary “The Great Farewell” (you can watch it), filmed in the wake of the funeral. Of course, the editor tried to leave crying women and relatively well-dressed photogenic people in the frame.

The women in line are mostly wearing white and gray headscarves. This shot seemed interesting to me because of the modern-looking girl in a hat with a pompom against the general background.

People with children in their arms. I assume that, basically, they belong to delegations that got into the Hall of Columns bypassing the monstrous queue.

Trucks were parked along the sidewalk to prevent anyone from entering the road. There were soldiers in the trucks.
Thus, a huge mass of people found themselves sandwiched between the walls of houses and trucks.<…>All around, people, especially women, were screaming in pain and fear.Soldiers in trucks, having the appropriate order, stopped people’s attempts to crawl under the trucks onto the free roadway. At the same time, I saw how soldiers rescued a woman who was pinned against a truck - they dragged her into the back.

Near Pushkin Square the street was blocked by trucks. In the trucks, soldiers stood on sandbags and fought off those trying to climb on board with their boots.

The crowd was terrible, there were trucks with soldiers in the middle of the street<…>A terrible crush began, screams, something impossible. The soldiers snatched whoever they could onto their trucks. My friend and I were also dragged onto a truck, our coats were torn, but it doesn’t matter...

The people who were in these trucks <…> they grabbed whoever they could, whoever was closest, dragged them in and threw them to the other side, onto the boulevard. The only thing that saved me was that I was closer to the trucks, and they grabbed me too.

On the day of Stalin’s funeral, I got into such a crush on Trubnaya that if it weren’t for the soldiers who picked me up on a truck blocking the street and carried me through the cordon, I would have simply died.

Trucks on Chekhov Street (Malaya Dmitrovka). On the left you can see house 8 with 1 (with columns), but the second house has not survived to this day.

The next two photos deserve special mention (thanks for providing them vchaplina_arhiv ) . They were made from the window of the third floor of house 16 on Pushkinskaya Street (now Bolshaya Dmitrovka) - the communal apartment of the famous animal writer Vera Chaplina. It’s not far from the Hall of Columns. Again trucks and just soldiers in a cordon.

The first photo shows how people are pressed by a chain of soldiers against the wall of the house.

The second photo was taken a little later - something happened and the tail of the line broke up into an unorganized crowd.

We managed to get into the courtyard of the house overlooking Pushkinskaya (today's Bolshaya Dmitrovka) about fifty meters from the Hall of Columns, climbed through the window of the entrance entrance onto the canopy of the entrance overlooking Pushkinskaya, and jumped from it straight into the queue - into a snowdrift...

They had already buried me at home: two older brothers walked (after us!), but unable to get through, they returned, telling their parents that Khodynka was there. We soon learned that two boys from neighboring yards had died.

And this is very close to the goal. On the right - the Bolshoi Theater and TSUM, on the left (with sculpture) - metro station "Sverdlov Square" (today - "Teatralnaya")

Let's return to the newsreel. Chekhov Street (Malaya Dmitrovka), building 16 from 5.

Same place today.

We heard those who were on Gorky Street, they were shouting. I think my sister realized that there was no need to go there.

I remembered myself already on Gorky Street. Joined the general flow. There were a lot of people, and the flow was accelerating. And I already knew that Gorky Street was blocked by dump trucks with sand, and in several places. Apparently, instinct guided me, because I resisted this flow in every possible way. And the stream was already carrying. I tried to move backwards, it seemed safer to me. And I still wanted to stay close to home. I think this saved me - unlike many who were carried straight into the trucks by the crowd, picking up speed.

In the lower left corner of the next frame you can see how a huge man, escaping from the crush, climbs onto a lamppost.

In the left foreground is a policeman on a horse. There were also a lot of mounted police that day.

This is the same place today.

Other, most replicated photographs were also taken from the same points. People turned at Pushkinskaya Square in order to then get to Bolshaya Dmitrovka and from there make their way to the Hall of Columns.

Opposite the building of the Museum of the Revolution (photo from Ogonyok magazine):

The chronicle ends in the panorama of Gorky Street. But it's worth watching in its entirety - in motion. In the last seconds, the waves that rolled through the crowd and led to a stampede are clearly visible.

The crowd behaved like the ebb and flow of the ocean tides. First, she dragged us to the opposite wall of the street: then - a few steps back, from the goal of our hike. Walking backwards is especially dangerous, as people trip, lose their shoes, and find it impossible to pick them up.

Questions about the number of people killed in those days on the streets of Moscow are still awaiting their belated investigation. Khrushchev gave the smallest figure - 109 people. There were rumors of several thousand.

It became known that some distant acquaintances had died, mostly boys and girls. In many places people died, on Trubnaya it was the worst, and on Dmitrovka too - there quite a lot of people were simply crushed against the walls. Some protrusion of the wall was enough... corpses lay almost all along the length.

Down to Trubnaya Square, and then to the left, there was one of the “branches”. I walked there a little and saw how this huge crowd was going down, and there were trucks standing below, blocking the traffic. In my presence, terrible crowds crushed people, and they, trampled, were simply thrown into these cars.

At MIIT<…>they called from Sklif with a request to send someone to identify the guys with Miit badges.

On March 24, my grandfather died, when he was taken from the morgue, people there were still giving out the corpses of those killed on Trubnaya.

Quite a lot of people who were caught in the crush on Trubnaya and saw the deaths of people with their own eyes left their memories. You can read about what was going on there from Ella Pevzner. His name was Misha Arkhipov, he was a student at school No. 657, on Chaplygina Street.