 Stalin's funeral procession onOkhotny Ryad | |
| Date | 5–9 March 1953 |
|---|---|
| Location | Red Square,Moscow,Russian SFSR,USSR |
| Organized by | Soviet state |
| Participants | Nikita Khrushchev,Georgy Malenkov,Vyacheslav Molotov,Lavrentiy Beria,Patriarch Alexy I,Nicholas (Yarushevich) and other Soviet, Church and foreign dignitaries |
| Deaths | 109 – 1000+[1] |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Pre-leadership Leader of the Soviet Union Political ideology Works
Legacy  .svg) | ||
Joseph Stalin, secondleader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at hisKuntsevo Dacha after suffering astroke, at age 74. He was given astate funeral inMoscow on 9 March, with four days ofnational mourning declared. On the day of the funeral, of the hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens visiting the capital to pay their respects, at least 109 were later acknowledged to have died in acrowd crush.[1][2]
Stalin's body wasembalmed andinterred inLenin's Mausoleum until 1961, when it was moved to theKremlin Wall Necropolis. The members of Stalin's inner circle in charge of organizing his funeral wereNikita Khrushchev, then-head of the Moscow branch of theCommunist Party;Lavrentiy Beria, head of theNKVD;Georgy Malenkov, the chairman of thePresidium; andVyacheslav Molotov, previously the Soviet Union'sMinister of Foreign Affairs.
Joseph Stalin's health had begun to deteriorate towards the end of theSecond World War. He hadatherosclerosis as a result of heavy smoking, a mildstroke around the time of theVictory Parade in May 1945, and a severeheart attack in October 1945.[3]
The last three days of Stalin's life have been described in detail, first in the official Soviet announcements inPravda, and then in a complete English translation which followed shortly thereafter inThe Current Digest of the Soviet Press.[4] Decades later, former senior officer and historianDmitry Volkogonov[5] described how, on 28 February 1953, Stalin and a small number of his inner circle, consisting ofLavrentiy Beria,Nikita Khrushchev,Georgy Malenkov,Vyacheslav Molotov and a few others, gathered for an evening of entertainment and drinking. After the guests dispersed at approximately 5:00 a.m. on 1 March, Khrushchev noted that Stalin had a lot to drink and was in a good mood.[6] Stalin later retired to his private quarters. Time passed and no sounds were heard throughout the next day, Sunday, March 1. Stalin's room was said to have been equipped with sensors to alert the staff and guards if there was any movement.[6] At approximately 11:00 p.m. on 1 March, Stalin's housekeeper cautiously entered his room and found him lying on the floor, wearing his pajama trousers and a shirt. He was unconscious, breathing heavily,incontinent and unresponsive to attempts to rouse him.[citation needed]
At 7:00 a.m. on 2 March, Beria and a group of medical experts were summoned to examine Stalin. Based on their examination, which revealedblood pressure of 190/110 and right-sidedhemiplegia, they concluded that Stalin, who had a known history of uncontrolledhypertension, had sustained ahemorrhagic stroke involving the leftmiddle cerebral artery. Over the next two days he received a variety of treatments. In an attempt to decrease his blood pressure, which had risen to 210/120, two separate applications of eightleeches each were applied to his neck and face over the next two days. However, Stalin's condition continued to deteriorate and he died at 9:50 p.m. on 5 March 1953. His death was announced the next day onRadio Moscow byYuri Levitan.[7]
Stalin's body was then taken to an unspecified location and anautopsy performed, after which it wasembalmed for public viewing. Attempts to locate and access the original autopsy report were unsuccessful until the 2010s,[8][9] but the most important findings were reported in a special bulletin inPravda on 7 March 1953, as follows:
"Pathological-Anatomical Examination of the Body of J. V. Stalin"
Pathologic examination revealed a large hemorrhage, localized to the area of subcortical centers of the left cerebral hemisphere. This hemorrhage destroyed important areas of the brain and resulted in irreversible changes in the respiration and circulation. In addition to the brain hemorrhage, there were found significant hypertrophy of the left ventricle (of the heart), numerous hemorrhages in the myocardium, in the stomach and intestinal mucosa; atherosclerotic changes in the vessels, more prominent in the cerebral arteries. These are the result of hypertension. The results of the pathologic examination revealed the irreversible character of J.V. Stalin's disease from the moment of brain hemorrhage. Therefore, all treatment attempts could not have led to a favorable outcome and prevent a fatal end."[10]
As summarized above, rather than suggesting a plot by Beria, on whom suspicion fell for his purportedly telling Molotov that he "took him out"[11] at one point, and his seemingly willful delay in obtaining medical treatment for Stalin, the physical changes seen during autopsy were consistent with extracranial changes that often occur in stroke victims.
Beria's son, Sergo Beria, later recounted that after Stalin's death, his mother Nina told her husband that, "Your position now is even more precarious than when Stalin was alive."[12] This turned out to be correct; several months later, in June 1953, Beria was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes but, significantly, none relating to Stalin's death.[13] He was subsequently found guilty oftreason,terrorism andcounter-revolutionary activity by theSupreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953,[14][15] and executed the same day, shot byGeneralPavel Batitsky.[16]
Some historians have conjectured that Stalin was murdered; Beria has been accused of poisoning him, but no firm evidence has appeared. According to a theory developed by historians Vladimir Naumov andJonathan Brent, based on mentions of stomach hemorrhaging excised from his autopsy, Stalin was poisoned withwarfarin, most likely by Beria.[17]
| External videos | |
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 Official Soviet documentary on Stalin's funeral | |
| Part of Soviet footage of Stalin's funeral |
On 6 March, the coffin containing Stalin's body was put on display at the Hall of Columns in theHouse of the Unions, remaining there for three days.[18] On 9 March, the body was delivered toRed Square[19] prior to interment inLenin's Mausoleum.[20][21] Speeches were delivered by Khrushchev, Malenkov, Molotov and Beria, after whichpallbearers carried the coffin to the mausoleum. As Stalin's body was being interred, amoment of silence was observed nationwide at noon Moscow time. As the bells of theKremlin Clock chimed the hour, sirens and horns wailed nationwide, along with a21-gun salute fired from within the precincts of theKremlin. Similar observances were also held in otherEastern Bloc countries includingMongolia, China and North Korea. Immediately after the silence ended, a military band played theSoviet State Anthem, and then a military parade of theMoscow Garrison was held in Stalin's honor.
In their efforts to pay their respects to Stalin, a number of Soviet citizens, many of whom had travelled from across the country to attend the funeral, were crushed and trampled to death in acrowd crush.[22] They were crushed against building walls andSoviet Army trucks, which had been deployed to block off side streets. Mourners, along with mounted police and their horses, were trampled to death inTrubnaya Square [ru].[23] The Soviet government did not initially report the event, and the exact number of casualties is unknown.[2] Khrushchev later provided an estimate that 109 people died in the crowd.[1]
According toOgoniok, the mourners included the following foreign dignitaries (listed alphabetically by last name):[24]
Bolesław Bierut –Prime Minister of Poland,Secretary General of thePolish United Workers' Party
Valko Chervenkov –Prime Minister of Bulgaria,General Secretary of theCommunist Party of Bulgaria
Jacques Duclos – Interim General Secretary of theFrench Communist Party
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej –President of the State Council andPrime Minister of Romania,First Secretary of theRomanian Workers' Party
Klement Gottwald –President of Czechoslovakia, Chairman of theCommunist Party of Czechoslovakia
Otto Grotewohl –Chairman of the Council of Ministers of theGerman Democratic Republic
Dolores Ibárruri – General Secretary of theCommunist Party of Spain
Urho Kekkonen –Prime Minister of Finland[25]
Spiro Koleka – Vice-Premier of thePeople's Republic of Albania
Johann Koplenig – Chairman of theCommunist Party of Austria
Pietro Nenni – Secretary of theItalian Socialist Party
Harry Pollitt – General Secretary of theCommunist Party of Great Britain
Mátyás Rákosi – General Secretary of theHungarian Working People's PartyMax Reimann – Chairman of theWest German Communist PartyKonstantin Rokossovsky –Defence Minister of PolandPalmiro Togliatti –General Secretary of theItalian Communist Party
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal –Prime Minister of MongoliaWalter Ulbricht – First Secretary of theSocialist Unity Party of Germany, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of theGerman Democratic Republic
Zhou Enlai –Premier of the People's Republic of ChinaCzechoslovak leader Gottwald died shortly after attending Stalin's funeral, on 14 March 1953, after one of his arteries burst.[26]
Fearing their departure might encourage rivals within the ranks of theParty of Labour of Albania, neitherPrime MinisterEnver Hoxha nor Deputy Prime MinisterMehmet Shehu risked traveling to Moscow to attend the funeral, with Hoxha instead pledging eternal allegiance to the late Soviet leader.[27]
Guatemalan officials in the government ofJacobo Árbenz eulogized Stalin as a "great statesman and leader ... whose passing is mourned by all progressive men".[28] TheGuatemalan Congress paid tribute to Stalin with a "minute of silence".[29] At the request ofPresident Eisenhower,Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles transmitted a message of condolence through the American Embassy to the Soviet Foreign Ministry.[30]
After Stalin's death,PatriarchAlexy I composed a personal statement of condolence to the SovietCouncil of Ministers:
"His death is a heavy grief for our Fatherland and for all the people who inhabit it. The whole Russian Orthodox Church, which will never forget his benevolent attitude to Church needs, feels great sorrow at his death. The bright memory of him will live ineradicably in our hearts. Our Church proclaims eternal memory to him with a special feeling of abiding love."[31]
Alexy I also gave aeulogy on the day of Stalin's funeral.[32] Other Orthodox officials, includingNicholas (Yarushevich), attended the funeral and mourned for Stalin.[33]
Stalin left neither a designated successor nor a framework within which a peaceful transfer of power could take place.[34] The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as the party's dominant figures.[35] The system ofcollective leadership was restored, and measures introduced to prevent any one member from attaining autocratic domination.[36] The collective leadership included eight senior members of thePresidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, namely Malenkov, Beria, Molotov,Kliment Voroshilov, Khrushchev,Nikolai Bulganin,Lazar Kaganovich andAnastas Mikoyan.[37] Reforms to the Soviet system were immediately implemented.[38] Economic reform scaled back the mass construction projects, placed a new emphasis on house building, and eased the levels of taxation on the peasantry to stimulate production.[39] The new leaders sought rapprochement with Yugoslavia and a less hostile relationship with the U.S.,[40] and they pursued a negotiated end to the Korean War in July 1953.[41][42] The doctors who had been imprisoned were released and the anti-Semitic purges ceased.[43]A mass amnesty for certain categories of convicts was issued, halving the country's inmate population, while the state security and Gulag systems were reformed, with torture being banned in April 1953.[39]
On 6 March, the coffin with Stalin's body was displayed at the Hall of Columns in the House of Trade Unions.
On 9 March, Stalin's embalmed body was interred in the Lenin Mausoleum, which was renamed the Lenin–Stalin Mausoleum from 1953 to 1961.
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