The crush at Stalin's funeral, how many people died? Stalin's funeral: newsreels and rare photographs Farewell to the leader
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The leaders of the Party and the Government at the coffin of I. V. Stalin. Column Hall of the House of Unions March 6, 1953. LP Beria's face is blackened in the photo.
For farewell, Stalin's body was exhibited on March 6 in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. From 4 pm the first streams of people came, wishing to say goodbye to Stalin.
Stalin was lying in a coffin, on a high pedestal, framed by red banners, roses and green branches. He was wearing his favorite everyday grayish-green uniform with a turn-down collar, on which the general's overcoat buttonholes were sewn. It differed from its lifetime form only in the sewn shoulder straps of the Generalissimo and gold buttons. In addition to the order strips, the medals "Gold Star" and "Hammer and Sickle" were attached to the jacket (although Stalin wore only the latter during his lifetime).
Crystal chandeliers with electric candles were covered with black crepe. Sixteen scarlet velvet panels, edged with black silk, with the coats of arms of the Union republics are fixed on white marble columns. The gigantic banner of the USSR was bent over Stalin's head. In front of the coffin, on the atlas, lay the Marshal's Star, orders and medals of Stalin. Mourning melodies of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart sounded.
In front of the coffin, residents of Moscow and other cities, representatives of various enterprises, institutions, and the Armed Forces passed continuously. The leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the government were on guard at the coffin of I. V. Stalin: 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, spotlights installed on trucks were turned on, they illuminated the squares and streets along which thousands of columns 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, even after dark, and the farewell 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 in wreaths from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Mao Tse-tung. Chou En-lai, Clement Gottwald, Boleslav Bierut, Matthias Rakosi, Vylko Chervenkov, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Palmiro Togliatti, Walter Ulbricht, Otto Grotewohl, Dolores Ibarruri, Harry Kopessin, Vilko Yumjagiin Tsedenbal. Finnish Prime Minister Urho K. Kekkonen and Chairman of the All India Peace Council Sayfuddin Kitchlu were also at the coffin.
The farewell lasted for three days and three nights. At about midnight on March 8, the farewell ended and preparations for the funeral began. At 2 o'clock in the morning, numerous wreaths began to be brought out. Since it was decided to carry only 100 wreaths behind the coffin from the country's leadership, the largest party organizations, foreign communist parties and relatives, the rest of the wreaths, the number of which was in the thousands, were installed by morning on both sides of the Mausoleum.
March 9 - the day of the funeral
Marshals and generals carried Stalin's awards on satin cushions: 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. Ya. Malinovsky), three Orders of the Red Banner (Marshals K. A. Meretskov, S. I. Bogdanov and Colonel General Kuznetsov), the Order of Suvorov I degree (Army General Zakharov). The medals were carried by Vice-Admiral V. A. Fokin, Air Marshal K. A. Vershinin, General of the Army I. Kh. Bagramyan, Colonel-General M. I. Nedelin and K. S. Moskalenko.
The members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU followed the coffin, then the family, members and candidates for members 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 am, the coffin was removed from the gun carriage and installed on a red pedestal in front of the Mausoleum. Preparations for the rally began (the rise of the participants to the podium of the Mausoleum). The workers of Moscow, delegations of the union and autonomous republics, territories and regions gathered in the square, representatives of China, the countries of people's democracy, delegations and representatives of other states were also present.
The chairman of the Commission for organizing Stalin's funeral, NS Khrushchev, who opened the meeting, gave the floor to GM Malenkov, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. The next 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 delivered a speech.
At 11 hours 54 minutes, Khrushchev announced the memorial meeting closed. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Boleslav Bierut, Pach Dem Lee, Walter Ulbricht, Dolores Ibarruri, Otto Grotewohl, Vylko Chervenkov, Matthias Rakosi, Pietro Nenni, Palmiro Togliatti, Jacques A. Ducoulduld, Clemero M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, G. M. Malenkov, N. S. Khrushchev, L. P. Beria, M. 3. Saburov, Chou 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 slowly brought him to the Mausoleum.
At 12 o'clock, an artillery salute was fired over the Kremlin. The sounds of the funeral march were followed by the honking of Moscow industrial enterprises, and five minutes of silence began throughout the country. The funeral march was replaced by the solemn Anthem of the Soviet Union. The State Flag of the Soviet Union, lowered after Stalin's death, was raised over the Kremlin. At 12 hours 10 minutes, troops marched in front of the Mausoleum, planes flew in formation in the sky.
The speeches given at the rally were published and later included in the movie The Great Farewell. The embalmed body of Stalin 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 decree 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 the burials at the Kremlin wall, but these projects were actually curtailed very soon.
Crush during Stalin's funeral
During the funeral, there was a stampede in the Trubnaya Square area. In the stampede, from several hundred to two to three thousand people died (official data on the number of victims are 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 IV Spiridonov rose to the rostrum and after a short 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. The people in the groups were having excited conversations. Their content can be summarized as follows: "Why was this issue resolved without consulting the people?"
NS Zakharov with the commandant of the Kremlin, Lieutenant-General A. Ya. Vedenin, learned about the impending decision in advance. Khrushchev summoned them and said:
I ask you to bear 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 City Council.
N.M.Shvernik told the performers how to secretly organize the reburial: since the parade was to be held 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 a separate special-purpose regiment of the commandant's office of the Moscow Kremlin, 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 in black and red crepe. From the commandant's office of the Kremlin, six soldiers were allocated to dig the grave and eight officers in order to first carry 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 people who were reliable, proven and had previously proven themselves well.
The disguise 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". She had to close the inscription "LENIN STALIN" on the Mausoleum until the letters were laid out in marble. At 18:00, the passages to Red Square were closed, after which the servicemen began to dig a hole for a burial.
All members of the commission, except for 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 researchers who had previously observed the state of Stalin's embalmed body. The glass was removed from the sarcophagus, and the officers put Stalin's body in a coffin.
NM Shvernik ordered to remove the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor 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 golden buttons of the uniform with brass ones. All this was carried out by the commandant of the Mausoleum, Colonel K. A. Moshkov. He handed over the removed award and buttons to a special Guard room, where the awards of all those buried at 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 grave. Someone threw a handful of earth, as it should be according to Christian tradition. The grave was buried. A slab of white marble was placed on top with the inscription: "STALIN JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH 1879-1953". Then she served as a gravestone for a long time, until a bust was erected in 1970.
Lenin's sarcophagus was installed in a central place, where it stood before Stalin's funeral in 1953.
In 1970, a monument was unveiled at the grave (a 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".
Image copyright Getty Images
On March 9, 1953, the funeral of Joseph Stalin took place in Moscow. On the eve of the burial, a catastrophe occurred in the center of the city, which was not publicly discussed until the era of perestroika.
Doctors ascertained the death of the leader on March 5, at 21 hours 50 minutes. The people were informed about her at 6 am the next day by the voice of the announcer Yuri Levitan. On the same day, the farewell coffin was exhibited in the Column Hall of the House of Unions.
The funeral was scheduled for the morning of Monday March 9th. Until that time, according to estimates, about two million people wished to see the deceased.
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"Death of Stalin" through the eyes of a funeral witnessOn the second day of farewell, the doors of the Column Hall were closed to ordinary visitors, and only official delegations were allowed to enter. Those wishing to see Stalin's body had to stand again in a giant line the next day, and on Sunday evening, March 8, the influx intensified sharply as people rushed to take advantage of the last opportunity.
Belted with ribbons of mourning, Moscow plunged into silence. Her grief for the leader is deep, Her heart is squeezed by anguish. I walk in the midst of the stream of people, Woe has bound my heart. I'm going to take a quick look at the leader of the dear man "Vladimir Vysotsky, student of the 8th grade, future poet and actor
The route of the bulk of people ran along the Boulevard Ring through Trubnaya Square to Pushkin Square, and then along Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Tverskaya (then Pushkinskaya and Gorky Street) to the Column Hall on Okhotny Ryad.
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The center of Moscow was physically unable to accommodate such a large number of people. The authorities did not restrict admission on distant approaches, but at the same time tightly cordoned off the route along the central streets, blocked the side lanes with military trucks, and did not allow the crowd to spread out in different directions.
New arrivals continued to push from behind. As a result, many trapped people died from chest compression or were trampled.
No one in the leadership of the country and the capital took care of ordering the troops and militia to change tactics and somehow regulate the density of the crowd. The perpetrators of the criminal negligence have not been identified.
Image copyright TASS / Naum Granovsky Image caption Trubnaya Square in the late 40s - early 50s of the last centuryA similar tragedy occurred in Moscow on the Khodynskoye field on May 18, 1896 during the coronation of the last Russian tsar.
Then Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna were accused of a lack of sympathy for the victims, since they did not cancel further celebrations and did not declare mourning in the country. However, the tragedy was not hushed up: the imperial couple visited the wounded in hospitals, and the families of the victims were paid 100 rubles each - a lot of money for ordinary people in those days.
The number of victims of the first Khodynka is known for sure: 1389 dead and 1301 injured.
The communist authorities simply hid their "Khodynka". No investigation was carried out, the number of deaths and injuries is unknown even approximately. Various sources give figures from 100 to two thousand.
The Memorial Society collected the memories of the participants in the events, at that time very young people. Some survived that Sunday evening, March 8, 1953, by sheer luck.
Elena Vladimirovna Pasternak (b. 1936), literary critic:
Our good friend, Irina Glebovna Glinka, was visiting a friend in a house on the corner of Dmitrovka and Stoleshnikov. Irina Glebovna was locked up there and for several days she could not leave, because the gate to the courtyard was closed. And from the windows of the apartment they heard the grinding, screams of the crushed all day long. And then they saw how heaps of galoshes, shoes, pieces of people were taken out.
Yuri Antonovich Borko (b. 1929), economist:
It was a bright March morning, and we walked silently down the street, heading for the nearest morgue in the First City Hospital. I was anxious, but hoped that Tolya, a strong 30-year-old man who had gone through the war, had managed to get out of the crush.
Already from a distance we saw a crowd of people near the morgue. Their appearance left no doubt that they came here for the same reason as us. Tolya was not in this morgue.
We found it in the following. There, too, were shocked and grief-stricken people looking for their relatives.
The identification procedure went quickly. The pathologist said that Tolya was found near one of the houses on Trubnaya Square, next to a low-lying window covered with a massive cast-iron grating. He was pushed into her with such force that the chest was shattered into many pieces.
Moscow morgues and registry offices were instructed to issue death certificates with a false record of its causes.
Lyudmila Ivanovna Dashevskaya (b. 1930), chemist:
We walked from number 32 to number 20 along Bolshaya Dmitrovka from six in the evening until twelve. Young people made their way over the rooftops and fell on this crowd from above.
Near the fence of the Prosecutor General's Office, it seemed to me that someone was breathing on me from above. I raised my eyes - this is the face of a horse.
The rider says to me: "Girl, get under the car as soon as possible and go home."
I climbed between the cars and all wrinkled and beaten went out to Stoleshnikov Lane. There was cleanliness, emptiness, and trash cans.
I sat down on one of these urns. I sat down and found that my fur collar had been torn off and that someone else's galosh was wearing on one of my boots. How could I get into it? If I specifically wanted to - and then I would not be able to.
The next day, we, young workers of the plant, were asked to go out with brooms and shovels to Strastnoy Boulevard.
We collected what was lying around. And lying around - it was just amazing! It’s like they threw a recycling center onto the street. There were scarves, galoshes, boots or one felt boots, hats - which was not there.
Elena Vladimirovna Zaks, (b. 1934), journalist:
I understood that this was a historical event, I somehow wanted to fix it in my memory. Unfortunately, the historical event can be seen on TV or from above. And if you walk in a crowd, you see nothing around.
I don't really remember where I entered this crowd, and then we walked along the boulevard that leads from Pushkin Square past Trubnaya Square and up.
The crowd grew thicker and thicker, you were carried in this crowd, you could not do anything. And if you wanted to stop, you couldn't. There were no crushed victims yet, you just couldn't get out of this stream.
I was carried quite close to the fence, and military men were standing along the fence. These were people from the MGB, because they had other greatcoats: not green, but gray-blue. And a young man, so tall, handsome, with a thoroughbred elongated face, like a German shepherd, and wearing a white scarf, grabbed me by the collar and strap and threw me over the fence. He pulled me out of there because there was little weight in me.
Igor Borisovich Kaspe (b.1934), civil engineer:
Turning from Mayakovsky Square to Gorky Street, I found myself in a crowd of complete strangers of all ages. Many were newcomers. It was sunny, but very cold.
At the Museum of the Revolution we were met by the first screen - the mounted militia. The crowd pressed silently. Snoring, politely backing away from people, horses. One, finally, lost her nerves. She hid, then, rustling, reared up. A gap formed into which the crowd poured.
People ran, fell, crushed each other. A few steps ahead of me, a girl stumbled and fell, screeching wildly. Fortunately, several guys managed to grab her by the sleeves, floors, and even, in my opinion, by the hair and carried out from under her feet those running behind. It was some kind of tsunami of people, the trample of which is still remembered.
Forward, forward, free slaves, worthy of Khodynka and Trumpets! There, ahead, the aisles are closed. Choke, open your mouths like fish. Forward, forward, story creators! You will get the pavement ends, the crunch of ribs and a cast-iron fence, and the tramp of a maddened herd, and dirt and blood in the corners of bloodless lips. You can do without high pipes "Herman Plisetskiy, poet, eyewitness of the tragedy
At Pushkin Square, the street was blocked by trucks. Soldiers stood in the trucks on sandbags and with their boots fought off those who were trying to climb onto the sides.
By some miracle, I was carried into the broken window of a women's clothing store. For a long time later, passing by, I looked at her with a feeling of gratitude.
Standing among the mannequins, I heard strange sounds and did not immediately understand - it was the grinding of the rubber of the wheels gripped by the brakes. Under the pressure of the crowd, the trucks skidded. There were screams of those pressed to the cars, the soldiers began to pull some of them up.
And the people from the side of the Belorussky railway station kept coming and coming.
I felt frankly scared: "What have I lost here? What do I want?"
If I have ever done sensible deeds in my life, then one of them did just then - I don't remember how I got out of the window, then out of the crowd and ran home, past the crippled, over galoshes, hats, and glasses lying on the pavement.
The next day, rumors spread about a much more terrible "Khodynka" - on Trubnaya Square. But they were afraid to talk about it for a long time.
Boris Sergeevich Rodionov (b. 1934), journalist:
It was probably 11 pm, or a little later. I had to go to Kirovskaya, to the center, and I barely crossed the boulevard at the Sretensky Gate, because there was a continuous stream of people down the boulevard down to Trubnaya Square.
So gloomy, completely silent, dark, only the sound of boots, boots on the asphalt is heard. Such a formidable, ominous procession.
People walked stubbornly, stubbornly, evil, I would even say. Moreover, what they were counting on, I do not know, because the admission could only open in the morning - that means they were supposed to spend the whole night there?
There was no police visible, no mouthpieces. The stream blocked Sretenka and went along the boulevards completely uncontrolled, not organized, not restrained.
In the end, this led to the tragedy on Trubnaya Square. She's standing in a hole, as it were - on one side the boulevard goes down, and on the other side the boulevard goes down. And when people on both sides threw themselves into a huge number, with all the vaunted Stalinist organization, the police and the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not work.
Nikolay Viktorovich Pertsov (b. 1944), philologist:
On the day of the funeral, I remembered the beeps that sounded when the coffin was brought into the mausoleum, I heard them at home on Sokol.
Factories hummed, at some point everything hummed. It was totally creepy.
My older sister, who was 15 years old, went to the funeral with the school.
She did not return for some time, and at home it became known about the victims. For two or three hours there was an alarm in the house.
But those who were leading the children realized that they had to be taken away, because either it would take a long time, or it could even end tragically, so she did not get to the farewell.
Vera Davydovna Zvonareva (b. 1941), librarian:
The ambulance did not arrive - that day, apparently, there was no time for mere mortals.
Natalia Mikhailovna Leontovich (born 1934) mathematician:
It never occurred to anyone in our family to go to this funeral.
My father had a birthday on March 7, in 1953 he turned 50 years old. So he used to say: "I received my present for the anniversary!"
And then we began to celebrate March 5 as a holiday. I don’t remember from what year, but quite early and for very many years. They called friends, set the table, drank, put the portrait of Stalin upside down. The main toast, which was pronounced: "So as not to be resurrected!"
Joseph Vissarionovich died on March 5 from a cerebral hemorrhage in his official residence - Blizhnyaya Dacha. He was 73 years old. The news of Stalin's death instantly spread throughout the country, in different parts of the Soviet Union thousands of people gathered for funeral rallies. All government departments, schools, higher educational institutions have ceased their work.
“The heart is bleeding ...
Our beloved, our dear!
Grabbing your headboard
The Motherland is crying over You "
These lines, which belonged to the poetess Olga Berggolts, appeared during the farewell days of Stalin in the newspaper Pravda (Bergholz's first husband was shot in 1938, in the same year she was arrested on charges of being an enemy of the people, but later rehabilitated).
Stalin's body was exhibited in the Column Hall of the House of Unions on March 6. The coffin was installed on a high pedestal, around - red roses. Above the headboard is the banner of the USSR. People came both day and night. They traveled to Moscow from all over the country. Party leaders were on the guard of honor. Foreign delegations also said goodbye to the Soviet leader. Flowers were brought in so many that most of them had to be put at the Mausoleum. The farewell lasted three days.
The order in the streets was ensured by soldiers and detachments of the mounted militia. , March 9, a huge number of people gathered within the Boulevard Ring. Those living in neighboring houses were locked up in their apartments. The human flow suddenly stopped, and a crush began on Trubnaya Square. Historian Dmitry Volkogonov in his book "Triumph and Tragedy" writes: "The deceased leader remained true to himself: and when he was dead, he could not allow the altar to be empty. The crowd of people was so great that in several places on the streets of Moscow there was a terrible crush, which claimed many lives. " The death toll in the stampede is not known exactly - at least several hundred people.
Funeral demonstration. (RIA News)
A funeral ceremony began on Red Square at 10 o'clock in the morning. The coffin with Stalin's body was carried by Khrushchev, Beria, Malenkov, Molotov, Voroshilov, Mikoyan, Bulganin and Kaganovich. After the mourning rally, an artillery salute thundered, airplanes flew over Red Square. The embalmed body of Stalin was transferred to the Mausoleum.
On March 9, 1953, a crowd of many thousands gathered in the center of the Soviet capital - people came to say goodbye to the leader. History has known cases before when pandemonium led to numerous casualties. For example, the tragedy on the Khodynskoye field, which occurred on the day of the coronation of Nicholas II. But in what happened in March 1953, many saw a terrible mystical sign: the executioner of his people continued to destroy the Soviet people even after his death.
How many people died at Stalin's funeral? What caused the crush in the area
The death of the Kremlin dictator
Both the life and death of the greatest dictator of the 20th century are still covered with an impenetrable veil of secrets. Therefore, there is no unequivocal answer to the question of how many people died at Stalin's funeral.
The news of the death of the leader plunged the whole country into shock. The news of Stalin's death did not leave indifferent the inhabitants of other states either. The man who for thirty years set the tone for world politics has died. A man who destroyed a significant part of his people, but at the same time turned backward Russia into a mighty Soviet Union.
Universal grief
Stalin terrified, at the same time instilled love and devotion. On March 5, on the Soviet streets, one could see people immersed in deep sadness. They did not grieve so much for the departed leader as they were in terrible uncertainty. Stalin died, and it became unclear how to live on, what to expect from tomorrow.
Soviet newspapers on the holiday of March 8 spoke exclusively about the death of the Generalissimo. Mourning was declared, and all entertainment events were canceled. According to a government decree, the coffin with the body of the leader was to be moved to the mausoleum on March 9. But he did not stay here for long. In 1961, Stalin's body was taken out of the mausoleum.
Who attended the funeral?
On March 9, a crowd gathered near the Kremlin, most of which were visitors. Gloomy men in sheepskin coats, worried women in country-style tied headscarves, curious children and naively fearless adolescents - they all came to say goodbye to the "father of nations." It was announced that a popular farewell will take place in the Hall of Columns. The queue was colossal.
Stalin's funeral was a grandiose event. He ruled the country from 1924 until his death. During this period, a generation grew up that did not know anything about life without him. He was perceived as a kind of celestial. His personal life was classified. In the country, not only did they not speak, but were even afraid to think that the Generalissimo was just an ordinary person with his own vices and shortcomings.
There were many teenagers at Stalin's funeral. People of more mature age also came to say goodbye to the leader. But there were no old people in the center of Moscow that day. Elderly people rarely attend such mass events. Although the researchers believe that the reason is different: those who remembered pre-Stalin times and had the opportunity to compare, did not want to take part in the mourning event.
On the eve of the tragedy
According to eyewitnesses, in those days people even traveled to Moscow from remote regions. It was impossible to buy tickets to the capital. On the eve of the funeral, the entrance to Moscow was closed, train traffic was canceled. The police blocked the stations. But it was too late. The capital was literally drowning from the influx of people who for the first time found themselves in a huge unfamiliar city. These people turned into a scattered and poorly controlled crowd.
The police and the alarmed army did their best to bring the situation under control. They managed to do it, but only partially. The crowd is a terrible force that even the most organized army cannot control. How many people died in the stampede? Several thousand people gathered at Stalin's funeral. The exact number of visitors and Muscovites cannot be named, of course. The death toll is classified data.
In the Column Hall
While the militia tried in vain to prevent the tragedy, in the House of Unions, framed by roses, green branches and red banners, stood a coffin, towards which an endless stream of people was going. The leader was buried in his favorite everyday uniform. Crystal chandeliers in the Hall of Columns were tightened with black crepe, and scarlet velvet panels were fixed on the white columns. On the streets of the capital, floodlights were turned on, which illuminated the path to the House of Unions.
Farewell to the leader lasted three days. The entrance to the Hall of Columns was closed on the night of March 8. Preparations for the funeral began.
To the sounds of a funeral march
Exactly at 12 o'clock, an artillery salute was fired over the Kremlin. Five minutes of silence began across the country. Yuri Levitan reported on what was happening in Moscow on the radio in his characteristic solemn style. True, he spoke only about the ceremony - about how the troops passed in front of the Mausoleum at the beginning of the first, about the planes that flew over the Kremlin. Nobody knew about the pandemonium in the country.
At the rally, speeches were made, which were later included in the documentary film "The Great Farewell". Around the time when the embalmed body of the leader was transferred to the Mausoleum, a stampede arose near Trubnaya Square.
The terrible truth about the events of March 9
There are several versions of what caused the crush. It is noteworthy that not only researchers, but also witnesses cite completely different facts.
In 1990 he shot a film in which he spoke about the events of March 1953. The painting is called Stalin's Funeral. How many people died in Moscow on March 9, 1953 is unknown. That is why historians call different numbers, relying on various information and stories of witnesses. Yevtushenko, an eyewitness to those events, believed that several thousand people had died. According to his recollections, the bodies were taken out of the city and buried in a common grave. Among the crushed were those who came to their senses, asking for help. They could still be saved. But the ambulance practically did not work.
On mourning days, driving along the central streets was prohibited. Nobody needed the wounded. Nothing was supposed to darken the funeral of the Generalissimo. Such terrible facts are cited by Yevtushenko and other witnesses. However, no researcher can say how many people died at Stalin's funeral.
Planned action
The events of March 9, 1953 are often compared to the tragedy that occurred on the day when Nicholas II ascended the throne. Some historians believe that the de-Stalinization of the country began with the desecration of the leader's funeral. That is, the crush was not accidental. On the sidelines of the Kremlin, rumors circulated about the significant and terrible phrase that Beria threw. The General Commissioner for State Security allegedly said: "Nikolai ended with Khodynka, and Stalin will end with a funeral." But this version has not been confirmed by anything.
Rozhdestvensky Boulevard
During the years of perestroika, information about how many people died during Stalin's funeral was greatly exaggerated. They said that the pandemonium formed on March 9, not only in the vicinity of the Kremlin, but also in other districts of Moscow. In reality, the real tragedy was not played out everywhere, only in one place.
For people who came to say goodbye to the deceased Generalissimo, Rozhdestvensky Boulevard, connecting Trubnaya Square with Sretenka, became a deadly trap. This street is very narrow and sloping. It was here, on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard, that the tragedy took place. People who walked from the direction of Sretenka fell into small holes near the windows of the basement rooms. When a huge crowd is walking, a person is not able to get to his feet. Another falls on him, a third. This is how the death crush begins.
Crowd in Red Square
Even today, sixty years after the death of the leader, no one has ever named the exact number of those killed during Stalin's funeral. Neither historians nor representatives of the state security have studied this issue. There is a version that people died not only on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard, but also on Red Square, which was fenced off by trucks that day. This fence was not removed even after the terrible crush began.
Some eyewitnesses say that several hundred Muscovites and visitors were injured. Others, answering the question about Stalin's funeral, assure: from two thousand.
Historian Yuri Zhukov insists that there was a lot of space between the trucks, allowing them to pass freely, that is, the square was not blocked. However, the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko in his memoirs talks about the bloody horror that gripped several streets of the center of the capital. Which one to believe? One can only guess how many people died at Stalin's funeral. No photo was taken where the tragedy occurred.
In March 1953, Soviet newspapers published notes about the people's grief, about the solemn ceremony in the Hall of Columns, about how much Joseph Vissarionovich did for the Soviet people. No hard-hitting facts were presented in the press.
Ordinary citizens did not know not only how many people died during Stalin's funeral, but even about the tragedy itself. It is impossible to restore the chronology of events. Historians give very approximate data. According to one version, about three thousand people died. According to the other, the crush took place only on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard. According to the most conservative estimates, several hundred people died.
More about Stalin's death
Farewell to the leader
The funeral of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, who died on March 5, 1953, took place four days later, on March 9
Died March 5, 1953 Joseph Stalin... Thousands of people came to say goodbye to the leader, whose body was at first in the House of Unions, and then in the Mausoleum. What the newspapers wrote about and how the witnesses of the events remember the farewell days - in the Kommersant photo gallery. On this topic:
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Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet people, died on the evening of March 5, 1953. The coffin with his remains was in the House of Unions for three days, and on March 9 it was transferred to the Mausoleum. Between these two dates, hundreds of thousands of people passed by Stalin's body. Stalin ruled for so long that the country felt more like an orphan than liberated. The poet Tvardovsky called these days "the hour of the greatest sorrow." The grief and excitement at Stalin's funeral led to hundreds of [exact data classified] killed in a stampede en route to the Hall of Columns. Pravda newspaper March 6, 1953: Dear comrades and friends! The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, with a feeling of great sorrow, inform the Party and all working people of the Soviet Union that on March 5 at 9 o'clock. For 50 minutes in the evening, the heart of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, a comrade-in-arms and genius successor to the cause of Lenin, the wise leader and teacher of the Communist Party and the Soviet people, stopped beating. The immortal name of Stalin will always live in the hearts of the Soviet people and all progressive mankind. "
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Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 6, 1953: “In order to perpetuate the memory of the great leaders Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, as well as prominent figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, buried in Red Square near the Kremlin wall, build a monumental building - the Pantheon - a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country. At the end of the construction of the Pantheon, transfer to it the sarcophagus with the body of V. I. Lenin and the sarcophagus with the body of I. V. Stalin, as well as the remains of prominent figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state buried at the Kremlin wall, and open access to the Pantheon for the broad masses of working people ". The Pantheon was planned to be built either on the site of the historic GUM, or on a wide highway from Moscow University to the Palace of Soviets, but they did not realize their plans. Stalin's remains were buried at the Kremlin wall.
3. Photo: Oleg Knorring
Stalin's death was marked by hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths in a stampede en route to the Hall of Columns. Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko recalled how a young man found himself in this terrible crowd: "In some places on Trubnaya Square you had to raise your legs high - they walked over the meat."
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Yuri Borko, born in 1929, student of the history department of Moscow State University: “I will refrain from telling how different people perceived Stalin's death, all this came to light later. And on March 6, the main and lasting impression of what he saw was the insanity of thousands and thousands of Muscovites who rushed into the streets to join the queue and see a dead man who, with more reason than Louis XIV himself, could say about himself: "The state is me ". "I" turned to dust, and this was perceived by millions of Soviet citizens almost as the collapse of the universe. I was shocked too. All my critical reflections, which had been accumulating over several years, seemed to be erased. "
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Newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" March 7, 1953: "A grave misfortune befell our country, our people. The towns and villages of the beloved Motherland were dressed in mourning. As soon as a message was broadcast on the radio that the coffin with the body of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was installed in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, an uncontrollable stream of people rushed to the center from all parts of the capital, from its outskirts, from its outposts. People walked in groups alone, walked in families, holding hands, or with large garlands of flowers and very small modest wreaths. They walked in silence, sternly knitting their eyebrows, looking at the low-lowed flags with a black border, hung on the gables of the buildings. Thousands of people were moving towards the House of Unions, but the silence reigned as if there was no such huge stream of people, merged in immeasurable and deepest sorrow. Everyone in those minutes understood: together it is easier. "
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Speech of Patriarch Alexy I on the day of the funeral: “Having gathered to pray for him, we cannot pass in silence through his always benevolent, sympathetic attitude to our church needs. The memory of him is unforgettable for us, and our Russian Orthodox Church, mourning his departure from us, sees him off on his last journey, "on the path of all the earth," with fervent prayer. We prayed for him when the news of his serious illness came. And now we pray for the peace of his immortal soul. We believe that our prayer for the deceased will be heard by the Lord. And to our beloved and unforgettable Joseph Vissarionovich, we prayerfully, with deep, ardent love proclaim eternal memory. "
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Maya Nusinova, born in 1927, school teacher: “Many people told later, and now there are as many memories as they were happy when they learned about Stalin's death, as they repeated: dead, dead. I don't know, I only remember the horror. As for the doctors, they said that the process would end with a public execution, and the rest of the Jews would be loaded into carriages, like kulaks once, and taken out, that the barracks were already ready somewhere in Siberia. There was a teacher in my school, her husband worked somewhere in the Central Committee, so after Timashuk's article she shouted in the teacher's room: think, the children of these nonhumans studied with ours! Yes, I thought that without Stalin this hatred would spill out, that only he could control it, and now they will start killing us. It was naive, of course, but so it seemed to me then. "
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Sergei Agadzhanyan, born in 1929, a student of Stankin: “We approached the coffin. I had a wild thought: I have never seen Stalin, but now I will. A few steps away. There were no members of the Politburo at that moment, only ordinary people. But even in the Hall of Columns, I did not notice the crying people. The people were frightened - by death, by the crowd - maybe they did not cry from fright? Fear mixed with curiosity, loss, but not melancholy, not mourning. "
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Oleg Basilashvili, born in 1934, a student at the Moscow Art Theater: “I lived on Pokrovka and went to study on foot - along Pokrovka, along Maroseika, then along Teatralny Proezd, then along Pushkinskaya Street (B. Dmitrovka - ed.) , up the Kamergersky - and came to the Moscow Art Theater studio. In order to get into the studio, in those days I had to cross two lines, which went for days to Stalin. A major was standing there, and I showed him my student card, said that I should be let through, that I should go to the studio. But as a result, I joined the queue and very soon found myself in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. There was no guard of honor at the coffin, in any case, I did not pay attention. I was amazed that there was no particular mourning atmosphere in the hall. It was very light, very dusty, and there were a huge number of wreaths along the walls. Stalin lay in a uniform with shiny buttons. His face, which was always so kind in the photographs, struck me as deadly evil. "
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The New York Times: “Moscow has begun to stir. Buses scurried back and forth. More and more mustard-colored convoy trucks could be seen on the streets. I was taken aback. It seemed to me that a coup was being prepared. "
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Elena Orlovskaya, born in 1940, schoolgirl: “At recess, everyone walked quietly too, and at the beginning of the second lesson the teacher came in, pointed her finger at one girl and me: and you go with me. We came to the assembly hall. On the right there are two windows, between them there is an opening, in the opening the generalissimo always hung, five meters high, in parade, in full growth, in a tunic. There is such a red step and the flowers are always alive. The teacher says: stand in the guard of honor. They walk around, run around, no one has lessons, then gradually everyone left, silence came, and we were standing in line with our hands at the seams. We stand for an hour - the clock opposite is hanging, we stand two ... I am overwhelmed with thoughts: what will I say at home? How do I confess to my dad that I was on the guard of honor? It was torture. "
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Lyudmila Dashevskaya, born in 1930, senior laboratory engineer at the Krasnaya Zvezda plant: “And as I was all wrinkled and beaten, I went out - just in time for Stoleshnikov Lane. And there was cleanliness, emptiness and litter bins. And I was so emaciated that I sat down on one of these urns and rested. And I walked first along Stoleshnikov, then along Petrovka, then went out along Likhov Lane to Sadovoe. Silence, light was burning everywhere, like in a room, everything was lit. And what amazed me: all the posters (they used to be pasted on wooden boards) - all the posters were pasted over with white paper. Therefore, from time to time, these white spots were displayed on an empty street. And there was no one to the people. "
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The newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" March 8, 1953: "The name of the great Stalin has been borne by the Moscow depot of the October railway for more than a quarter of a century. 26 years ago, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin made a speech here at a meeting of workers. The funeral meeting begins. The workers listened with deep emotion to the appeal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to all party members, to all working people of the Soviet Union. The floor is given to the machinist Hero of Socialist Labor V. I. Vyshegradsev. He says:
He who was our father, teacher and friend, who, together with the great Lenin, created our mighty party, our socialist state, who showed us the path to communism, left us. The great Stalin, the creator of our happiness, has died! "
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Andrey Zaliznyak, born in 1935, student of the philological faculty of Moscow State University: “It became known that some distant acquaintances had died, mostly boys and girls. In many places people died, on Trubnaya it was the most terrible and on Dmitrovka too - there quite a lot of people were simply crushed against the walls. Any protrusion of the wall was enough ... corpses were lying almost all the way. My then friend turned out to be unusually dexterous, he was a heroic man, and he considered it his duty to be there without fail. He said that he managed to walk past Stalin's coffin three times - maybe he exaggerated his exploits a little. Then it became clear that it was a lethal number. "
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Formally, Stalin was buried twice. The second time on the night from October 31 to November 1, 1961, at the Kremlin wall, covering the burial place with plywood shields. Red Square was cordoned off by the military all night. Stalin had already been exposed by the congress, and there were no people left in the country who did not understand what was happening.
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Former director of the Mausoleum laboratory, Professor Sergei Debov, on the autopsy of Stalin in a special gentle way, so that later it would be easier to preserve the embalmed body: “On the night of March 5-6, 1953, first of all, they made a cast of the hands and face. Then they proceeded to the autopsy and temporary embalming. There was a surprise. We never saw Stalin during his lifetime. In his portraits, he was always handsome, youthful. But it turned out that the face with severe pockmarks and age spots. They appear especially after death. It is impossible to put up such a face for farewell in the Hall of Columns. We did a great job removing the stains. But then, after installing the coffin, I had to mask everything with light. Otherwise, everything was as usual. We are always afraid of body contact with metal, especially copper. Therefore, everything for Stalin was made of gold - buttons, shoulder straps. The order stock was made of platinum. "
