Exactly half a century has passed since the moment when Stalin was carried out of the Mausoleum. And all this time, the event, significant for the whole country, was covered with a dark mystery. The time has come not only to remember him, but to restore everything in detail. Down to the smallest details. And finally to find out why the embalmed remains of the secretary general were reburied under cover of night in an atmosphere of special secrecy? Who and how dared to touch the body of the tyrant, whom they did not cease to be afraid of even after death? And most importantly, to what madness were those who worshiped the leader ready to go? We have at our disposal grandiose projects to perpetuate the memory of the Secretary General. The projects are incredible, sometimes even absurd. Among them is the construction of Stalin's Pantheon in the Kremlin. With its height, the memorial necropolis would eclipse the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Spasskaya Tower. How was it supposed to beit will become - today you can see it for the first time.
Why Stalin was not buried next to his wife
To throw the bridge half a century ago, to be honest, was not easy. None of the direct participants in the events of this day have survived to this day. But on the other hand, there are archival documents, eyewitness accounts, including those preserved only on tape recordings and have not yet been deciphered on paper. Now is the time to declassify them. But first, a little history.
- The idea of Stalin's reburial was born at the party congress, which took place from 17 to 31 October 1961, - says Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Sergei Devyatov. - But by this moment the soil, as they say, was already prepared. Even at the XX Congress, Khrushchev voiced a document entitled "On Overcoming Stalin's Personality Cult and Its Consequences." Incidentally, the reason for the tense relations between the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties of China and Albania was precisely the criticism of the personality cult of Stalin. And at that very congress a certain Spiridonov, the first secretary of the Leningrad party organization, spoke. So he, in fact, voiced the idea to take Stalin's body out of the Mausoleum. And immediately the corresponding decision was made.
A burial commission was created, which included the first secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia Vasily Mzhavanadze, the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU (future minister of culture) Pyotr Demichev, the chairman of the KGB Alexander Shelepin (he was called the "iron Shurik"). Nikolai Shvernik (head of the party control) became the chairman of the commission. The Kremlin regiment was assigned to deal with all technical issues. The commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, General Vedenin, received a command “from above” - without hesitation, to start preparing the burial procedure.
October 31. 12.00.
From the memoirs of the commander of a separate regiment Fyodor Konev:
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“Exactly at noon on October 31, I was summoned to the government building and told to prepare a company for Stalin's reburial at the Novodevichy cemetery. At first they were going to reburial there, next to my wife."
13.00. An hour later, another decision was made - to bury Stalin at the walls of the Kremlin. The members of the Politburo seemed to be afraid that at the Novodevichy churchyard the general secretary might … be dug up and stolen by admirers. After all, there is no proper security at the cemetery.
14.00-17.00. A grave two meters deep was dug right behind the Mausoleum. Its bottom and walls were laid with 10 reinforced concrete slabs, each measuring 1 meter by 80 cm. At the same time, the command was given to the commandant of the Mausoleum to prepare the body for removal from the sarcophagus.
“The coffin was prepared in advance,” says Devyatov. - The most common. High quality, solid, but not made of valuable wood species and without any precious metal inlays. It was covered 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 generalissimo's gold embroidered shoulder straps were removed from his jacket and the Star of the Hero of the USSR was taken away. They have survived to this day. And the buttons in the uniform were also replaced. But talk about putting a smoking pipe in the coffin is a story. According to eyewitnesses, there was nothing there. Stalin was transferred from the sarcophagus to the coffin by four soldiers. Everything was done quickly, accurately and extremely correctly.
22.00. The coffin was closed with a lid. But then an incident came out - in a hurry, they completely forgot about nails and a hammer. The military ran for the tool - and after twenty minutes the coffin was finally boarded up.
22.30-23.00. 8 officers carried out the coffin with Stalin's body. The funeral procession of two dozen people proceeded to the dug grave. There were no relatives or friends of Stalin among those present. On the ropes, the coffin was lowered into the grave. According to Russian custom, some threw a handful of earth each. After a short pause, the military dug the grave in silence, without volleys and music. Although the body was being prepared for reburial to the sound of drums, a rehearsal of the parade was taking place on Red Square. By the way, thanks to this, we managed to avoid curious spectators (the entire square was blocked off).
23.00-23.50. A memorial table was prepared for the members of the burial commission. According to the unpublished memoirs 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 different snacks. Not everyone touched the table. Someone pointedly left. Someone was sobbing in the corner.
Nov. 1. 1.00-2.00. The servicemen covered the grave with a white stone slab, where the name and year of birth were written - 1879. By the way, the year of birth was indicated incorrectly - and this mistake was not corrected. In reality, Joseph Vissarionovich was born in 1878.
“We saw his metrics, where exactly the 78th year appears,” say expert historians. - But there is no question of any mistake. Stalin deliberately wrote off a year and a month. An interesting fact, isn't it? He alone has a lot to say about a person.
Somewhere between 2.00 and 6.00. The inscription above the entrance to the Mausoleum is replaced by another one. A whole story came out with her. Even on the first day of Stalin's "settling" in the Mausoleum, it was decided to immediately paint over the letters "LENIN" with black (granite-like) paint. For a greater resemblance to natural stone, bluish "sparks" were interspersed into the paint. A new inscription "STALIN LENIN" was placed on top. But the first rains and cold did their job - the paint began to wear off, and the initial letters treacherously appeared over the Mausoleum. Then they decided to completely replace the plate with the inscription. For your information, it weighs 40 tons. And this is not just a slab - it was at the same time a support for the railing of the stands located on top of the Mausoleum. The commandant of the Kremlin instructed the commandant of the Mausoleum Mashkov to take the old slab to the Golovinskoye cemetery and cut it into … monuments. And he took it, and disobeyed. The stove was taken on his personal instructions not to the churchyard, but to the plant. There she lay untouched until the moment when Stalin was carried out of the Mausoleum. The factory workers said - they say, a hand did not rise to break it. And you never know what? And they were right. The old stove was returned to its original place, and the one with the inscription "STALIN LENIN" was taken to the same plant. It is still stored there. You never know what …
On the morning of November 1, a huge queue lined up at the Mausoleum. Many were surprised not to see Stalin inside. To the servicemen standing at the entrance to the Mausoleum and in the room, every now and then they approached and asked: where is Joseph Vissarionovich? The servicemen patiently and intelligibly explained as ordered by their superiors. Of course, there were visitors who were outraged when they learned that the body was buried. Say, how so - why the people were not asked? But the absolute majority took the news quite calmly. You can even say - indifferent …
How Georgia was nearly renamed in honor of Stalin
The fact that the removal of the body of the General Secretary from the Mausoleum did not cause a stir is in principle understandable and understandable. Unlike what happened immediately after his death. When Stalin just died, people seemed to go mad, making proposals to perpetuate his name. I have before me unique documents. They have never been published anywhere. When you read them, it seems that this is a prank of some kind. But scientists, ministers, architects and other intelligent people cannot offer THIS!
It was supposed to build in Moscow a whole district "In memory of Comrade STALIN". It was supposed to house the Stalin Museum, the Stalinist Academy of Social Sciences, a sports center for 400 thousand people (that is, several times more than the Luzhniki Stadium) and a number of other structures.
“The Central Committee of the CPSU Central Committee to comrade Malenkov. The area "In memory of Comrade Stalin" should become a concentration of display of the world's most advanced science and technology, the best achievements of all types of arts, a meeting place at world congresses, meetings, conferences, competitions and festivals of the best people of our country with the working people of the whole world. Everything being built in the area "Comrade Stalin's memory" should be built for centuries, according to the best projects, from the best materials, the most advanced, perfect methods."
And also, judging by the document, this should be a nationwide construction project - and the main contribution (20-25 billion rubles) would have to be collected by the working people of the country. It was planned to hand over the area by December 21, 1959, by the day of the 80th birthday of the Secretary General. And, by the way, it would be located in the South-Western District, directly adjacent to Moscow State University. Moscow State University itself would not bear the name of Lomonosov, but of Stalin.
In general, there are about 40 items on the list. What is just the proposal to rename the Leningradskoye Highway in honor of Stalin. They also wanted to call the Soviet Army "after Comrade Stalin." Clause 23 states that the Georgian SSR was renamed Stalin. If it had been done then, it would have been more difficult for Georgia today to seek support abroad. But seriously, the list of absurd projects can be supplemented with the idea of March 8 to be postponed to another day (the secretary general died on the 5th, and a whole week after that date would be considered mourning, and March 9 - Stalin's memory day). Of the smaller proposals, one can name the establishment of the Order of Stalin or the writing of an oath in honor of the leader, which would be pronounced by every worker, the creation of the Stalin region in Uzbekistan (at the expense of separate districts of the Tashkent and Samarkand regions) … But this is already so, "trifles".
This is how Stalin's pantheon in the Kremlin could have looked.
Stalin's necropolis
If all these proposals were simply discussed (of course, in all seriousness), then the construction of Stalin's pantheon was an issue practically resolved. If the idea required less significant efforts and Khrushchev did not come to power, I assure you, now in the center of Moscow there would be a Stalinist necropolis. The corresponding decree of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was even signed, after which the best architects of the country got down to business.
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 used for burials. In this case, the building is assumed to be round, with two rows of columns and with a tribune for the leaders of the Party and the Government. There are two floors under the stands with an area of about 2000 sq. meters for the museum. It will be necessary to move, relocate or dismantle the building of the Historical Museum, which obstructs the site and does not give a wide passage."
The Pantheon would be like a huge rotunda with a dome. The entire building outside would be girded with two rows of slender granite columns.
I quote the architect Ionov: “In terms of its architectural and color expressiveness, the building should be kept in strict forms, the color of the walls and columns is dark, but vigorous, indicating the victorious march of communism (dark red granites and marbles or dark gray with inlaid decoration from different stones colors and metal).
It was also proposed 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!
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 in sarcophagi, and others deserved rank below - 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 "battlements" - in the Kremlin itself in its southeastern part, on the left side at the entrance through the Spasskaya Tower. In this case, it would be much smaller (should not exceed 100 thousand cubic meters). Well, and, accordingly, only the leaders would rest there.
The pantheon project (fortunately or unfortunately - as anyone) 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 any of the leaders of the state even thought 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 whole country. And they draw an analogy with the tomb of Tamerlane - according to legend, because it was precisely because it was opened that World War II began.
Thank you for your assistance to the Press and Public Relations Center of the FSO of Russia.
Eva Merkacheva