Stalin's Death

On March 5, fifty years ago, one of the most awful tyrants of the 20th century, Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), died.

On March 1, 1953, Stalin was at his dacha in Kuntsevo, Moscow, when he had a massive stroke. He spent several hours lying half-paralyzed on the floor, because his servants were forbidden from entering his quarters unbidden. He was found lying on the dining room floor with a bottle of mineral water and a copy of Pravda next to him.

The doctors who had treated Stalin for many years had recently been arrested in the “Doctor’s Plot,” so there was some delay in assembling a conference of medical experts. Still, through a succession of confusing bulletins, people came to understand that their leader was gravely ill and would soon die. (Indeed, some historians argue that Beria and the Politburo accelerated Stalin’s death by holding off medical treatment until it was too late to do any good.)

The wait was not long. On March 5, everything was over. Stalin’s body was taken to the Kremlin mortuary in a white automobile and, after the autopsy, was transferred to the embalmers, who prepared it for three days of lying-in-state.

Stalin was dead, but he was not yet finished with Russia. On the day of his funeral, at noon, guns were fired, whistles and sirens blown, and bells tolled in mourning across the Soviet Union. And, in the surging crush of humanity lined up through central Moscow to file past Stalin’s bier, hundreds, if not thousands, died (see box, right).

Ironically, the world-famous composer Sergei Prokofiev (see page 47), died on the same day as Stalin. And, since every flower in the country was sent to Stalin’s funeral, there were simply no flowers left for Prokofiev.

Stalin’s embalmed body was placed in Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square, where it remained until October 1961. That month, in a fit of reaction to the “cult of personality,” Red Square was closed off with plywood barriers, as if in preparation for the coming November 7 parade, and Stalin’s remains were interred in the Kremlin wall (and his name removed from the front of the mausoleum).

Mikhail Demourov, a documentary film director, was 16 at the time of Stalin’s funeral and offered Russian Life this personal recollection:

“For several days it seemed that the entire country was in the streets of Moscow. Everyone wanted to get a farewell glimpse of the dead idol. As thousands of people lined up to see Stalin`s body, my friend Misha, his 16-year-old cousin Tanya and I could not miss the greatest show in the city. All the people moving both in organized and chaotic order were on their way to the Hall of Columns, where Stalin’s body lay on temporary display.

After an hour of tantalizingly slow walking, we realized we had to look for a shortcut. Since cordons of militia were everywhere, it was actually difficult to find a shortcut or to move forward. This led to terrible overcrowding and many people were crushed to death, so our decision to find the shortest possible way to the center may have saved our lives.

Using tricks and the agility of youth, we reached our goal in about five hours. The final leg of our journey involved sliding down the roof of the Yermolova Theatre using the wire hawser left behind by some builders. The column of people moved much faster down Gorky Street.

I remember the militia men shouting: “Move on! Move on!” as people bid farewell to Stalin. To be honest, I could not make out his face – it was just a dim blob beneath bulletproof glass.

Our way back took only two hours. It was early morning and, when we accompanied my friend’s cousin home, we saw a haggard figure standing near her house. It was her father and his hair had gone gray that night. He was extremely anxious about his daughter, because, being a member of the Moscow Government, he knew already that many people had died in the throng at Trubnaya Square. The crowds there were so dense and chaotic that people were trampled underfoot or were suffocated. I do not know the exact number, but, just from the university I studied at, five people died in the crowds. After the funeral madness was over, thousands of galoshes were found on the streets of Moscow.”