On the last day of October 1961, in the middle of the night, through the back entrance of the Mausoleum, they carried out the coffin with the body of Generalissimo Stalin. This was done by order of Nikita Khrushchev, who was then the General Secretary of the USSR. Stalin's body was buried at the Kremlin wall.
In case of any questions, the official version was thought out - to prevent a crush, similar to the one that occurred during the farewell to the body of the leader seven years ago. However, today there is a fairly well-founded version that not Stalin was buried in the grave near the Kremlin wall, but his double. The question immediately arises, if there were doubles, then who are they?
Since many archival documents from the time of Stalin are still classified as "secret", the researchers draw their conclusions on the basis of eyewitness accounts, photographs and newsreels.
For the first time, Stalin's double drew attention to himself at the funeral of the Secretary of the Central Committee of Kirov. Everyone noticed that the leader does not behave as usual: he is silent and tries to stay away. Many felt that Stalin was in a state of shock, since Kirov and he had long been very close friends. Historian Valery Malevany told about this event in the following way: “When chroniclers compare the photographs of Stalin walking at the coffin, then it was believed that the OGPU received information that an attempt would be made on Comrade Stalin at Kirov's funeral. Menzhinsky was the chairman of the USSR OGPU. And he was poisoned. Again, the Trotskyists poisoned him for providing this double cover for Comrade Stalin. It was Menzhinsky who then insisted, in 1934, that Stalin's double appeared at Kirov's tomb. V. Malevanny is surethat Stalin's double appeared already in 1929: “Since 1929, General Vlasik came as the head of security, and for the first time he insisted that instead of Stalin, Comrade Stalin himself did not go out to the workers at the rallies, as Lenin once went out at the Mikhelson factory and shot at him Fanny Kaplan, but a double came out."
Stalin's first double was Rashidov, a native of the North Caucasus. Outwardly, he looked very much like a leader. Rashidov replaced Stalin at events where no serious decisions were required. For example, he replaced Stalin on the podium in November, during the passage of the holiday columns. Here is what the Soviet political scientist and historian A. Utkin wrote: “Of course, such a double was not Stalin’s personality, that is, he, most often, either as a doll was transported in armored cars, or Stalin had no time to stand on the Mausoleum for a long time, and it was hard, especially when he was a big age, then, of course, there, it is quite possible that a double came to replace him. And then, maybe, initially there was a double and was silent, or maybe Stalin gave some first remarks, and then left under various pretexts, the double came, and the celebration continued, so to speak."
Rashidov died when an attempt was made on Stalin's life: a motorcade, passing through Red Square, was blown up by a mine. The death of the double frightened Stalin even more and security measures were tightened.
It is assumed that Stalin had several doubles.
There is a version that the role of Stalin's double at Kirov's funeral was played by a professional artist - Semyon Goldshtab. He said that at the request of the Chekists, he had to teach several people Stalin's gestures and gait.
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Today, the most famous among Stalin's doubles is Yevsey Lubitsky. Before his death, Lubitsky gave an interview to a foreign magazine. According to him, it was he who repeatedly stood on the podium of the Mausoleum instead of the leader, was present at meetings with foreign representatives. Yevsey himself was an illiterate rural accountant from Vinnitsa. One day a car came for him and took him away from his family, which he never saw again. Lubitsky said that a whole team of highly qualified specialists had been working on the image of the double for about six months. He had to go through two plastic surgeries to increase his resemblance to Stalin. It is possible that after the completion of these works, all the specialists involved in the preparation of Lubitsky were shot.
Some historians believe that the destruction of Stalin's faithful "dog" - the head of state security Heinrich Yagoda, is due to the fact that he took an active part in the preparation of the leader's double. Since Stalin treated his double very well, Lubitsky was hated by Beria, who was jealous of the leader of everyone. Lubitsky told reporters that the living conditions were excellent for him - he was fed delicious food, he had a specially selected wardrobe, he was taken to social events under the guise of a guest so that he could learn to behave freely in such conditions.
Lubitsky often met with Stalin. Once the barmaid saw them together. The poor woman, seeing the two Stalins, fainted. This convinced Joseph Vissarionovich that the double was similar to him. After that, the doppelganger participated in a meeting with the miners - no one noticed the substitution.
Stalin often used the services of his double. So he sat him down in his chair and secretly watched when subordinates came with reports. Molotov, Yezhov, and Kalinin fell into these "traps", although they were members of the inner circle of friends of the MOST.
Years passed - Stalin grew old, and his double also grew old. Lubitsky has worked as a double for 15 years! He loved this role. However, Stalin became even more suspicious with age, and even Beria constantly told the leader that the double was becoming dangerous. In 1949, on a trumped-up denunciation, Lubitsky was arrested and exiled to the Solovetsky camp. After the death of the leader, he was released, but "recommended" to choose any of the cities of Central Asia for residence. For the rest of his life, he lived alone in Stalinabad. Once a month special officers visited him and brought a personal pension.
It is known that there were also Stalin's doubles. They were led by the chief of the personal security of the leader - General Vlasik. He worked out routes, prepared distraction vehicles, identified places for backup. Here is what Vlasik's daughter said: “The doubles were used. Such things were practiced - substitution. Especially where it was not necessary to perform, but only to be present. I have the eye of an artist, as a portraitist, I can distinguish facial features well and notice the difference in appearance. All the tricks - how to divert attention from the leader - were invented by my father. Dad lived so much for work and loved Stalin that fantastic ideas dawned on him. For example, he organized distracting flights: when the same cars go, in which of them the Boss (as he called Joseph Vissarionovich) is not clear. It happened that I changed the travel routes. Once during the war, Stalin left Moscow, and his father,who always and everywhere accompanied him, decided this time to stay in the Kremlin. I went to work as if nothing had happened - and thus created the appearance that Stalin was "in place!" The strategy has been carefully and precisely verified, but all these tricks have not yet been studied in detail! And they used doubles. Although dad told me little about his work, even after returning from exile. Only later did I learn some secrets from him."
Stalin did not even trust his doctors. Once the luminary of medicine, who was asked to give an opinion on the condition of the leader, examined several "Stalins" in a row, each time entering a new office.
According to the historian Utkin, on the eve of his death, Stalin, speaking at the congress, was the first to talk about the need for fundamental changes in the state, including the democratization of the country. For Stalin's comrades-in-arms, his speech came as a shock - they did not know how to react to the words of the leader. The transcript of this speech was immediately classified as "secret."
A few months later, Stalin unexpectedly dies, although immediately before that, doctors examined him and the health of the "father of nations" did not cause any concerns. Immediately after the death of the leader, Beria, Bulganin, Khrushchev and Malenkov hold an emergency meeting of the Politburo - the distribution of leading positions is on the agenda.
Here is what the son of one of Stalin's guards wrote about this time: “We know that Stalin was poisoned. Beria's man, that is, his nurse. And everyone was removed from Stalin: the doctors were removed, the guards were removed, General Vlasik was imprisoned, General Sudoplatov, the head of the 4th intelligence department was imprisoned. Including began to hunt for officers of the "Black Hundred" of Stalin's personal protection. I remember how my father told me that exactly in 1952, when this "witch hunt" began, he simply went to his village on the Don, and he was gone for a year and a half. He returned only in 1954. And instead of guarding him, after being checked, and this is already 1954, by the KGB of the USSR, he was sent as a political deputy to the Dzerzhinsky division. This is considered the strongest decline."
Disappeared everyone who had anything to do with Stalin's doubles.
Soon, a letter from Stalin's son Vasily was published in China, in which he claims that the body of not his father, but a double of the leader, is in the Mausoleum. Stalin himself was urgently cremated immediately after his death, because because of the poison, the face of Joseph Vissarionovich changed very much. Vasily asked the Chinese leader to grant him citizenship because he feared for his life. The Soviet leaders pretended not to know about this request. Soon Vasily suddenly dies. Historian A. Utkin wrote: “I think that in this way, of course, they could cover their tracks. This was one of the motives for the removal and burning of Stalin. But I think that the main motive is Khrushchev's hatred of Stalin. Historians are well aware that Khrushchev was a Trotskyist at one time. Stalin did not send him to the GULAG, did not destroy, although he sent most of the Trotskyists there, did not destroy becausethat Khrushchev quickly reorganized and became an ardent supporter of Stalin."
The version about the replacement of Stalin's body is confirmed by the conclusions of the pathologists. There was not even a mention in the documents of those features of the structure of the leader's body that had been previously recorded by the attending physicians. For example, there was no mention of fused toes on the left foot. Or here's another: newsreel footage shows how Stalin always keeps his injured left arm bent, and the pathologists' report says nothing about the injured elbow.
According to the recollections of the commandant of the dacha - Peter Lozgachev, who was the first to find Joseph Vissarionovich: “Stalin was lying on the carpet near the table … I quickly called Starostin, Tukov and Butusova over the intercom. It was evident that he was already chilled in one soldier's bottom shirt … Butusova turned off the wrapped sleeves of his shirt … They put Stalin on the sofa and covered him with a blanket … At 9 o'clock on March 2, doctors arrived … They began to examine Stalin … ". And the archival documents indicate that the doctors came at 7 am and "… the patient was lying on the couch unconscious in a suit." The assumption immediately suggests itself that having found Stalin dead, his party comrades-in-arms immediately replaced him with a "sick" double. And it was not Stalin's body that was brought for examination by the pathologists.
Of course, playing with doubles could have much worse consequences. After all, the criminal elite "grief of the rulers" could fool the people for a long time, periodically changing Stalin's doubles, making his rule endless. Anything could be expected from such figures as Beria and Malenkov, striving for power at any cost. And the fact that Beria was related to Stalin's death is proved by the available archival documents.
Today it is difficult to answer the question: was Stalin buried at the Kremlin wall or one of his counterparts. Many associates of the “leader of the peoples” took this secret with them. And archival documents can also be destroyed or replaced with fakes. Let's hope that the secret of Stalin's death, over time, will still be revealed.
