Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) died on January 21, 1924 (53 years old) at 18 hours 50 minutes. He was buried on January 27, 1924. Lenin suffered a series of strokes: after the first 52-year-old leader of the world proletariat became disabled, the third killed him.
Official communication about Lenin's illness
The Rul newspaper published the following note: “The message published by the Soviet government about V. I. Lenin says: Former chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vladimir Ilyich Lenin-Ulyanov suffers from severe fatigue, the consequences of which are complicated by poisoning. In order to restore his strength, Comrade Lenin must for a long time, at least until autumn, retire from state affairs and abandon any activity. His return to political work seems likely after a long rest, since, according to medical authorities, his recuperation is possible."
Deteriorating health, moving to Gorki
1922, March - Vladimir Ilyich has more frequent seizures with a short loss of consciousness with numbness of the right side of the body. The following year, severe paralysis of the right side of the body developed and speech was affected. However, doctors did not give up hope to improve the situation.
1923, May - the leader was transported to Gorki, which had a good effect on his health. In October Ilyich even asked to be taken to Moscow. By the winter, his health had improved to such an extent that he tried to write with his left hand.
Promotional video:
1924, January 7 - on the initiative of Lenin, his wife and sister arranged a Christmas tree for children from the surrounding villages. The patient himself seemed to feel so good that, sitting in a wheelchair, for some time he even took part in the general fun in the winter garden of the former master's estate.
The last days
As the People's Commissar of Health Semashko testifies, two days before his death, Ilyich went hunting. This was confirmed by Krupskaya. On January 21, they planned another hunt for Lenin - for wolves. However, according to the doctors, the sclerosis of the cerebral vessels continued to "turn off" one part of the brain after another.
The last day. Death
The last day of the leader, according to the description of one of Lenin's attending physicians, Professor Osipov: “On January 20, Lenin had general malaise, poor appetite, sluggish mood, had no desire to study; he was put to bed and a light diet was prescribed. The next day this sluggish state continued, the patient remained in bed for about 4 hours. We visited him in the morning, afternoon and evening, as needed. The patient developed an appetite and felt like eating; it was allowed to give him broth. At six o'clock, the malaise began to intensify, loss of consciousness, and convulsive movements began to appear in the arms and legs, especially in the right side. The right limbs were strained to such an extent that it was impossible to bend the knee, and there were also cramps in the left side of the body.
This attack was accompanied by a sharply increased frequency of respiration and cardiac activity. The number of breaths increased to 36, and the number of heartbeats began to reach 120-130 per minute, and one very threatening symptom appeared, consisting in a violation of the correct respiratory rhythm, this is a cerebral type of breathing, rather dangerous, which almost always indicates the approach of the fatal end.
Of course, morphine, camphor, and whatever was needed were prepared. After some time, breathing leveled off, the number of breaths decreased to 26, and the pulse rate to 90 and was well filled. At this time, we measured the temperature - it was 42.3 ° C - a constant convulsive state led to such a sharp rise in temperature; the mercury rose so that there was no room in the thermometer. The convulsive state began to weaken, and we already had some hope that the seizure could end safely, but at exactly 6 hours 50 minutes. suddenly there was a sharp rush of blood to the face, the face became crimson, then a deep sigh and instant death followed. They began to do artificial respiration, which lasted 25 minutes, but it did not lead to anything. Lenin's death came from respiratory and heart paralysis, the centers of which are in the medulla oblongata.
Subsequently, Nadezhda Krupskaya wrote in one of her letters that "the doctors did not expect death at all and did not believe when the agony had already begun."
The construction of the first mausoleum began the day after the news of Lenin's death.
Lenin was poisoned by Stalin?
There were rumors that Lenin was poisoned by Stalin, - so, for example, Trotsky wrote in one of his articles: “During the second illness of Ilyich, apparently in February 1923, Stalin at a meeting of members of the Politburo after the removal of the secretary said that Lenin summoned him unexpectedly and began to demand that poison be delivered to him. He again lost the ability to speak, considered his position hopeless, foresaw the imminence of another blow, did not trust doctors, whom he could easily catch on contradictions, retained complete clarity of thought and was unbearably tormented. I remember to what extent Stalin's face seemed to me unusual, mysterious, inappropriate to the circumstances. The request he conveyed was tragic in nature; there was a half-smile on his face, as on a mask. "There can be, of course, no question of fulfilling such a request!" I exclaimed. “I told him all this,- Stalin objected not without annoyance, - but he only brushed it off. The old man is suffering. He wants, he says, that the poison was with him, he will come running if he is convinced of the hopelessness of his position."
At the same time, Trotsky claims that Stalin could have come up with the fact that Ilyich turned to him for poison - in order to prepare an alibi for himself. But this episode is also confirmed by the testimony of one of the leader's secretaries, who in the 1960s told the writer Alexander Beck that Lenin actually asked Stalin for poison. “When I asked doctors in Moscow,” Trotsky continues, “about the immediate causes of death, which they did not expect, they shrugged their shoulders indefinitely.
Of course, the autopsy was carried out in compliance with all formalities: Stalin, as general secretary, took care of this in the first place. However, the physicians did not look for poison, even if the more astute admitted the likelihood of "suicide". Most likely, Ilyich did not receive poison from Stalin - otherwise Stalin would eventually have eliminated all the secretaries and all the servants of the leader so as not to leave a trace. Yes, and Stalin did not have a special need for the death of the completely helpless Ilyich. In addition, he has not yet crossed the line beyond which the physical elimination of the unwanted began. So, the more likely cause of Lenin's death is illness.
More versions of poisoning
But the version of the poisoning has many supporters to this day. Among them is the writer Vladimir Soloviev, who devoted many pages to this topic. In the fictional work "Operation Mausoleum", he supported Trotsky's thoughts with the following arguments: 1) The autopsy of Lenin's body began to be carried out with a long delay - at 4:20 pm; 2) Among the doctors who performed the autopsy, there was not a single pathologist. 3) One of the doctors, the personal physician of Vladimir Ilyich and Trotsky, Guettier, did not put his signature on the death certificate of Lenin, citing the unfairness of the investigation. 4) Chemical analysis of stomach contents was not performed. 5) The lungs, heart and other vital organs were found to be in excellent condition, while the walls of the stomach were completely destroyed.
Dr. Gabriel Volkov, who was arrested shortly after Lenin's death, told his cellmate Elizaveta Lesotho in the prison that he brought the leader lunch at 11 a.m. on the morning of January 21. Ilyich was in bed, no one else was in the room. Seeing Volkov, the patient made an attempt to rise, stretched out both hands to Volkov, but his strength left him, he collapsed on the pillows, and a piece of paper fell out of his hand. Only Volkov had time to hide it, when Dr. Elistratov came in and, to calm the patient, gave him an injection. Lenin fell silent, his eyes closed - as it turned out, forever. Only in the evening, when Lenin had already died, Volkov was able to read the note given to him by Ilyich. He could hardly make out the scribbles scribbled by the dying man's hand: "Gavrilushka, I am poisoned … call Nadia immediately … tell Trotsky … tell everyone you can …".
According to Soloviev, Vladimir Ilyich was poisoned with mushroom soup, to which was added dried cortinarius ciosissimus (the most beautiful spider web), a deadly poisonous mushroom.
Red Square on the day of V. I. Lenin on January 27, 1924
The funeral of the leader
Even while the leader was alive, members of the Politburo in the fall of 1923 began to vividly discuss his funeral. It is clear that the ceremony will be magnificent, but what to do with the body - to cremate according to the proletarian anti-church fashion or to embalm in step with science? “We … instead of icons, we hung the leaders and will try for Pakhom (a simple rural peasant - editor's note) and the“lower classes”to open the relics of Ilyich under the communist sauce,” wrote the ideologist of the party Nikolai Bukharin in one of his private letters. However, at first it was only about the farewell procedure. Therefore, Abrikosov, who performed the autopsy of Lenin's body, also carried out embalming on January 22 - however, the usual, temporary. "… When opening the body, he introduced a solution into the aorta, which consisted of 30 parts formalin, 20 parts alcohol, 20 parts glycerin, 10 parts zinc chloride and 100 parts water," I. Zbarsky in the book.
On January 23, the coffin with the body of the leader of the proletariat, with a large crowd of people gathered, despite the terrible frost, is loaded into the mourning train and taken to the capital, to the Column Hall of the House of Unions. Meanwhile, at the Kremlin wall on Red Square, the frozen ground is being crumbled with dynamite to equip the tomb and the foundation of the first Mausoleum. The newspapers of those times reported that in a month and a half the Mausoleum was visited by about 100 thousand people, but a huge queue still lined up at the door. And in the Kremlin they begin to frantically think what can be done with the body, which in early March begins to rapidly lose its presentable appearance …