Soviet leader Josef Stalin died 60 years ago, on March 5, 1953. Stalin died of a stroke at his dacha in Kuntsevo, just outside Moscow. There was no one around except security guards.
Soviet leader Josef Stalin died 60 years ago, on March 5, 1953. Photo: Workers of the Dynamo Plant hear the news of Stalin’s death.
Stalin died of a stroke at his dacha in Kuntsevo, just outside Moscow. There was no one around except security guards. Photo: Leaders of the Soviet Communist Party and government stand near Stalin’s coffin. Front row, left to right: Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai Bulganin, Kliment Voroshilov, Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov. Back row, left to right: Nikita Khrushchev, Anastas Mikoyan and others.
On March 6, the coffin with Stalin’s body was displayed at the Hall of Columns in the House of Trade Unions..
People paid their last respects to Stalin for three days and three nights. Photo: People line up near the House of Trade Unions in Moscow to pay their last respects to the late Josef Stalin.
On March 9, 1953, at 10:05 a.m., Georgy Malenkov, Lavrenty Beria, Vyacheslav Molotov, Kliment Voroshilov, Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin, Lazar Kaganovich and Anastas Mikoyan picked up the coffin with Stalin’s body and carried it out of the hall.
The coffin was placed on an artillery carriage. Members of Stalin’s family and his closest comrades-in-arms walked behind it. Photo: The funeral cortege with Stalin’s coffin on Moscow’s Red Square.
People were killed in a stampede on Moscow’s Trubnaya Square during Stalin’s funeral. Although the body count is still classified, somewhere between several hundred and 2,000 to 3,000 people were reportedly killed. Photo: Muscovites and people from other cities on Moscow’s Gorky Street during Josef Stalin’s funeral.
During Stalin’s funeral, wakes were held all over the country. Photo: Residents of Gori mourn during Stalin’s funeral.
Residents of Riga mourn during Stalin’s funeral.
March 9, 1953. Residents of Prague mourn during Stalin’s funeral.
Workers at the Vyacheslav Molotov Automotive Plant mourn during Stalin’s funeral.
Workers of the Pamyat Ilyicha (Memory of Lenin) collective farm mourn during Stalin’s funeral.
Workers of the Stalin Workshops of the Yaroslavl Railway stand in silence as Stalin’s body is interred.
March 9, 1953. Muscovites gather on the Red Square on the day of Josef Stalin’s funeral.
Stalin’s embalmed body was interred in the Lenin Mausoleum, which was called the Lenin – Stalin Mausoleum in 1953 to 1961. Photo: Top Soviet leaders stand on the rostrum of the Lenin Mausoleum on the day of Josef Stalin’s funeral.
Stalin’s body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum in the early hours of November 1, 1961, and buried in a grave near the Kremlin Wall. Photo: Moscow’s workers mourn during Stalin’s funeral on Red Square.
