Where Joseph Stalin is buried. Ordered to be taken out. The story of Joseph Stalin's secret funeral. Who was at the funeral

Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, unleashing terror during Russia's modernization and helping defeat Nazism. As dictator of the Soviet Union, Stalin had complete state control over the Russian people. Nowadays, many people visit the monument at the Kremlin wall where is Stalin buried and remain grateful to the former leader for creating a great superpower.

The dictator was born on December 18, 1879, in the small town of Gori located in Georgia. Joseph Stalin came to power as Secretary General Communist Party, becoming Soviet dictator after the death of Vladimir Lenin. In this position he was forced to carry out rapid industrialization and collectivization of agricultural land, leaving millions dying of starvation while others were sent to camps. His Red Army helped defeat Nazi Germany during World War II.

The early years of Joseph Stalin

On December 18, in the Russian peasant village of Gori, Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (later known as Joseph Stalin) was born. His father was a shoemaker, and his mother worked as a laundress. Joseph was a frail child. At the age of 7, he contracted smallpox, which left scars on his face. A few years later he was injured in an accident, resulting in left hand slightly deformed. The rest of the village children treated him harshly, instilling in him a feeling of inferiority. Because of this, young Joseph began to strive for greatness and respect.

Joseph's mother, a devout Russian Orthodox Christian, wanted him to become a priest. In 1888, she managed to register him in a church school in Gori. He did very well in school, and his efforts earned him a scholarship to the Tiflis Theological Seminary. A year later, he came into contact with a secret organization that supported Georgian independence from Russia. Some of the members were socialists, who introduced him to the writings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Joseph joined the group in 1898.

Despite his success at the seminary, he left it in 1899. According to another version, he was unable to pay tuition and therefore left school. Joseph decided not to return home, but to stay in Tiflis, devoting his time to the revolutionary movement. For a time, he worked as a tutor and then as a clerk at the Tiflis Observatory. In 1901 he joined the Social Democratic Labor Party and worked full time for the revolutionary movement. In 1902, he was arrested for coordinating a labor strike and exiled to Siberia, the first of his many arrests and exiles during the early years of the Russian Revolution. It was during this time that Joseph changed his last name to "Stalin", which means steel in Russian.

In February 1917, the Russian Revolution began. By March, the Tsar abdicated the throne and was placed under house arrest. For a time, the revolutionaries supported the provisional government, believing that a smooth transition of power was possible. In April 1917, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin condemned the provisional government, arguing that the people must rise up and take control of the lands and factories with industry. By October, the revolution was completed and the Bolsheviks won a resounding victory!

Leader of the Communist Party

The young Soviet government went through a process of violent revolution as many different people competed for power. In 1922, Stalin was appointed to the newly created position of General Secretary of the Communist Party. Although this was not a significant position at the time, he had the power to independently appoint party members, which allowed him to build his base. He placed people who were beneficial to him in the highest positions and strengthened his power. By then, after this, Lenin, seriously ill, was powerless and was unable to regain control with Stalin. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin intended to destroy the old party leadership and take full control into his own hands.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin reversed the Bolshevik agrarian policy of seizing land previously granted to peasants and collective farm organizations. Stalin believed that collectivism would speed up food production, but the peasants were outraged at losing their land and did not want to work for the state. Millions were killed in forced labor or starved to death during hard times. Under Stalin, the process of rapid industrialization also began, which was initially a successful program, but over time claimed millions of lives and caused enormous damage environment. In those days, for any resistance a person was sent into exile or shot on the spot.

With Europe mired in war in 1939, Stalin made a seemingly brilliant move by signing a non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Stalin was convinced of Hitler's honesty and ignored warnings from his military commanders that Germany was mobilizing troops on its eastern front. When the Nazi Blitzkrieg struck in June 1941, the Soviet army was completely unprepared and immediately suffered huge losses. Stalin was so shocked by Hitler's treachery that he hid in his office and did not come out for several days.

Interesting fact: Initially, the leader’s body was marked in the mausoleum next to Vladimir Lenin, but later they decided bury Joseph Stalin in the center of Moscow.

After the heroic efforts of the Russian people, the Germans turned back at Stalingrad in 1943. next year The Soviet Army liberated the countries of Eastern Europe, even before the Allies mounted a serious challenge against Hitler. Stalin had been suspicious of the West since the creation of the Soviet Union. Since then, the USSR entered the war, Stalin demanded that the allies open a second front against Germany. Both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that such an action would result in heavy casualties. This only deepened Stalin's suspicions about the West.

As the war initiative gradually passed into Allied hands, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met with Joseph Stalin to discuss the postwar arrangement. At the first of these meetings, in Tehran and Iran, at the end of 1943, the recent victory at Stalingrad allowed Stalin to take a firm negotiating position. He demanded that the Allies open a second front against Germany and they were forced to give their consent in 1944.

This changed at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, when Roosevelt died and was replaced by President Harry S. Truman. British parliamentary elections replaced Prime Minister Churchill with Clement Attlee as Britain's chief negotiator. At the time, the British and Americans were suspicious of Stalin's intentions and wanted to avoid Soviet involvement in the conflict with post-war Japan. The dropping of two atomic bombs in August 1945 forced Japan to surrender.

Death of Stalin and his legacy

At the beginning of 1950, Joseph Stalin's health began to rapidly deteriorate. After 3 years of suffering from illnesses, Stalin died on March 5, 1953 and left a legacy of death, terror and the transformation of backward Russia into a world superpower. Ultimately, the great leader of the USSR was criticized by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956. However, today his cult is gradually being revived and more and more young people are coming to the grave of Joseph Stalin to thank him for his great services to the fatherland!

THE DEATH OF STALIN AND THE FATE OF HIS BODY

On that mourning day I was 14 years old.

Perhaps fear for our Motherland also explained the great national grief in connection with the death of Stalin. And not just love for the leader. The leader is gone, will irreparable troubles come? Who can take his place! To lead our country to a glorious future just as wisely. And to make all people happy. The adults, and we children too, were very worried about how we would continue to live without our leader. It seemed that it would be difficult to wait for bright things ahead.

I remember the school funeral meeting. Everyone gathered in the gym; there was no special assembly hall at the school. Everyone was crying, both in the presidium, where there were mainly teachers, and in the hall itself. And I cried. And no one hid their tears.

In the mournful five minutes during Stalin’s funeral, steam locomotives, of which we always had several at the station, also hummed, from transit trains and pushers, as well as cars.

I remember on the day of the funeral, we boys played “swords”, musketeers. Near the barns adjacent to the house there were heaps of manure, and we, splitting into two parties, “fought” among these heaps and barns. Swords are wooden, shields are plywood. When the locomotives began to whistle, a car stopped near the office next door to us, right at the turn, and honked and beeped for the entire five minutes.

And we stopped the “battle”, having all gathered near the “main” dung heap. But, probably, our boyish grief for the leader of the peoples was not so deep. The locomotive whistles fell silent, and we again turned into “musketeers.” Life went on.

After Stalin’s death, the whole country, society, all people were waiting to see who would now be our Leader. This expectation, now, seems especially interesting and surprising to me. I think I’m not mistaken, but society could no longer live without the Leader. And this deformation of social psychology has probably not been eliminated in our society to this day. That is why we have constant problems with democracy.

It’s probably also interesting that I “managed” to visit the Mausoleum when the sarcophagi of both Lenin and Stalin were installed there next to each other.

It was in 1957, I was traveling through Moscow in the winter for my first student holidays. I didn’t have money, just for a ticket; I didn’t receive my mother’s transfer because I passed the exams early. It took three days to travel, and during those days I didn’t eat anything. But I managed to see the Moscow metro, Red Square and the Mausoleum.

I don’t remember the details of the visit to the Mausoleum, in my opinion, everything was upholstered there in dark velvet, everything was mournful and solemn, a guard of honor stood both at the entrance to the Mausoleum and at the sarcophagi, mournful human faces, mournful silence. But, I think, nothing has changed in the Mausoleum even now, only the Stalin sarcophagus is gone. And then Lenin and Stalin lay side by side. Their bodies, of course.

And just a year or two later, after Nikita Khrushchev’s famous report, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum and buried near the Kremlin Wall.

In my opinion, Khrushchev’s famous report on Stalin’s personality cult has already been published.

It turns out that Stalin’s body was not immediately removed from the Mausoleum. Here is the data from the Internet.

Removal of Stalin's body from the Mausoleum
diletant.ru›Articles›780041231 October //:
Author - Alexey Durnovo.

Exactly 52 years ago, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum. It lay there for a little over eight years. It is curious that the leader’s body was removed, as they say, on the sly. In the middle of the night, secretly from everyone.

Political instructions from higher authorities in Russia were always carried out quickly. In the case of Stalin’s body, it happened simply quickly. The decision to remove the remains of the leader from the Mausoleum was made on October 30, 1961 at the closing congress of the CPSU. And the very next day it was put into practice.

Everything looked as if the initiative came from below. The proposal to leave Lenin alone in the mausoleum was made by workers from Kirov. Quite quickly it received the support of the workers of other cities and republics, and now the secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, Ivan Spiridonov, was already introducing it at the congress. And, surprisingly, isn’t it, the decision was supported by everyone and unanimously adopted. On the morning of October 31, it was published in the Pravda newspaper, and action began that same evening.

When it got dark, Red Square was suddenly closed to the public. The occasion was most favorable. November 7th was approaching with a solemn parade. Under the pretext that main square a rehearsal is taking place across the country, all approaches to it have been blocked. Vigilant law enforcement officers were on duty around, and in the Mausoleum, meanwhile, the burial commission was working at full speed. The commission was led by General Nikolai Zakharov, who headed the 9th Directorate of the KGB, and Kremlin Commandant A. Vedenin. If you believe Zakharov’s memoirs, he learned about the future burial a little earlier than the rest of the country. Khrushchev informed him about this even before the congress made the corresponding decision. So Zakharov had time to plan a secret operation.

Why the leader’s body was buried secretly is still a big question. There are many versions, according to the most plausible of them, the CPSU was simply afraid of mass upheavals. After all, the leader’s funeral, which took place in March 1953, provoked terrible crush. According to various sources, from several hundred to several thousand people died on Trubnaya Square. All information about the stampede, as you might guess, was strictly classified.

Apparently, the grave for the leader was also dug even before the decision of the congress. Most likely, this happened on the morning of October 30th. However, in order not to attract outside attention and not answer questions about where the hole came from near the Kremlin wall, it was hidden under plywood.

The burial operation itself lasted several hours. At the same time, two companies of machine gunners were on duty near the Mausoleum, just in case. What happened inside, by and large, is a mystery surrounded by rumors. It was said that the gold buttons were cut off from the leader's uniform and replaced with brass ones. Moreover, according to rumors, on Khrushchev’s personal order, Stalin’s shoulder straps were cut off as a generalissimo. All this was then transferred to the Security Room, where the awards of people buried in the Kremlin are kept.

Well, they carried Stalin’s body out the back door. I didn’t have to carry it far; the grave was separated from the Mausoleum by only ten to twelve meters. So, in complete silence, in the presence of members of the commission and several officers, the remains of the leader of the peoples were buried. A bust appeared in this place only in 1970. The most difficult work was carried out by technicians; they had to quickly dismantle the stone slab with the inscription “Lenin-Stalin”, which was done. Only one, the first, name was left on the stove. However, according to rumors, the stove was replaced only in 1963, and then, in 1961, technicians only covered up the inscription “Stalin”. It’s hard to say whether this is true, but people who came to Red Square on November 1st saw only one inscription above the Mausoleum - “Lenin”.

It is curious that soon a rumor spread throughout Moscow that Khrushchev removed Stalin from the Mausoleum only in order to make room next to Lenin for himself. Is it so? We're unlikely to know now. Three years after the secret funeral, Nikita Sergeevich was removed from the post of general secretary. Brezhnev became the leader of the USSR, and Khrushchev was sent into retirement. The deposed general secretary died in 1971. He was not buried as magnificently as his two predecessors. And his grave is not near the Kremlin wall, but at the Novodevichy cemetery.

When was Stalin removed from the mausoleum in Moscow?

On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, by decision of the XXII Congress of the CPSU Central Committee, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum. Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili) died on March 5, 1953, and on March 9 his body was placed in the Mausoleum on Red Square.
moscow-faq.ru›all_question/2007/December/3377/7057 copy more

Half a century ago, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum // KP.RU
But few people know that it was in the fall of 1961 that the body of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum. ... As soon as Stalin was removed from the Mausoleum, prices could immediately be raised.
kp.ru›Radio KP›stenography/20596 copy more

Removal of Stalin's body from the Mausoleum.
In the case of Stalin’s body, it happened simply quickly. The decision to remove the remains of the leader from the Mausoleum was made on October 30, 1961 at the closing congress of the CPSU. And the very next day it was implemented.
schekotikhin.ucoz.ru›publ…stalina_iz_mavzoleja…13 copy more
02:24

Removal of Stalin's body from the Mausoleum - YouTube
uploaded December 31, 2011
On October 30, 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU adopted a resolution on the removal of Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum.
youtube.com›watch?v=YR9o6A3Nfl0 copy

Top secret - facts about Stalin
18.09.2012

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.
Why wasn't Stalin buried next to his wife?

Reference

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 are archival documents, eyewitness accounts, including those preserved only on tape recordings and still not deciphered 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. Deal with everyone technical issues assigned to the Kremlin regiment. The commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, General Vedenin, received a command “from above” to begin preparing the burial procedure without delay.

October 31.
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 command was given to the commandant of the Mausoleum to prepare the body for removal from the sarcophagus.
“The coffin was prepared in advance,” says Devyatov. - The most common. 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.
Nov. 1.
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 make it more similar to natural stone, bluish “sparkles” were interspersed into the paint. And they already placed it on top new inscription"STALIN LENIN". 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 Secretary General's body 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 center for 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 the best people our country with the workers of the whole world. Everything being built in the area “In Memory of Comrade Stalin” must be built to last, according to the best designs, from the best materials, with 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). Smaller 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 200;165 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 kept 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 inlaid stone decoration different colors 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!

Reference
“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.
d) finishing work 22 million rubles.
Total 280 million rubles.”
For your information, Stalin’s body would be transferred to the pantheon, and in the future all famous personalities would be 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.
Top secret - facts about Stalin

On October 31, 1961, the reburial of Joseph Stalin took place in strict secrecy.

To communism - without Stalin

1961 was the high point in the career of Nikita Khrushchev. The party leader triumphed - the pace economic development The USSR was high, the Land of the Soviets had achieved human flight into outer space, and citizens' confidence in the future grew stronger.

The XXII Congress of the CPSU took place in October 1961., at which Khrushchev announced a new party program, proclaiming the task of building the foundations of a communist society by 1980.

After Gagarin's flight, even such a plan did not seem incredible to Soviet citizens. In the wake of general euphoria, Nikita Khrushchev decided to put an end to the posthumous overthrow of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin.

The debunking of Stalin's "cult of personality" was the basis of Khrushchev's political course in the 1950s. Now the new leader has decided to get rid of not only Stalin’s legacy, but also his body.

March 9, 1953 the sarcophagus with Stalin’s body was placed in the Mausoleum, which from that moment began to be called the “Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin.”

In March 1953, a Decree was adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the creation of the Pantheon - “a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country,” where all burials from Red Square were to be transferred, but this project did not reach the stage of practical implementation. Stalin remained lying in the Mausoleum.

“Yesterday I consulted with Ilyich”

On October 30, 1961, after Khrushchev made a keynote speech on building communism, the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, Ivan Spiridonov, asked to speak on an extraordinary issue. He made a proposal to remove Stalin from the Mausoleum. The initiative was supported by an old underground member, a party member since 1902, Dora Abramovna Lazurkina. A Bolshevik who went through the Gulag said:

“Yesterday I consulted with Ilyich, as if he stood before me as if alive and said: I don’t like being around Stalin, who brought so much trouble to the party.”

To thunderous applause, the congress approved the resolution, which stated: “It is considered inappropriate to continue preserving the sarcophagus with the coffin of I.V. in the Mausoleum. Stalin, since Stalin’s serious violations of Lenin’s covenants, abuse of power, mass repressions against honest Soviet people and other actions during the period of the cult of personality make it impossible to leave the coffin with his body in the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin".

Of course, the “impromptu” was prepared by Nikita Khrushchev himself. As for the general approval, it was only formal - the leader knew that among the delegates of the congress there were many who did not approve of such a categorical assessment of Stalin’s activities. And among the people, reverence for the figure of the leader remained. Therefore, Nikita Sergeevich decided not to delay the implementation of the decision of the congress and to carry out the reburial as soon as possible.

Mausoleum of Lenin and Stalin, 1957. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/ Manfred&Barbara Aulbach

They wanted to “exile” the leader to Novodevichye

On October 31, the head of the 9th Directorate of the KGB (protection of senior officials of the state), General Nikolai Zakharov, and the Kremlin commandant, General Andrei Vedenin, were summoned to Khrushchev.

Khrushchev warned that on this day a decision would be made on Stalin’s reburial, which would need to be carried out immediately. The Plenum of the Central Committee had to give final approval for this operation. To carry out the procedure, a party commission of five people was organized, led by the head of the Party Control Committee Nikolay Shvernik.

Direct management of the operation was entrusted to Zakharov's deputy, Colonel Vladimir Chekalov. The commander of the Separate Regiment was summoned to him. special purpose Commandant's Office of the Moscow Kremlin Fedor Konev, who was given the order to prepare a company of soldiers for Stalin’s funeral at the Novodevichy cemetery.

But while Konev was selecting his subordinates, Chekalov called him and said: the burial place is changing - everything will take place near the Kremlin wall.

At the last moment, the party leaders wavered, fearing that the remains would be stolen from the Novodevichy cemetery. On Red Square it was easier to control the grave of the “demoted” leader.

Brass instead of gold

The head of the economic department of the Kremlin commandant's office, Colonel Tarasov, was responsible for camouflage. The mausoleum was covered with plywood so that the work could not be seen from either side. 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, servicemen began digging a grave for burial. By that time, a coffin had been made from good dry wood, which was covered with black and red crepe.

While the final preparations for the reburial were underway, rehearsals for the military parade for the November 7 holiday began on Red Square. The rehearsal with the participation of military equipment was also part of the disguise of Stalin's second funeral.

At about 21:00, eight officers removed Stalin’s sarcophagus from the pedestal and carried it to the laboratory of the Mausoleum. In the presence of members of the commission and scientific workers of the Mausoleum, Stalin's body was transferred to a prepared coffin.

By order of Nikolai Shvernik, the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor was removed from Stalin’s uniform and the gold buttons were cut off. The commandant of the Mausoleum placed the removed rarities in the Security Room, where the awards of all those buried in the Kremlin necropolis are kept.

The gold buttons of the uniform were replaced with brass ones. General Vedenin interrupted the pause that followed, noting: it was time to close the coffin and carry it to the grave.

At that moment, Nikolai Shvernik’s nerves gave way and he burst into tears. A bodyguard led him to the grave.

Reinforced concrete grave

At 22:15, the same eight officers carried the coffin out of the Mausoleum and placed it on stands near the grave.

By this time, reinforced concrete slabs had been placed in the grave itself, which were supposed to cover the burial on all sides. But at the last moment the head of the Mausoleum's maintenance department Colonel Tarasov convinced the commission members not to put the slabs on top. “No matter how they failed,” the officer remarked. The faces of those gathered were long - the thought that the coffin with the leader would simply be crushed was frankly frightening. We decided to do without it.

The coffin was carefully lowered into the grave. Some of the military present threw in a handful of earth, after which the soldiers began burying the grave. When this was finished, a granite slab with the inscription was placed on top "Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich 1879 - 1953." The slab was replaced in 1970 by a monument by sculptor Nikolai Tomsky.

Monument to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin at the site of his burial. Necropolis near the Kremlin wall. Oleg Lastochkin/RIA Novosti

Relatives were not notified

None of Stalin’s relatives attended the funeral; they were not notified of the reburial. After the end of the ceremony, an act was drawn up in the Kremlin, which was signed by the participants in the operation.

Lenin's sarcophagus was moved to the central place, where it stood until 1953.

Access to the Mausoleum for citizens was opened the very next day, November 1, 1961. Stalin’s reburial did not cause mass unrest; everything was limited to conversations in kitchens.

The triumph of Nikita Khrushchev was short-lived - three years later, in October 1964, he, having lost popularity among the people and authority among his comrades, was removed from power.

After Khrushchev’s death in 1971, he was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery - where the debunker of the “cult of personality” never dared to send Joseph Stalin.

Parting

Leaders of the Party and Government at the tomb of I.V. Stalin. Column Hall of the House of Unions March 6, 1953. Beria’s face is scratched 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, in the canopy of red banners, among roses and evergreen branches.

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 republics, fell from white marble columns. The giant banner of the USSR was bowed over Stalin's head. In front of the coffin, on the atlas, lay the Marshall Star, orders and medals of Stalin. Funeral melodies of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Mozart were played.

Representatives of youth, Komsomol members, blacksmiths from the Stalin Automobile Plant, steelworkers from Hammer and Sickle, Orekhovo-Zuev weavers, Shatura electricians, Dynamo and Kirov workers, Siberian metallurgists and Donetsk miners, Moscow region collective farmers, Uzbek cotton growers, Kuban field farmers, Altai peasants; infantrymen and sailors, pilots and tank crews, artillerymen and sappers, representatives of the Soviet Army and Navy.

At the coffin of I.V. Stalin, the leaders of the CPSU and the government were on a mourning guard of honor: 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, illuminating the squares and streets along which columns of thousands were moving towards the House of Unions.

At night, the streets of Moscow were full of people waiting for their turn to say goodbye. Long before dawn, the doors of the House of Unions opened again, and people again walked into the Hall of Columns. Among those who came to say goodbye, in addition to the peoples of the USSR, were the Chinese and Koreans, Hungarians and Bulgarians, Poles and Czechs, Slovaks and Romanians, Albanians and Mongols.

Planes and trains with delegations from Siberia, the Black Sea region, Beijing, Warsaw, Prague, Tirana, Bucharest, and other places in the USSR and the world constantly arrived in Moscow. Thousands of wreaths were laid.

The Chinese delegation brought wreaths from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Tse-tung. The mourning watch was carried out by Chou En-lai, Clement Gottwald, Boleslav Bierut, Matthias Rakosi, Vylko Chervenkov, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Palmiro Togliatti, Walter Ulbricht, Otto Grotewohl, Dolores Ibarruri, Harry Pollitt, Johann Koplenig, Ville Pessi, Pietro Nenni, Hume zhagiin Tsedenbal.

Standing at the coffin were Finnish Prime Minister Urho K. Kekkonen and Chairman of the All-India Peace Council Saifuddin Kitchlu.

The farewell lasted three days and three nights, as people walked through the Hall of Columns.

March 9 - funeral day

List of generals and admirals who carried Stalin's awards on the day of the funeral

Third day with open doors
all Moscow, the whole world
everyone walked and walked.
For the third day we tried to believe
to his death. And they couldn't.
The quiet orchestras died down.
Moans of grief are restrained in the chest.
This night of farewell and sadness
ended.
Immortality is ahead.

Malenkov, Beria, Khrushchev spoke at the funeral meeting, their speeches were published and 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.

Reburial of Stalin's body

On the last day of the congress, the first secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee, 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.

N. Zakharov and the Kremlin commandant, Lieutenant General 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.

In literature

Stalin's funeral became the subject of numerous mournful responses from Soviet poets, published in the central press. Alexander Tvardovsky's poems began:

In this hour of greatest sorrow
I won't find those words
So that they fully express
Our nationwide misfortune.
Our nationwide loss,
The one we're crying about now.
But I believe in a wise party -
She is our support!

...And here he lies on a magnificent pedestal,
Between the red stars, in a shining coffin,
“The Greatest of the Greats” - Oska Stalin,
Having surpassed all the Caesars by fate.

Notes

see also

• The Great Farewell

Links

Audio recordings

Newsreel

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin
Origin, family
Biography: Milestones
Global projects of the Stalin period
Cult of personality
Ideology of the Stalin period
Stalin and culture
Works of Stalin
Spiritual world of Stalin
Life of Stalin
Stalin and public consciousness

Illustration: Chance meetings - STALIN by inObrAS

First, the former comrades played out a scenario of nationwide grief: a long farewell to the body, Red Square packed with people, radio broadcast throughout the country. Then - a complete contrast: hastily erected shields near the Mausoleum, a quick and unnoticeable burial. The funeral turned out to be different - as was the attitude towards the personality of the leader, associated with both the Great Victory and the bloody terror.

Questionable documents

According to the official conclusion, Stalin died on March 5, 1953 at his dacha in Kuntsevo. But guards found an unconscious body lying on the floor on March 1. The country's top leaders were urgently summoned to the dacha. They didn’t even try to do anything: everyone believed that they would only benefit from the death of the first person of the state.

Doctors were allowed to see Stalin only the next morning. On March 4, the leader’s illness was reported on the radio, and the next day he was gone.

All documents relating to Stalin's death are kept in the KGB archives. Recently, they were removed from the classification of secrecy. Historians had the opportunity to study the leader’s medical record and a journal with records of last days his life.

These documents have numerous inconsistencies. For example, from the medical record it follows that Stalin had fused 2nd and 3rd toes on his left foot. But the pathologists’ report says nothing about this, although the legs are described in the most detail. The same applies to the defect of the left hand - in the documents signed by 19 professors there is no indication that it was not fully extended.

In addition, Stalin’s legs varied in thickness, as recorded in the same medical card. But this is not reflected in the pathological report.

In connection with such inconsistencies, historians suggest that the body examined by doctors could not belong to Stalin, but to his double - and later it was he who was buried twice.

But this seems unlikely: how was it possible for the double to die the same death from paralysis? And if doctors, under pressure, signed a deliberately false report, then why with obvious errors in the description of the body?

Mausoleum instead of GUM

The coffin with Stalin’s body was placed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, where there was a huge line for farewell day and night.

And the country's leadership these days was hastily deciding the issue of funerals. Some records of conversations and meetings dedicated to the funeral ceremony and perpetuating the memory of Stalin have been preserved, including a discussion of proposals sent by labor collectives.

The idea of ​​building a new district in Moscow with the name “In Memory of Comrade Stalin” was seriously considered, where his museum, an exhibition of scientific and technological achievements, the largest sports center in the country and other objects should be located. It was planned to create the district by December 21, 1959, the leader’s eightieth birthday.

Among other proposals, one can note the renaming of Moscow State University to the University named after Stalin, as well as requests to name the Soviet Army the Army named after Comrade Stalin, and Georgia - the Stalin SSR.

The issue of a separate Stalin pantheon was discussed. The project involved the demolition of GUM and the installation of a new mausoleum in its place. The Pantheon had to be distinguished by its substantial scale in order to subsequently place there the bodies of other deceased leaders of the country. Its approximate cost was 280 million rubles (with an average salary of 720 rubles per month).

But the point of view of reasonable economy won. It was decided to place Stalin’s body in the existing Mausoleum next to Lenin’s body. Only 100 wreaths from the country's top leadership and fraternal communist parties should have been carried behind the coffin. Thousands of other wreaths from all over the country were placed next to the Mausoleum.

Tragedy on Trubnaya Square

During the three-day farewell to the body, only tragic music was broadcast on the radio. Several thousand female mourners came from Georgia to attend the funeral. They cried near the House of Unions and at the funeral ceremony - so much so that their crying was heard on the radio broadcast.

For three days in a row, from March 6 to 8, hundreds of thousands of people sought to see the leader for the last time. It was possible to get to the House of Unions only along Pushkinskaya Street (now Bolshaya Dmitrovka) from Trubnaya Square. It was in this square that the bulk of the people gathered.

Soldiers and mounted militia tried to hold back the crowd. The side streets leading from the square were blocked by trucks. People were squeezed from all sides, those who fell were simply trampled to death.

This tragedy lasted for three farewell days. The authorities pretended that nothing was happening. The soldiers pushed back the crowd and collected the dead bodies, they were taken out of the city and buried in mass graves.

According to various sources, the number of people killed in the stampede on Trubnaya Square ranged from 1.5 to 2 thousand, and in total about 2 million people passed by the coffin with the leader’s body.

Exactly 105 minutes

Stalin's first funeral took place on Red Square on March 9, 1953. Only 12 thousand workers and 4,400 soldiers of military bands and an honor guard were allowed there. The funeral ceremony was planned in advance - and clearly took the planned 105 minutes.

At 10:15, the country's leaders and the officers next to them lifted the coffin with the body into their arms and placed it on a gun carriage. The procession began moving towards the Mausoleum to the accompaniment of funeral music.

Before the coffin, Stalin's awards were carried on satin pillows by generals and marshals (including Semyon Budyonny, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky and Kirill Meretskov). The procession was clearly demarcated: first the members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, then the family, then members and candidates for membership of the Central Committee, then the heads of delegations of the fraternal Communist Parties and, at the end of the procession, the military guard.

At 10:45 the coffin was placed on a special pedestal in front of the Mausoleum. The meeting was opened by the new head of the party, Nikita Khrushchev, and farewell speeches were read by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Georgy Malenkov and his deputies Lavrenty Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov.

At 11:54, Khrushchev announced the closing of the meeting. The coffin with the leader’s body was brought into the Mausoleum, over the entrance to which a new granite slab was installed with the names of Lenin and Stalin.

Exactly at 12:00, immediately after the chimes, an artillery salute sounded. At the same time, factories, ships, cars and trains were blaring their horns throughout the country. A solemn military parade was held next to the Mausoleum.

Personality or cult of personality?

Stalin's second funeral was preceded by a number of historical events for the country.

In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev spoke “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences,” accusing the former leader of the destruction of many innocent people. The report was received ambiguously by Soviet society, mainly due to the fact that Khrushchev himself actively participated in the repressions. Moreover, already in November 1957, speaking at a session of the Supreme Council of the USSR, he stated that the party would actively fight those who denigrate the image of Stalin.

As a result, neither the associates of the new leader of the country nor ordinary citizens understood the official attitude of the authorities towards the deceased leader. And Khrushchev himself could not decide on this for some time.

Spared the buttons

Clarity came during the XXII Congress of the CPSU (October 17-31, 1961), on the penultimate day of which the head of the Leningrad party organization, Ivan Spiridonov, proposed removing Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum. Khrushchev supported this initiative, after which it was unanimously approved by the congress delegates.

The reburial took place the next evening. What was the reason for such a rush?

Some historians connect it with the tests of the world's most powerful hydrogen bomb on October 30, 1961: they say, Khrushchev decided to present two important events at once as leading news for Western countries. But, most likely, the speed of the event was caused by the fear of popular unrest, which could interfere with the reburial.

At first it was planned that Stalin would be buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife. But then the authorities became alarmed that supporters of the former leader might dig up the body, and decided to create a grave near the Kremlin wall.

A commission was created to supervise the funeral, headed by the chairman of the party control committee, Nikolai Shvernik. The head of the Communist Party of Georgia, Vasily Mzhavanadze, was included in its composition, but he said he was ill.

The funeral took place in complete secrecy. Under the pretext of preparing for the parade on November 7, all passages to Red Square were blocked. Plywood shields were installed on both sides of the Mausoleum, blocking visibility.

In total, about 30 people took part in the burial. Members of the commission arrived at the mausoleum at 21:00; under their leadership, the officers transferred Stalin’s body from the sarcophagus to the coffin.

The Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor was removed from the leader’s uniform, and the gold buttons were also replaced with brass ones. Later they were transferred to a special security room where the awards of all those buried near the Kremlin wall are kept.

True, the military parade after the second funeral did take place - on the evening of October 31, a rehearsal for the ceremonial march, which was to be held on November 7, took place on Red Square. The warriors typed a step, not knowing that by doing so they were again paying homage to their former idol.

Victor Svetlanin