On March 5, 1953, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili) died. The man who actually created the Soviet Union and ruled it forever for nearly 30 years. The leader and father of nations for some, a bloody tyrant for others. Let's remember how they reacted to it in the country and the world, how it was reflected in films and books.
The 74-year-old autocrat died for several days - for some reason he was not disturbed during the whole day of March 1 and was found lying on the floor in a pool of urine only in the evening. The almighty dictator was not provided immediately with help, the comrades-in-arms assessed the situation and began to gather in the Kremlin - to share power, periodically coming to look at the one whom they praised and feared. It was only on March 4 that the people were informed about the leader's illness: according to the recollections of contemporaries, after the news at 7 o'clock the network of morning radio broadcasts changed - instead of charging and reading the editorials of Pravda, sad classical music sounded.
At 9:30 am (according to other sources, at 6:30 am) Yuri Levitan read out an official message about Stalin's illness. It was not true - they decided to tell the people that the stroke occurred on the night of March 2 in an apartment in Moscow (read - the Kremlin), but they mentioned paralysis of the right side of the body and loss of speech. On March 5, the hitherto little-known surnames of the 19th century Irish doctors Cheyne and Stokes were announced (Cheyne-Stokes breathing is one of the symptoms described in the dying Stalin. - Ed.). On the morning of March 6, the city and the world were informed that Stalin was no longer there.
Throughout the country, preparations began for parting with the leader: in Moscow, they embalmed a corpse, thought over the burial ceremony, and planned funeral meetings in the regions and republics. As is known from the memo of the Minister of State Security Ignatiev, two opposite judgments sounded in parallel - the tragic "who did you leave us with" and "finally". The first was official and safe, the second was usually followed by prompt investigation and arrest.
“In Pravda there was a message about Stalin's death and that this death was a nationwide grief. And the people began to cry. But they cried, I think, not because they wanted to please Pravda, but because an entire era was connected with Stalin (or, better to say, he connected himself with her), - wrote Joseph Brodsky in 1973. - Five-year plans, constitution, victory in the war, post-war construction, the idea of order - no matter how horrible it may be. (…) People grew up, got married, divorced, gave birth, grew old, died - and all the time a portrait of Stalin hung over their heads. There was a reason to cry. The question arose of how to live without Stalin. Nobody knew the answer to it."
Recalling those days, the poet described the scene of mourning Stalin: “I was 13, I went to school, and we were all herded into the assembly hall, ordered to kneel, and the secretary of the Party organization - a masculine aunt with a box of medals on her chest - wringing her hands, shouted to us from the stage: “Cry, children, cry! Stalin is dead! “- and she was the first to cry out loud. We, there is nothing to do, sniffed, and then little by little and really roared. " According to him, parents and neighbors mourned the late ruler. “As for me, then (then - to shame, now - to pride) I did not cry, although I was on my knees and sniffed like everyone else. Most likely because not long before that I had discovered in a German textbook borrowed from a friend that the “leader” in German is “Fuhrer”. The text was called "Unser Führer Stalin". I could not mourn the Fuehrer ",- wrote Brodsky 20 years after Stalin's death.
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“Residents of Grodno were given mourning armbands and ordered to stand in a“guard of honor”around the monuments to the Generalissimo erected in different parts of the city. Naturally, there were no happy smiles on the faces of the people, but I did not notice any signs of national grief. The ritual was served - that's all. Some, like my father and I, thought to themselves that it wouldn’t get any worse,”recalled Boris Klein, Candidate of Historical Sciences. He concluded that the province was different from the capitals, but eyewitnesses from other large cities on the periphery mentioned the pressure of the crowd on the main square, although they clarified that it was not like in Moscow (at Stalin's funeral in the center of the capital there was a mass crush, which reminded some of Khodynka).
Many people remembered the musical background of the farewell - the melodies of Borodin, Grieg, Glazunov and others. Brodsky recalled Chopin's "Marche funebre" and something from Beethoven, Chelyabinsk journalist Irina Morgules (then a schoolgirl, a member of the Stalinist draft Komsomol) wrote that on the day of the funeral, the USSR anthem sounded on the radio without words.
The perception was different in more remote corners of the endless country, in the camps of the GULAG system created by the will of the deceased. Former prisoner of the Khabarovsk correctional labor camp, Alexander Zhukov, handed over to the historical and educational society "Memorial" a unique photo showing prisoners drinking on March 5. Zhukov recalled how, upon learning of Stalin's death, the prisoners rejoiced in the hope of a speedy release and shouted: “Hurray! The tyrant is dead! Freedom! Freedom!" “Zek Aleksey Kravchenko from Mariupol illegally brought a bottle of vodka to the colony, poured 100 g for each of our group of prisoners, and we drank 'for the peace of his soul.' He suggested: whoever will soon be released should have a drink while standing, and who should sit and have a drink while sitting. We drank. There was no snack. Where can I get it?.. We worked half-starved. We were photographed illegally by the instructor of the column Art. lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,for which we thanked him very, very much”.
Contained in Taishetlag for “discrediting Stalin,” a political prisoner of tsarist times, commodity expert Ivan Yevseev wrote that many prisoners believed that Stalin did not know about the repressions: “Upon learning of his death, many shed many tears. This really angered me. I could not stand it and said: "Fools, why cry, because now we will go home." These words of mine were passed on by the "informers" to the operative (…) and he sent me to a punishment cell without heating for seven days. " “Will it get better? Will it get worse? - that's what we were thinking about then,”- the lawyer Evsey Lvov, exiled to Nakhodka, recalled. In Vorkuta, in the women's zone, the perception was twofold, said prisoner Nina Odolinskaya: she herself “was seized by a feeling of joy. The most frank, one that she was not going to hide, "Donbass and Rostov women" portrayed grief ", Ukrainian women restrainedly discussed the event among themselves,and when Nina, together with the Latvian Austra Lapinsh, was working on an excavator and the boss demanded that they get up and honor Stalin's memory with a minute of silence, Odolinskaya refused, saying: "And I am sitting for this."
Catholic priest Pietro Leoni, who was imprisoned in Vorkuta for his missionary activity, in his memoirs written after his release and expulsion from the USSR, said that Stalin's death was almost foreseen: “My dear friend, Father Julius Z., told me what a dream he had days ago. “I see a great club in the shape of a five-pointed star. The foundation pit was dug, and the entire Soviet aristocracy gathered to lay the first stone. Stalin climbs onto the pedestal and is just beginning to speak, when he suddenly falls to the bottom of the pit. They run up to pick him up, but he no longer breathes. A cry is heard: ‚Died! Died! ' Then a magnificent funeral, Stalin in a gold or gilded coffin, people from everywhere, the thunder of the orchestras. " This is what Father Iuliy told about March 2, two or three days before the Moscow radio reported the leader's serious illness. " After the dream came true"Soviet camps and prisons breathed a sigh of relief," the priest notes. “However, during the funeral, we also had to interrupt our work for five minutes of silence by order of our superiors. Everyone wanted to have fun, not cry, but we willingly obeyed the order: the tyrant, who did not give rest during his life, at least in death gave five minutes of rest. Hope woke up with Stalin's death and was strengthened when, looking at the new rulers, we concluded that we had helped him die,”says Father Leoni.we concluded that we helped him die,”says Leoni's father.we concluded that we helped him die,”says Leoni's father.
The reaction of the clergy
Having mentioned the priest's recollections, we will also tell about the official statements of the church authorities. The Newspaper Old Age project points to the discreet message of the Vatican on March 7: “Pope [Pius XII], announcing the death of Stalin, celebrated in his private chapel a mass for the Church of Silence (the Catholic Church behind the Iron Curtain and in communist China) and for the salvation of the soul of the "great now dead persecutor of the Church."
The Russian Orthodox Church, first destroyed and then rebuilt by Stalin, responded differently. Before the memorial service for Stalin in the Yelokhovsky Cathedral, Patriarch Alexy I uttered the following words: “The great Leader of our people, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, is gone. The great power, moral, social, was abolished; the strength in which our people felt their own strength, by which they were guided in their creative labors and enterprises, by which they consoled themselves for many years. (…) His name, as a champion of world peace, and his glorious deeds will live on for centuries. But we, having gathered to pray for him, cannot pass in silence through his always benevolent, sympathetic attitude towards our church needs. (…) His memory is unforgettable for us, and our Russian Orthodox Church, mourning his departure from us, accompanies him on his last journey,"On the way of all the earth", fervent prayer. (…) And to our beloved and unforgettable Joseph Vissarionovich, we prayerfully, with deep, ardent love proclaim eternal memory. " Curiously, the magazine of the Moscow Patriarchate for April 1953, in which the speech of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was published, and previously posted on the website of the publishing house of the Russian Orthodox Church, is now unavailable.
Much more harsh was the reaction of the ROCOR (the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, created by hierarchs who emigrated during the Civil War): “The death of Stalin is the death of the greatest persecutor of the faith of Christ in history. The crimes of Nero, Diocletian, Julian the Apostate, and other wicked ones pale in the face of his terrible deeds. No one can compare with him either in the number of victims, or in cruelty to them, or in deceit in achieving their goals. All Satan's malice seemed to be embodied in this man, who, even more than the Pharisees, deserves the title of the son of the devil. An Orthodox person is particularly shocked by his truly satanic, cruel and crafty policy towards the Church”(hereinafter, the ROCOR Synod denounces the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church for performing a requiem and kind words about the dead ruler).
In the world
In other countries, Stalin's death was perceived differently, depending on the geopolitical orientation.
Stalin's personality cult came to East Germany even before the formal formation of the GDR, immediately after the end of World War II. 1949 was the apotheosis of the East Germans' admiration for the Soviet ruler - his 70th birthday coincided (according to the official version, in fact, Stalin was 71 then) and the foundation of the GDR from the Soviet occupation zone. Stalin's birthday was even an official holiday in the GDR in 1949-1955.
The mourning for the "best friend of the German people" lasted from 6 to 11 March and was carefully thought out and scheduled. Thus, it was ordered to organize trips of delegations from the regions to the Soviet embassy in Berlin, to the places of deployment of Soviet troops to "express condolences and demonstrate solidarity with the Soviet Union." The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic ordered to lower all flags on state and public buildings, and on the day of the funeral to lay wreaths at the monuments and memorials of Soviet soldiers. Columns of mourning processions were recommended to be decorated with red banners and flags of the GDR, the use of banners in mourning processions was prohibited, and the marching people were ordered to silently pass by the stands, usually decorated with a large portrait of Stalin framed by the flags of the USSR and the GDR. Busts and portraits of the leader were exhibited at workplaces and squares.(At the same time, the little-known anti-communist uprising in Russia on June 17, 1953 began in the GDR, including distributing leaflets on the Stalin Alley.)
For Czechoslovakia, the farewell to the Soviet ruler ended tragically - the country's president, Clement Gottwald, caught a cold at Stalin's funeral and died on his return to Prague.
On March 7, the French government ordered to lower the flags on the buildings of military institutions and military courts; this decision was perceived ambiguously. The chairman of the National Assembly, left-wing radical Edouard Herriot, delivered a speech at the meeting dedicated to "Stalin's military genius", the deputies listened to her standing. At the same time, Le Monde stressed that Stalin's attempt to build socialism "filled the graves and concentration camps and turned millions of people into civil and military slaves."
British newspapers reported that Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not send telegrams to Moscow, and no one in the House of Commons mentioned Stalin's death. The Daily Sketch noted that "there is no reason to shed tears: the world is glad that it has got rid of the tyrant," according to Newspaper Old Age. At the same time, The Manchester Guardian published the famous statement “Stalin accepted Russia with a plow, but left with nuclear reactors,” later attributed to Churchill.
The reaction in Sweden was different: the king and the government expressed official condolences, but the radio immediately after the news from Moscow broadcast a performance by a jazz orchestra, and then put a notice of the death of the Soviet leader between the price summary for eggs and butter and the weather forecast.
In literature and cinema
In addition to the sensational comedy Death of Stalin, whose license was revoked by the Russian Ministry of Culture (“The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation denied Stalin's death. 2018, journalist Mikhail Kozyrev on the Dozhd TV channel), there were other films touching on the topic of March 5.
The drama by Alexei German "Khrustalev, car!", Entitled the first phrase of the post-Stalin era, begins on the first day of Stalin's illness and shows scenes of the sudden release of a general of the medical service, followed by the arrival of the "father of nations" at the bedside.
Yunas Yunasson acted differently - in a novel full of black humor "A Hundred Years and a Suitcase of Money in the Bargain," the Swedish writer created a whole conspiracy theory of Stalin's death. The Swede Allan Carlson is guilty of it, traveling around the world all his life, involuntarily defining history and drinking with the leaders of leading countries. Once in the gulag, Karlson was sent to a labor camp in Vladivostok, but by March 1953 he wanted to drink and planned to escape. With the help of another prisoner, the fictional illegitimate brother Albert Einstein, he set fire to containers with blankets and weapons intended to be sent to the DPRK - as a result, the whole of Vladivostok burned down, and when Stalin was informed about this during his night gatherings with his comrades-in-arms, the leader felt unwell, and later I had a blow. (The adaptation turned out to be much weaker than the book and was remembered bythat in it Comrade Stalin, drunk and drunk, plays the trumpet.)
60 years later, more and more news is heard about the renaming of streets in honor of Stalin and the installation of monuments to him, and the liberal community ritually proclaims toasts on Facebook to Cheyne and Stokes, with some analogies relying only on them.
Joseph Dzhugashvili continues to divide and rule even after his death - an effective manager for some and a killer of millions for others, the father of the Soviet empire is still on the agenda and in this sense is more alive than some of the living. Like the characters in Abuladze's "Repentance", we never stop burying and digging up Stalin's corpse, oscillating between admiration and horror. And not to see this protracted goodbye not an end or an edge.
In the essay devoted to the issue by the researcher Zhores Medvedev "The Mystery of Stalin's Death", as noted by Ya. G. Rokityansky, previously unknown information is given about Stalin's health in 1923-1940, about the first symptoms of a serious illness in October 1945, about the deterioration of health in 1952, about the fatal stroke in early March 1953, which, according to Medvedev, was the result of Stalin's disdain for medicine. The fact that he, helpless, lay for many hours on the floor in his room, and Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev did not rush to call doctors, is interpreted as a conspiracy.
For the first time, the version of a violent death was made public in 1976 in the book by A. Avtorkhanov "The Mystery of Stalin's Death: Beria's Conspiracy." The author has practically no doubts that Stalin was killed by the top of the Politburo.
All versions of Stalin's death - six given by Avtorkhanov, the version of Volkogonov, Radzinsky, Vladimir Lvovich Glebov, the son of L. B. Kamenev, the version of natural death and the version of the conflict with his daughter that provoked the third stroke (that occurred on her birthday), including alternative versions, rumors and speculation, are given in the book by Raphael Grugman "Death of Stalin: all versions and one more"
There are numerous conspiracy theories suggesting the unnaturalness of death and the involvement of Stalin's entourage in it. According to one of them (writer E. S. Radzinsky), L. P. Beria, N. S. Khrushchev and G. M. Malenkov contributed to his death without rendering assistance. Some versions of this kind were exposed: for example, the book "The Kremlin Wolf" by a certain Stuart Kagan, in which the author, posing as the nephew of Lazar Kaganovich, allegedly told from the words of his uncle about how he organized a conspiracy against Stalin and killed him together with Mikoyan, Molotov and Bulganin, was recalled by the New York publishing house William Morrow & Co, which did not prevent it from being published in Russian later.
Soviet writers responded to Stalin's death with poetry: Tvardovsky, Simonov, Berggolts, Isakovsky.
Representatives of the world communist movement expressed their grief at the death of Stalin: thus, a prominent figure of the Communist Party of Great Britain Rajani Palm Dutt wrote in The Labor Monthly: “Through all the storms of a thunderous dawn, the collapse of the old era and the birth of a new one, he guided the ship of human hopes and aspirations with unshakable fortitude, courage, judgment and self-confidence."
Nurbey Gulia recalled that the poet Joseph Noneshvili then wrote: that if the Sun went out, we would not grieve so much - after all, it shone not only for good, but also for bad people, but Stalin, as you know, only shone for good.
