Historical site Bagheera - secrets of history, mysteries of the universe. Mysteries of great empires and ancient civilizations, the fate of disappeared treasures and biographies of people who changed the world, secrets of special services. The history of wars, mysteries of battles and battles, reconnaissance operations of the past and present. World traditions, modern life in Russia, the mysteries of the USSR, the main directions of culture and other related topics - everything that official history is silent about.
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On January 7, 1988, the famous battle of the 9th company of the 345th separate guards parachute regiment (OPDP) took place. He gained particular fame after the release of the film “9th Company” in 2005. The director of the film, Fyodor Bondarchuk, presented this story as an example of meaningless heroism in a war that the country did not particularly need. However, in reality, everything was not entirely like that.
Hermitage - translated from French means a place of solitude, or a hermit's shelter. This largest art and cultural-historical museum in Russia houses one of the largest collections, which contains about three million works of art and monuments of world culture. The Russian Empress Catherine II began collecting this collection for herself, but since 1852 anyone can admire it.
Olga Muravyova, senior researcher, deputy chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the heiress of a famous noble family, writes in her book “How a Russian Nobleman Was Raised”: “Everything in the image of a nobleman corresponded to the cultural tradition of that time: demeanor, appearance and even Style life. By the way, the term “noble education” does not imply a strict and systematized pedagogical system or a rigid set of rules. It’s more of a cultural tradition that we tried to adhere to.”
On June 14, 1811, a daughter named Harriet was born into the family of theologian and preacher Lyman Beecher. Giving his daughter a name, the father did not know that she would not only glorify his surname, but also become the banner of all fighters for the abolition of slavery in the USA...
It’s 50 years since the events that left a noticeable mark on modern history humanity. The 1960s significantly shook up the peaceful life of the inhabitants of various parts of the Earth. The tests fell on residents of the USA and Mexico, Turkey and Japan and, of course, many countries in both Western and Eastern Europe. Here, the peak of events occurred in 1968 (let us recall, for example, the Prague Spring, crushed by tanks of the Warsaw Bloc).
For many years we looked at the world “through the eyes of Sienkiewicz” - the program “Cinema Travelers Club” invariably attracted millions of viewers. The presenter's personality was so charming and charismatic that everyone believed his every word unconditionally.
For almost 70 years, millions of women have been admiring the heroes of the book “Gone with the Wind” - falling in love with the fatal man Rhett Butler, empathizing with the staunch Scarlett O'Hara. These heroes are so vital and full-bodied that they seem to us to be completely real people. But they were born thanks to writer Margaret Mitchell.
The battles on the islands of the Moonsund archipelago are remembered in connection with Valentin Pikul’s novel “Moonsund”. In 1987, a film of the same name, an adaptation of the novel, was released in the USSR. But both the book and the film tell about the events of September-October 1917, when the ships and coastal batteries of the Baltic Fleet fought off the squadrons of the fleet of the German Emperor Wilhelm. But the defense of the islands by the Soviet Baltic troops from German troops in October 1941 remained a little-known page of history.
Late in the evening of October 31, 1961, when the entire Anglo-Saxon world celebrated Halloween, an event took place on Red Square in Moscow that absolutely fit into the context of the “alien” holiday. Stalin's body was taken out of the mausoleum...
The decision to remove the leader’s body was made the day before, on October 30, at the closing of the Communist Party Congress. However, it remains a mystery why the decision was implemented in record time - in just 24 hours?
Formally, the initiators of the removal of the body were the workers of the Leningrad Kirov Machine-Building Plant, and a certain delegate I. Spiridonov, on behalf of the Leningrad party organization, voiced it to the congress. The decision was made unanimously, and the next day, in the morning, the information was published in the Pravda newspaper.
Probably, the authorities thus prevented a negative public reaction, but there was no popular unrest, and they decided to start the reburial in the evening.
Perhaps Nikita Khrushchev, the then head of the party, remembering that “Russians take a long time to harness,” decided to take advantage of the moment - before the citizens “go quickly.” But this is unlikely. Most likely, the decision to remove Stalin from the mausoleum and the exact date of reburial were determined long before the October Congress of the CPSU Central Committee.
There may be several versions here. The most exotic one is about the connection between the removal of Stalin’s body and the Western holiday of Halloween.
During his trip to the USA in 1960, where Nikita Khrushchev’s famous speech “with a shoe” took place, the head of the USSR learned about the Halloween holiday. The inquisitive Nikita Sergeevich simply could not help but notice the abundance of pumpkins in New York in mid-October and inquire about the nature of the phenomenon. Probably, having learned the connection between Halloween and evil spirits, he decided to move it to Soviet soil - just for one day.
But another version looks more plausible. On October 30, 1961, on the eve of the removal of the leader’s body from the mausoleum, the most powerful hydrogen bomb in history was tested in the USSR. Most likely the leaders Soviet Union decided to connect two events: in the explosion of the “Tsar Bomba” they saw an excellent symbolic ritual - farewell to the cult of Stalin.
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 one. High-quality, solid, but not made of valuable wood and without any inlay with precious metals. They covered him with red cloth.
17.30-21.00. Preparing the body for reburial. They decided not to change Stalin’s clothes, so he remained in the same uniform. True, the gold embroidered shoulder straps of the generalissimo were removed from the jacket and the Star of the Hero of the USSR was taken away. They are still preserved. The buttons on the uniform were also replaced. But the talk about a smoking pipe being placed in the coffin is just a tale. According to eyewitnesses, there was nothing there. Stalin was transferred from the sarcophagus to the coffin by four soldiers. Everything was done quickly, carefully and extremely correctly.
22.00. The coffin was closed with a lid. But then an incident arose - in the haste, they completely forgot about the nails and hammer. The military ran to get the tool - and after about twenty minutes 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.
November 1st.
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 talk 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 a new inscription “STALIN LENIN” was placed on top.
But the first rains and cold weather did their job - the paint began to wear off, and the original letters treacherously appeared above the Mausoleum. Then they decided to completely replace the slab with the inscription. For your information, it weighs 40 tons. And this is not just a slab - it also served as a support for the railings of the stands located on top of the Mausoleum. The Kremlin commandant instructed the commandant of the Mausoleum, Mashkov, to take the old slab to the Golovinskoye cemetery and cut it... into monuments.
But he took it and disobeyed. The stove was taken on his personal instructions not to the churchyard, but to the factory. There it lay untouched until the moment when Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum. The factory workers said that the hand did not rise to break it. And who knows? And they turned out to be right. The old stove was returned to its original place, and the one with the inscription “STALIN LENIN” was taken to the same factory. It is still kept there. You never know...
On the morning of November 1, a huge line lined up at the Mausoleum. Many were surprised not to see Stalin inside. The military personnel standing at the entrance to the Mausoleum and in the premises were constantly approached and asked: where is Joseph Vissarionovich? The employees patiently and clearly explained what their superiors told them to do. Of course, there were visitors who were outraged when they learned that the body was interred. They say, how is it possible - why didn’t they ask the people? But the vast majority took the news completely calmly. One might even say indifferent...
Why were they reburied near the Kremlin wall?
Participants in the operation to remove Joseph Vissarionovich from the mausoleum recalled years later that the Novodevichy Convent cemetery was initially chosen as the site of reburial. This idea was abandoned a few hours before the burial. Allegedly, the authorities were worried that Stalin might subsequently be dug up by the leader’s ardent admirers, of whom there were millions more in the USSR. However, it is very hard to believe that the main officials of the country were guided by a careful attitude towards the leader’s body. Then what is the reason?
It must be said that Stalin’s burial at the Kremlin wall took place in extreme secrecy - about 30 people were directly involved in the operation itself. Moreover, relatives were not invited to the farewell ceremony. In other words, there is no one to confirm that it was Joseph Vissarionovich who was buried near the Kremlin, except for “secret” soldiers and officers with high officials.
It is no coincidence that after the reburial, rumors spread throughout Moscow that Khrushchev buried not the body of the “great helmsman” at the Kremlin walls, but someone else, or an empty coffin altogether. Stalin's body was allegedly burned in a crematorium. It is, of course, no longer possible to verify these legends.
Why was the reburial accompanied by a parade?
On the evening of October 31, 1961, Red Square was closed - a rehearsal for the parade, which was to take place on November 7, was supposed to take place there. When the participants in the operation to remove Stalin’s body were fussing about in the mausoleum, just a few tens of meters away from them brave Soviet soldiers were marching, heavy military equipment was humming...
At first glance, it seems that combining a parade rehearsal with a secret reburial operation looks quite logical. Allegedly, as participants in the removal of the body recall, this was a good reason for closing Red Square.
This seems a little naive, since Red Square late at night could hardly be called a very busy place - especially at a time when most people went to bed at nine or ten o'clock. And, of course, it is unlikely that people became very nervous about the blocking of the country’s main square even during the daytime.
Most likely, the reason was different. Probably, the party bosses of the Soviet Union again resorted to their favorite language of symbolism. The parade became a demonstrative act of strength and power before the dead tyrant was “expelled” from the pyramid.
Why was all the gold removed from Stalin's body?
A participant in the reburial operation, the commander of a separate regiment, Fyodor Konev, recalls in his memoirs that in preparation for the reburial, the gold shoulder straps of the Generalissimo, the star of the Hero of Socialist Labor were removed from Stalin and the gold buttons on his uniform were cut off and replaced with brass ones.
The nature of such a decision is not at all clear - it was not the gold that the top officials of the USSR were sorry for. If the removal of epaulettes and orders could still be attributed to a kind of act of debunking, but what does this have to do with buttons? Why create additional fuss with sewing on new, cheap ones.
Here we are dealing either with some very strange ritual, understandable only to its participants, or with the fact that the gold buttons from Stalin’s jacket were taken by the highest officials of the state as a trophy, a talisman.
Why was the mausoleum opened the next day?
This looks very strange. On the morning of November 1, a traditional line lined up in front of the mausoleum. True, the inscription “Lenin-Stalin” adorning the pyramid was covered with a cloth with the lonely surname of Vladimir Ilyich.
Why did the country's top officials, accustomed to insure themselves even in small things, decide to take a risk and let people into the mausoleum with the “lonely” Lenin. Moreover, according to eyewitnesses, Red Square was not even reinforced with security? Were the party bosses really so confident in the cold-blooded reaction of the people?
Stalin’s absence actually did not cause a negative reaction or fermentation among visitors, but who could have somehow predicted this then? Was it not the hydrogen bomb in the hands of the authorities that so humbled the hearts of Joseph Vissarionovich’s admirers?
The motives of statesmen and the secret of the composure of citizens of the USSR, the majority (and certainly those who were ready to stand in a three-hour line at the mausoleum) of whom revered Stalin as the winner of the Great Patriotic War, we will definitely never figure it out.
Why was the monument erected on Stalin’s grave only 10 years later?
Immediately after the burial of Stalin’s body, the grave was covered with a heavy marble slab with the years of the leader’s life. It remained in such a modest state for exactly 10 years, until in 1970 the slab was replaced by a bust of Joseph Vissarionovich by the sculptor Nikolai Tomsky.
Why exactly then - not earlier and not later? After all, Nikita Khrushchev, the main destroyer of the cult of Stalin, was removed back in 1964. And here the answer must be sought in the once fraternal China.
This is what Stalin’s burial place looked like until the beginning of 1970, until a monument was erected for the 90th anniversary of the Generalissimo
A CPC delegation led by Comrade Zhou Enlai attended the congress. On October 17, N. Khrushchev, in a report on the work of the Central Committee, criticized I. Stalin, at the same time, he “published” the differences between the CPSU and the Labor Party of Albania so that the CPC could be criticized... The CPC delegation headed by comrade. Zhou Enlai brought two wreaths - to Lenin's mausoleum and Stalin's grave (by the end of this congress, Stalin's body was taken out of the Mausoleum - A. Ch.). On the ribbon of the wreath on Stalin’s grave there was an inscription: “To the great Marxist, comrade I. Stalin. As a sign that the CCP did not share N. Khrushchev’s position directed against I. Stalin.”
Since the late 1960s, the USSR and China have been on the brink of a major war. China's dissatisfaction with the crackdown Soviet troops The “Prague Spring”, after which the leaders of the Celestial Empire declared that the Soviet Union had embarked on the path of “socialist imperialism”, and three border conflicts between the two superpowers in 1969, forced the Soviet authorities to look for ways to normalize relations. And party leaders saw one of the methods of calming China in the “partial rehabilitation” of Stalin, whose figure remained a cult in the PRC.
The head of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Alexei Kosygin, even promised the head of the Chinese government to return the name to Stalingrad in exchange for loyalty, and to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Joseph Vissarionovich, but at the last moment the Soviet leadership played back.
Ultimately, the authorities decided to limit themselves to opening a monument at Stalin’s grave. True, such half-measures did not satisfy the Chinese, and in the same 1970, a crowd of Red Guards, the “hegemons” of the cultural revolution in China, blocked the USSR Embassy in Beijing, continuously chanting for several days: “Long live Comrade Stalin!”
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, best achievements all types of arts, a meeting place at world conventions, 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, 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 working people of the country. It was planned to hand over the area by December 21, 1959, on the eightieth birthday of the Secretary General. And, by the way, it would be located in the South-Western District, directly adjacent to Moscow State University. Moskovsky himself state university would bear the name not of Lomonosov, but of Stalin.
In general, there are about 40 items on the list. Just look at the proposal to rename the Leningradskoye Highway in honor of Stalin. They also wanted to call the Soviet Army “after Comrade Stalin.” Point 23 states that the Georgian SSR will be renamed into the Stalin SSR. If they had done this then, it would clearly be more difficult for Georgia today to seek support abroad.
But seriously, the list of absurd projects can be supplemented with the idea of moving March 8th to another day (the Secretary General died on the 5th, and the whole week after this date would be considered mourning, and March 9th would be the day of remembrance of Stalin). Less ambitious proposals include the establishment of the Order of Stalin or the writing of an oath in honor of the leader, which every worker would take, the creation of the Stalin region in Uzbekistan (at the expense of certain districts of the Tashkent and Samarkand regions)... But this is already so, “little things”.
This is what Stalin's pantheon in the Kremlin might have looked like.
Necropolis of Stalin
If all these proposals were simply discussed (of course, in all seriousness), then the construction of Stalin’s pantheon was practically a resolved issue. If the idea had required less significant effort and Khrushchev had not come to power, I assure you, now there would be a Stalinist necropolis in the center of Moscow. The corresponding resolution of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was even signed, after which the best architects of the country got to work.
Three versions of the pantheon project were developed. According to one of them, the building was supposed to be installed on the site of GUM, just opposite the Mausoleum.
“The size of the area enclosed by walls is 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 inlay decoration from different stones flowers and metal)".
It was also planned to decorate the pantheon with ceramics and bronze. The dome would be covered with durable scaly materials, and the spire... with pure gold. On the spire - of course - there would be a red ruby star!
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.
Eva Merkacheva
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR decide:
In order to perpetuate the memory of the great leaders Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, as well as outstanding figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall, to build a monumental building in Moscow - the Pantheon - a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country.
Upon completion of the construction of the Pantheon, transfer into 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 outstanding 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 workers ".
Architects - A. Khryakov, Z. Brod
Architect - D. Chechulin
Judging by the descriptions, the pantheon was planned to be built 3.5 km southwest of Moscow State University. Those. it turns out the area of the modern street. Lobachevsky.
THE YEARS after the 20th Congress were a rather strange time. Criticism of the cult of personality still continued, but the activity of speakers was no longer as vibrant as several years ago. The fear of unexpectedly ending up behind bars has diminished, but has not disappeared even in the highest social circles. The country needed to overcome the fear of returning to the past.
And then N.S. Khrushchev decided to take Stalin out of the Mausoleum.
Coffin for the "Father of Nations"
The Kremlin commandant, Lieutenant General Vedenin, and I learned about the upcoming decision in advance. N.S. Khrushchev called us 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.
Next, N.M. Shvernik gathered us and suggested how to secretly organize the reburial. Since there was a parade on Red Square on November 7, it had to be cordoned off under the pretext of a parade rehearsal so that no one could get in there.
General control over the progress of work was entrusted to my deputy, General V. Ya. Chekalov. The commander of the Separate Special Purpose Regiment of the Moscow Kremlin Commandant's Office, Konev, was ordered to make a coffin from good dry wood in a carpentry workshop.
The coffin was made on the same day. The wood was covered with black and red crepe, so the coffin looked very good and even rich. The Kremlin commandant's office assigned six soldiers to dig the grave and eight officers to first remove the sarcophagus from the Mausoleum to the laboratory, and then lower the coffin with the body into the grave. Due to the special delicacy of the assignment, I asked General A. Ya. Vedenin to select reliable, proven and previously well-proven people.
Best of the day
The camouflage was provided by the head of the economic department of the Kremlin commandant's office, Colonel Tarasov. He had to cover the right and left sides behind the Mausoleum with plywood so that the place of work could not be seen from anywhere.
At the same time, in the workshop of the arsenal, the artist Savinov made a wide white ribbon with the letters “LENIN”. It had to be used to cover the inscription “LENIN STALIN” on the Mausoleum until the letters were laid out in marble.
At 18.00 the passages to Red Square were blocked, after which the soldiers began digging a hole for the burial...
“Accepted unanimously!”
The XXII CONGRESS OF THE CPSU was held in the Kremlin from October 17 to October 31, 1961. I was present at the Palace of Congresses when, on the last day of the party forum, 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. N. S. Khrushchev presided:
There was silence in the congress hall, as if the delegates were waiting for something else. Khrushchev ended the prolonged pause and declared the work of the congress over.
But, as subsequent events showed, the unanimity of the delegates was illusory. Almost immediately after the vote, commission member Mzhavanadze left Moscow and hastily flew to Georgia. Therefore, he did not take part in the reburial.
This is how worldly glory passes
WHEN all the members of the commission, except Mzhavanadze, arrived at the Mausoleum at 21:00, Stalin, in the uniform of a generalissimo, was lying on a pedestal. Eight officers took the sarcophagus and carried it down to the basement where the laboratory is located. In addition to the members of the commission, there were also scientific workers who had previously monitored the condition of Stalin’s embalmed body. But in this situation, their knowledge and experience were already useless.
The glass was removed from the sarcophagus, and the officers carefully and even carefully transferred Stalin’s body to the coffin. It was clear that even on Stalin’s embalmed face, pockmarks were still visible.
Later, rumors circulated in Moscow that Stalin’s body was almost shaken out of his uniform. This is wrong. No one undressed Stalin. The only thing is that N.M. Shvernik ordered the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor to be removed from his uniform. Stalin never wore his other award - the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and therefore it was not in the sarcophagus. After this, the chairman of the commission ordered to replace the gold buttons of the uniform with brass ones. All this was carried out by the commandant of the Mausoleum Mashkov. He transferred the removed award and buttons to a special Security Room, where the awards of all those buried near the Kremlin wall were kept.
The drama was approaching its denouement. When the coffin with Stalin’s body was covered with a lid, Shvernik and Javakhishvili burst into tears. Then the coffin was lifted and everyone moved towards the exit. The emotional Shvernik was supported by a bodyguard, followed by Javakhishvili. Apart from these two, no one cried.
The officers carefully lowered the coffin into the plywood-lined grave. Someone threw a handful of earth, as expected, in a Christian way. The grave was buried. On top they placed a slab of white marble with a laconic inscription: “STALIN JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH 1879 -1953.” Then it served as a tombstone for a long time, until relatively recently a bust was erected.
Having buried Stalin, the entire commission and I returned to the Kremlin, where Shvernik gave the act of Stalin’s reburial to be signed. Then I, together with the officers and scientists laboratory returned to the Mausoleum. It was also necessary to place Lenin's sarcophagus in a central place, where it stood before Stalin's first funeral in 1953. By the time we arrived, the soldiers had already wiped the marble in the place where the sarcophagus had just stood. An hour later, not even a trace of the “leader of the nation” remained on the pedestal.
*My opinion:
*Mawlans: 19.01.2011 12:03:55
*Such people are born once every thousand years!
For the good of the people, he sacrificed everything.
For him, the interests of the people stood above the interests of his own family.
These traitors are like Khrushchev (a pig), Gorbachev (a traitor and enemy of the socialist system), Yeltsin (a drunk who carries out the will of the Americans, a krishaed), who with their bad, treacherous actions ruined such a powerful state, which it was Stalin who created, although the coup was led by Lenin. He managed to defeat fascism, armed to the teeth, and how he was able to do this, let him not torment those historians who were ordered to write various lies about the victors not of a family conflict, but of the Great Patriotic War. And those historians are corrupt skins who strive to please their customers, who They give them pennies for their inventions, distortions of history, they are those traitors to Russian statehood. They praise it as if Zhukov won the war, what the hell, if it weren’t for Stalin’s tough position, Zhukov would be sitting like other generals and eating canned food in the general headquarters. If he was so prudent, so foresighted, then he would not have nominated Khrushchev to power, who after a while threw him too.
If Stalin had survived now, such a new order would have united everyone and we would not have humiliated the peoples of the former union before the capitalists. I am surprised that the Russian people and the Russian state still do not execute traitors to the destruction and humiliation of statehood, like Gorbachev while he was alive, and after death will be too late. With respect to the history of Russia and the people of the USSR MAvlans..
Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. On March 9 of the same year he was buried in the Mausoleum on Red Square. Soon after the 20th Party Congress (1956), at party and production meetings discussing the results of the congress, the opinion began to be increasingly heard that the presence of Stalin’s body in Lenin’s tomb was “incompatible with the lawlessness committed by Stalin.” In the fall of 1961, on the eve of the XXII Congress of the CPSU, workers of the Kirov and Nevsky machine-building plants proposed moving Stalin's ashes to another place. The same proposal was put forward by the workers of the Moscow plant named after Vladimir Ilyich. On October 30, 1961, speaking at the XXII Congress of the CPSU, the first secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee, Ivan Spiridonov, on behalf of the Leningrad party delegation and the city’s workers, submitted a workers’ proposal for consideration by the congress. The proposal of the Leningraders was supported by party delegations from Moscow, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Altai Territory, Saratov Region and others. The XXII Congress decided: the Mausoleum on Red Square, created to perpetuate the memory of Lenin, will henceforth be called the Mausoleum of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. It was decided to rebury Stalin's ashes on Red Square behind the Mausoleum.
The country's leaders were undoubtedly aware that the decision to remove Stalin's body from the Mausoleum could provoke unrest in the country. Therefore, the action was carried out secretly and carefully prepared for it. Late in the evening of October 31, 1961, in an atmosphere of absolute secrecy, under the pretext of a rehearsal for the parade for November 7, Red Square was cordoned off. The entrance to the Mausoleum, as well as the dug grave, were covered with plywood shields. Only the funeral team, numerous security guards and the reburial commission were on site. According to the memoirs of the former commander of the Kremlin regiment, Konev, in the Mausoleum, the officers transferred Stalin’s body into a wooden coffin covered with black and red crepe. The body was covered with a dark veil, leaving the face and half of the chest exposed. Shanin, the head of the carpentry workshop, under whose leadership the coffin was made at the Arsenal, was given the command to close the coffin with a lid and nail it. Eight officers carried the coffin out of the Mausoleum, brought it to the grave, at the bottom of which a kind of sarcophagus was made of eight slabs, and placed it on wooden stands. After a short pause, the soldiers carefully lowered the coffin into the grave using ropes. According to Russian custom, some of those present threw in a handful of earth, and the soldiers buried the grave. Contrary to expectations, the country took the news of the removal of Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum quite calmly. In 1970, a monument by sculptor Nikolai Tomsky was erected at Stalin’s grave.
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 rose to power as General Secretary of the 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, leaving his left arm 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 fought 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. The following 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. Dropping two atomic bombs in August 1945 they 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!