On March 1, 1953, the leader had a stroke, he was not given help in time, as a result of which Joseph Vissarionovich died on March 5. Stalin's funeral became a national drama. Thousands of people died in the stampede. But only now, after a while, it becomes clear that his death could be the result of a conspiracy by the Soviet elite. The very one at Stalin's coffin made mourning speeches.
Stalin's official cause of death
Near dacha - the official residence of Stalin Stalin died in his official residence, the Near Dacha, where he permanently lived in post-war period. On March 1, 1953, one of the guards found him lying on the floor of a small dining room. On the morning of March 2, doctors arrived at the Near Dacha and diagnosed paralysis right side body. On March 5, at 21:50, Stalin died. According to the medical report, death was the result of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The assassination of the leader. Stalin was poisoned
Documents were found in the former Kremlin archives, indicating that Stalin was poisoned. Who did it and how?
The first news of poisoning
The first data confirming that Joseph Stalin was killed by one of his close associates appeared back in the 50s.
At first, Nikita Khrushchev let it slip in the presence of several Western journalists. AT foreign media Khrushchev's words were replicated as real sensation, but for " iron curtain"The news did not reach immediately, and only those who caught foreign "voices" on the radio heard about it. The second spoke about the violent death of Stalin former minister Foreign Affairs of the USSR Dmitry Shepilov, and also in the presence of foreign correspondents. These two, as it were, "accidentally escaped" evidence gave reason to the American historian Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov to start large-scale research. And in 1976, the book "The Mystery of Stalin's Death (Beria's Conspiracy)" was published. Avtorkhanov did a great job: he found dozens of witnesses in the Soviet Union, interviewed them - at that time it was an extremely difficult job. Finally, in the West long time no one doubted the poisoning version - only the identity of the organizer of the murder caused controversy. Minister of the Interior Lavrenty Beria was considered such. As it turned out, it was wrong. Beria, of course, could have been involved in the murder, but it was not he who organized it, but Lazar Kaganovich, who was also part of Stalin's inner circle. Kaganovich lived almost until the collapse of the USSR, but for all these years he did not utter a word about his involvement in the death of the leader.
Documents of the commission of Mikhail Poltoranin on the declassification of KGB archives related to last days Generalissimo, unequivocally testified that Lavrenty Beria might not have known about the impending murder. A member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, Kaganovich, asked him to remove him away from the leader of his two closest associates - the head of the special sector of the Central Committee Alexander Poskrebyshev and the head of the personal guard, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik, who allegedly had a bad influence on Stalin, which Beria successfully did. But Beria might not have known why it was necessary to eliminate Vlasik and Poskrebyshev.
How exactly did Kaganovich plan the murder and who did he involve in the operation to eliminate Stalin? It is known that Kaganovich was helped by his relative Ella. It was she who negotiated with the performers. It was she who consulted with experts, choosing poison. In the 1990s, all records in the KGB archive concerning this woman were taken to Israel on the personal order of Boris Yeltsin. Why was it Kaganovich who planned the assassination of Stalin?
Who poisoned Stalin?
Apparently, the background of the crime lay in everyday life, one might even say, family history. The son of Lavrenty Beria Sergo in his book “My father is Lavrenty Beria” mentioned that his sister (according to other sources - nieces. - Author's note) Kaganovich Rosa had a son from Stalin: “Their proximity became direct cause suicide of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, wife of Joseph Vissarionovich, wrote Sergo Beria. - I knew the child who grew up in the Kaganovich family well. The boy's name was Yuri. The boy looked very much like a Georgian.”
In 1951, Beria reported to Stalin that Yuri allegedly spoke out among his acquaintances that he would replace Stalin as head of state - he would inherit, so to speak. Like it or not, Stalin allegedly asked Beria to "resolve the issue with the heir." Kaganovich found out about this and hurried to imitate Yuri's death. They organized a fictitious funeral, and in the meantime the guy was hidden in Leningrad, with distant relatives of Kaganovich. The fact that Yuri was seen alive after Stalin's death was recalled by the writers Sergei Krasikov and Vladimir Soloukhin. In general, the version that Kaganovich decided to kill Stalin in order to save his sister's son from imminent reprisal is still in use among historians.
Why did Stalin die? Poisoned with mineral water.
Stalin was most likely poisoned on Saturday, February 28, 1953. In the evening he drank mineral water - according to the description that was subsequently drawn up, there were three empty bottles in the bedroom. One of them, from under Borjomi, subsequently disappeared without a trace. Researchers, in particular Oleg Karataev and Nikolai Dobryukha, believe that the killers approached the choice of poison with extreme caution. It was necessary to make sure that the poison did not kill Stalin immediately. The killers needed time to share power among themselves. And the quick death of the leader did not leave such an opportunity.
Nikolai Dobryukha writes that “Stalin got poisoned as soon as he drank mineral water. This is evidenced by the fact that he was found lying at the table, on which stood a bottle of mineral water and a glass from which he drank. And since the poison acted "almost instantly", after drinking, Stalin immediately fell ... according to some sources, dead, according to others - having lost consciousness. On November 8, 1953, Nikolai Dobryukha continues, the Kremlin Sanitary Department decided to donate medicines and three mineral water bottles to the Lenin Museum for the Stalin Museum, but for some reason, for unspecified reasons, on November 9 only two bottles were handed over (one from Narzan, another from under Borjomi). Was Beria among the killers? Judging by the fact that it was he who was made extreme, he still did not know about the impending murder. This version is supported by some evidence. Nikolai Dobryukha writes that Beria was "very nervous" when he learned that Stalin was between life and death after a "brain hemorrhage." Someone, and Beria, who read everything that the doctors wrote about the state of health of the leader, knew that Stalin was as healthy as a bull. Stable pressure for 10 years, and suddenly for no reason - a stroke. It is also strange that, having learned about the stroke, the first thing Beria did was to interrogate former boss toxicological laboratory NKVD - MGB Grigory Mairanovsky, who was arrested in December 1951. Mairanovsky confirmed that he had repeatedly advised Ella, a relative of Lazar Kaganovich, “on very sensitive issues” related to poisons.
Actually, even after studying the conclusion of the medical consultation that took place after the death of the leader, it could be assumed that something was unclean with the “stroke”. Unless the stroke followed the poisoning and was provoked by the poison. The council concluded: “Blood examination showed an increase in the number of white blood cells up to 17,000 (instead of 7000 - 8000 in the norm) with toxic granularity in leukocytes. In the study of urine, protein was found up to 6 ppm (normally 0). Translating from medical into Russian, this means one thing - poisoning.
Documentary TV channel Rossiya “What did Stalin die from? A sensation without a statute of limitations
Version of the "killer doctors"
For a long time, there was a version that Stalin was poisoned by "killer doctors." At the same time, there was a certain duality in the official interpretation of the death of the leader: on the one hand, a stroke was documented, on the other, a group of doctors and nurses who allegedly took revenge on the “father of nations” for the repression of “rootless cosmopolitans”. The version did not appear on empty place: the last injection, which could have been fatal, was given to Stalin by the nurse Moiseeva. On the evening of March 5, she gave Stalin an injection of calcium gluconate - before that, such injections had never been given to the leader. Then there were two more injections - camphor oil and adrenaline. And, judging by the medical records, Stalin died immediately. In such a state that Stalin had in his last hours, an injection of adrenaline can cause spasms of the vessels of the systemic circulation and, as a result, a quick death.
Poisoned with "spider venom"
And so it was. A "spider venom" of natural origin was added to the mineral water, over which they "conjured" in Mayranovsky's laboratory. Such a poison disrupts breathing, blood circulation and affects The lymph nodes and brain. But it doesn't always cause death. Advising Kaganovich's sister, Mairanovsky warned about this, but for some reason the killers settled on the spider's venom. As a result, Stalin was poisoned, but did not die. But the doctors did not immediately find out about the poisoning! The first blood and urine tests were at their disposal only in the early morning of March 5. By this time, the poison had already caused irreversible damage to the heart and brain - it was discovered too late. The second analysis indicated the presence in Stalin's blood of 85% of neutrophils at a rate of 55-68%, and an increase in the number of neutrophils indicates the presence toxic substances in the body. Another indicator is 18% of stab neutrophils at a rate of 2-5%. All signs of poisoning were present. And the doctors knew that this was the end. Therefore, the last injections were made only in order to alleviate the suffering of the dying.
An autopsy also showed the presence of poisoning with a poison of non-synthetic origin. It is for this reason that the conclusion of the pathologists was signed by only 11 people out of 19 who were members of the commission. Eight "non-signers" were well aware of what they would have to sign, and decided not to risk it, explaining their act by some "scientific contradictions" that they had with their colleagues during the pathological examination. The expert opinion was rewritten twice - in April and July 1953 . The last time - after the arrest of Beria, appointed "switchman". Lazar Kaganovich, who organized the poisoning, held out in power until 1959 and lived to see old age. His relative Ella, who supplied the performers with poison and consulted with poisoning luminaries from the MGB, emigrated to Israel in the 60s. Perhaps in the near future new details of the murder of Stalin will be revealed - the secret archives of Lavrenty Beria are about to be declassified.
Funeral of I.V. Stalin in Moscow Books about Stalin's death
Nikolai Dobryukha's book "How Stalin was killed"
“The study “How Stalin was killed” is a strong material. Very strong material. Convincing… Documents about last illness and Stalin's deaths are so significant that now no one can turn away from them. For the first time, we are not dealing with a set of memories, rumors and assumptions about the death of Stalin, but with the study of genuine documents. Soviet intelligence(1974-1988) Chairman of the KGB of the USSR (1988-1991) Vladimir Kryuchkov.
Yuri Mukhin's book "The Murder of Stalin and Beria"
In fact, this is a scientific and historical investigation by Yuri Mukhin. The book reveals not only the motive for the murders and specific killers, but also shows all the stages of the conspiracy of the nomenklatura against the Soviet people: the rallying and defeat of the conspirators in the 30s, new rallying after the Patriotic War, covering up the conspiracy with the Jewish version (“doctors’ case”), murder leaders of the Soviet people and, finally, the complete victory of the conspirators over the people in 1991. It shows the difficult situation in which the victorious CPSU nomenklatura in Russia and the CIS fell, even having unlimited power over the population and fabulous amounts of money stolen from the people of the USSR. For historians, political scientists, students historical specialties and anyone interested in history.
Video about the causes of Stalin's death
Documentary film of the Mir TV channel “Death of the leader. How Stalin was killed
Watch the film "The Death of Stalin" 2017
British-French comedy Feature Film, filmed in 2017 based on the French film of the same name graphic novel(comic book) 2010. The film tells about the last hours of the life of the leader of the USSR Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and political struggle for the power of his inner circle immediately after his death in early March 1953.
The performance of all the actors in this film leaves much to be desired, very vulgar, dirty and not at all funny. The story in the film is all twisted from head to foot, after watching the film, negative remains.
Even decades after death Joseph Stalin his last days and hours are surrounded by an aura of mystery. Could the doctors help the dying? Was involved in death Soviet leader his inner circle? Were the events of the first days of March 1953 a conspiracy? AiF.ru cites several facts related to the death of a person who forever left a mark on world history.
The fatal stroke was not caused by alcohol abuse.
There is an erroneous opinion that the fatal stroke overtook Stalin after a hearty dinner, where the wine flowed like water. In fact, on the evening of February 28, Stalin in the company Malenkov, Beria, Bulganin and Khrushchev watched the film in the Kremlin cinema hall, and then invited them to the Middle Dacha, where a very modest banquet took place. Eyewitnesses claim that Stalin drank only a little wine diluted with water on it.
Stalin's guests departed on the morning of March 1, but for the leader it was the usual daily routine - for many years he worked at night, going to bed only at dawn. According to the security guards, Stalin went to rest in a good mood. Moreover, he ordered the guards to go to bed too, which had not been noticed before by the leader.
The building of the near dacha of Joseph Stalin in Kuntsevo in Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti / Press service of the FSO of Russia
Stalin did not call for help, the guards did not show initiative
Stalin rarely slept for a long time, and, as a rule, by 11 o'clock he had already received the first orders of the new day for the guards and servants. But on March 1, there were no signals from the leader. The pause lasted until the very evening, and at about 18 o'clock in the rooms occupied by Stalin, the light came on. But the leader still did not call anyone, which was, of course, an extraordinary event.
Only after 22:00 on March 1, 1953 did the security officer Lozgachev, taking advantage of the fact that the mail was brought, he decided to go into Stalin's chambers. He found the leader on the floor, his pajama pants were wet. Stalin was shaking with chills, he made inarticulate sounds. Judging by the lights on and the clock found on the floor, Stalin, despite the deterioration in his condition, could still move for some time, until he collapsed to the floor exhausted. In this position, he spent several hours. It remains a mystery why the leader did not attempt to call the guards and ask for help.
The leader's entourage pretended that nothing serious was happening.
What happened next allows a number of researchers to accuse Stalin's entourage of a conspiracy. The first reports of the guards on the leader's condition stumbled upon a very strange reaction. Khrushchev and Bulganin, having arrived at the Near Dacha, left it, confining themselves to a conversation with the guards. Beria and Malenkov, who arrived at three o'clock in the morning, declared that Stalin simply took too much at the banquet. At the same time, Lavrenty Pavlovich could not help but know that the leader did not consume a significant amount of alcohol, which means that his condition could not be the result of intoxication. There is reason to believe that all members of Stalin's entourage were well aware that something serious was happening. However, shortly before this, the leader began to update the composition Soviet leadership, directly making it clear to the "old guard" that he intends to replace them. Khrushchev, Beria and others did not kill Stalin directly, but they did not leave him a chance of salvation, delaying the arrival of doctors as much as possible.
Doctors were allowed to see Stalin when he had no chance to survive
Only by 9 a.m. on March 2 did a team of doctors appear at the Near Dacha, headed by one of the best Soviet general practitioners. Pavel Lukomsky. Doctors diagnose - a stroke, ascertain paralysis of the right side of the body and loss of speech.
Later Vasily Stalin will shock those around him with cries: “They killed their father!” The leader's son was not far from the truth - it is known that the so-called "gold watch" is important to save the life of a stroke survivor. As a rule, doctors mean providing first aid within an hour, as well as delivering a patient to a hospital within four hours.But Stalin was found no earlier than three to four hours after the attack, and he received medical help after another 11 hours. It is not a fact that the 74-year-old leader could have been saved even if immediate assistance was provided, but the delay of half a day left him no chance of surviving.
Already during March 2, 1953, Beria, Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev and other members of the "old guard" held meetings at which the top posts were redistributed. A decision is made that the new cadres nominated by Stalin will be removed from the main posts in the country. Doctors report that the Stalinist entourage understands perfectly well even without this - the leader has no more than a few days to live.
President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Alexander Nikolayevich Nesmeyanov read out the appeal of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to all members of the party in connection with the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Photo: RIA Novosti / Boris Ryabinin
The people were informed about the serious illness of the leader on March 4
On March 4, 1953, Stalin's illness was officially announced. Twice a day bulletins about the state of health of the Soviet leader begin to be issued. Here is the text of the bulletin published in the Pravda newspaper on March 4, 1953: “On the night of March 2, 1953, I.V. Stalin, there was a sudden cerebral hemorrhage that captured vital areas of the brain, resulting in paralysis of the right leg and right arm with loss of consciousness and speech. On March 2 and 3, appropriate therapeutic measures were taken to improve the impaired functions of respiration and circulation, which have not yet resulted in a significant change in the course of the disease.
By two o'clock in the morning on March 4, the state of health of I.V. Stalin continues to be heavy. Significant respiratory disorders are observed: the respiratory rate is up to 36 per minute, the breathing rhythm is incorrect with periodic long pauses. There is an increase in heart rate up to 120 beats per minute, complete arrhythmia; blood pressure - maximum 220, minimum 120. Temperature 38.2. In connection with the violation of breathing and blood circulation, oxygen deficiency is observed. The degree of brain dysfunction increased slightly. Currently, a number of therapeutic measures are being carried out aimed at restoring vitality. important functions organism." The last bulletin - on Stalin's condition at 4 pm on March 5 - will be published in the newspapers on March 6, when the leader will no longer be alive.
Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Chernov
Stalin was stripped of power 1 hour 10 minutes before his death
Joseph Stalin lost even formal power during his lifetime. March 5, 1953 at 20:00 began a joint meeting of the Plenum Central Committee CPSU, Council of Ministers USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After the report of the Minister of Health of the USSR Andrey Tretyakov about the state of Stalin, the redistribution of posts began in order to "ensure uninterrupted and correct leadership of the entire life of the country." Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, that is, the actual head of the country, was appointed Georgy Malenkov.Lavrenty Beria became the head of the united department, which included the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Klim Voroshilov. At the same time, they did not dare to completely withdraw Stalin from the leadership - he was included in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU
The meeting ended at 20:40, that is, a little over an hour before the death of the leader. Information about it in the Soviet media appeared on March 7, but without specifying the time of its holding. The message did not mention that by the time these decisions were made, Stalin was alive.
The secrets of the last hours of the leader died with Colonel Khrustalev
From the moment the doctors appeared at the Near Dacha on March 2 until the last minutes of Stalin's life, one of the members of his inner circle was on duty next to his bed. During the meeting, at which the posts in the country's leadership were redistributed, next to Stalin was on duty Nikolay Bulganin. However, at about half past ten in the evening of March 5, almost all members of the "old guard" gathered at the Near Dacha. At 21:50 Joseph Stalin died. Chief's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled: “Beria was the first to jump out into the corridor, and in the silence of the hall, where everyone stood silently, his loud voice was heard, not hiding the triumph: “Khrustalev, the car!”
The phrase "Khrustalev, the car!" became historical. Colonel state security Ivan Vasilievich Khrustalev since May 1952 he was the head of the bodyguard of unit No. 1 of the 1st department of the UO of the MGB of the USSR. Khrustalev replaced in this post Nicholas Vlasik, who headed the Stalinist guard for half a century. Many historians associate the passivity of the guards in the first hours after the stroke with the personality of Khrustalev, who is considered "Beria's man." Even before the removal and arrest of Beria, on May 29, 1953, Khrustalev was transferred to the reserve due to age. In December 1954, Stalin's last head of security died at the age of 47. All the secrets associated with the last hours of the leader's life, he took with him to the grave.
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
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Biography and episodes of life Joseph Stalin. When born and died Stalin memorable places and dates important events his life. politics quotes, Photo and video.
The years of the life of Joseph Stalin:
born December 21, 1879, died March 5, 1953
Epitaph
"In this hour of greatest sorrow
I can't find those words
So that they fully express
Our nationwide misfortune."
Alexander Tvardovsky on Stalin's death
Biography
Joseph Stalin remains to this day one of the strongest and most controversial rulers of the 20th century. The entire biography of Joseph Stalin is shrouded in many theories, interpretations and opinions. It is difficult, years later, to say with accuracy whether he was the "father of the Soviet people" or a dictator, a Moloch or a savior. Nevertheless, the significance of Stalin's personality in the history of the USSR and Russia cannot be denied.
He was born in Gori in 1879 to a poor family. Joseph's father was a shoemaker, and his mother was the daughter of a serf. According to the stories of Stalin himself, the father often beat his son and wife, and then completely went to wander, leaving the family in poverty. At the age of seven, Joseph entered the theological school in Gori - his mother saw him as a future priest. After graduating with honors, he brilliantly passed the entrance exams to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, but was expelled five years later - for promoting Marxism. Later, Stalin admitted that he became a revolutionary and a supporter of Marxism out of protest against the regime of the theological seminary in which he studied.
During his life, Stalin was married several times - Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to Joseph's son Yakov, died of tuberculosis after three years of marriage. Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who gave birth to two children, Stalin, Svetlana and Vasily, committed suicide after thirteen years of marriage, when the couple were already living in the Kremlin apartment. Born in Turukhansk exile illegitimate son Stalin, Konstantin Kuzakov, but Joseph did not maintain relations with him.
After being expelled from the seminary, political biography Stalin - he entered the Social Democratic organization of Georgia, arrests, exiles and escapes from these exiles began. In 1903, Joseph joined the Bolsheviks - and his path to the post of head of state began, a few years later he was elected general secretary of the party's Central Committee. After Lenin's death, Stalin was able to retain power, despite the "Letter to the Congress" written in 1922 by Vladimir Ilyich, where he criticizes Joseph and proposes to remove him from office. Thus began the era of Stalin's rule, an ambiguous time full of victories and tragedies. During the years of Stalin, the USSR turned into a world power, won the Great Patriotic War, made a breakthrough in the national economic development, in the military-industrial complex. But all these successes during the years of Stalin's rule were accompanied by large-scale repressions, deportation of peoples, famine as a result of collectivization, and, finally, Stalin's personality cult, according to which the people had to believe that all the merits of the country are the merits of its ruler only. Busts and monuments to Stalin were erected throughout the country, which became a symbol of that time in the USSR.
AT post-war years Comrade Stalin lived in his official residence - in the Near Dacha. On March 1, Stalin's guard found him lying on the floor, and the doctors who arrived the next morning at Stalin's dacha diagnosed paralysis. Stalin's death came on the evening of March 5. The cause of Stalin's death was a cerebral hemorrhage. The death of Joseph Stalin is still shrouded in a halo of mystery and possible conspiracies - so, according to one version, Beria, as well as Stalin's associates, who were in no hurry to call doctors, could contribute to the murder of Stalin. Stalin's funeral took place on March 9. So many people wished to say goodbye to the "father of the people" and honor the memory of Stalin that a stampede arose. The number of victims numbered in the thousands. Stalin's body was placed in Lenin's Mausoleum. Years later, it was reburied, now Stalin's grave is located near the Kremlin wall. After Stalin's death, the so-called thaw period began, the new leadership of the country decided to move away from the "Stalinist model" and follow the path of liberalization, however, this period in the country's history was not without contradictions and excesses.
Joseph Stalin in his youth
life line
December 21, 1979 Date of birth of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili).
1894 Graduated from the Gori Theological School.
1898 Member of the RCP(b).
1902 First arrest, exile to Eastern Siberia.
1917-1922 Work as People's Commissar for Nationalities in the first Soviet government.
1922 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1939 Obtaining the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
August 23, 1939 The signing of the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany.
May 1941 Chairman of the government of the USSR.
June 30, 1941 Chairman State Committee defense.
August 1941Supreme Commander Armed forces of the USSR.
1943 Obtaining the rank of marshal Soviet Union.
1945 Obtaining the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
March 2, 1953 Paralysis.
March 5, 1953 Date of Joseph Stalin's death.
March 6, 1953 Farewell to Stalin in the House of Unions.
March 9, 1953 Funeral of Joseph Stalin.
November 1, 1961 Reburial of Stalin's body at the Kremlin wall.
Memorable places
1. The Stalin Museum in Gori, in front of which is Stalin's house, where he lived as a child.
2. House-monument of political exiles in Solvychegodsk, located in the house of Stalin, where he was exiled in 1908-1910.
3. Museum "Vologda exile" in the house of Stalin, where he was exiled in 1911-1912.
4. Museum "Stalin's Bunker".
5. Near dacha, or Kuntsevskaya dacha, where Stalin died.
6. House of the Unions, where the body of Stalin was put up for parting.
7. Lenin Mausoleum, where Stalin was buried.
8. Kremlin wall where Stalin is buried (reburied).
Episodes of life
Stalin's son from his first marriage, Yakov, during the Great Patriotic war was taken prisoner by the Germans. According to one version, when the Germans offered to exchange the leader’s son for their field marshal Paulus, Joseph Stalin replied: “I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal.” According to another, he was very upset by the captivity of Yakov and even accused his wife Julia of the fact that his son was captured. Julia spent two years in prison on charges of passing information to the Germans. In 1943, Yakov was shot while trying to escape from a German concentration camp.
According to the stories of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, on the eve of her mother Nadezhda's suicide, her parents quarreled a little - moreover, the quarrel was insignificant, but, apparently, served as a trigger for the mother's act. Nadezhda locked herself in her room and shot herself in the heart with a pistol. Stalin was shocked because he did not understand why? He perceived his wife's act as a desire to punish him for something and did not understand why. In the first days after the death of his wife, he was so depressed that he even said that he did not want to live. Stalin's daughter claims that her mother left a letter to her father, which was full of not only personal, but also political reproaches, which shocked Stalin even more. After reading it, he decided that all this time his wife was on the side of the opposition, and not at the same time with him.
In 1936, information appeared abroad that Stalin had died. A correspondent from an American news agency sent a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin, asking him to refute or confirm the rumors. A few days later he received a response from the Soviet leader with the words: Your Majesty! As far as I know from messages foreign press, I have long since left this sinful world and moved to the other world. Since foreign press reports cannot be distrusted if you do not want to be crossed off the list civilized people, then I ask you to believe these messages and not disturb my peace in the silence of the other world. Sincerely, Joseph Stalin.
Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin
Covenant
“When I die, a lot of rubbish will be put on my grave, but the wind of time will mercilessly sweep it away.”
Documentary from the series Soviet biographies» About Joseph Stalin
condolences
“It is difficult to express in words the feeling of great sorrow that our Party and the peoples of our country, all progressive mankind are experiencing these days. Stalin, the great comrade-in-arms and ingenious successor of the work of Lenin, was gone. A man has left us, the closest and dearest to all Soviet people, to millions of working people all over the world.
Lavrenty Beria, Soviet politician
"In these hard days the deep sorrow of the Soviet people is shared by all advanced and progressive mankind. The name of Stalin is immensely dear to the Soviet people, to the broadest the masses in all parts of the world".
Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician
“These days we are all experiencing a heavy grief - the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the loss of a great leader and, at the same time, a close, dear, endlessly dear person. And we, his old and close friends, and millions and millions, like the working people of all countries, all over the world, say goodbye today to Comrade Stalin, whom we all loved so much and who will always live in our hearts.
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician
The period of his reign, called the "era of Stalinism", was marked by the victory in World War II, the amazing successes of the USSR in the economy, in eradicating the illiteracy of the population, in creating the world image of the country as a superpower. At the same time, his name is associated with horrific facts mass destruction million Soviet people through the organization of artificial famine, forced deportations, repressions directed against opponents of the regime, intra-party “purges”.
Regardless of the crimes committed, he remains popular among Russians: a 2017 Levada Center poll showed that most citizens consider him an outstanding head of state. In addition, he unexpectedly took the lead in the audience voting during the 2008 television project to choose the greatest hero. national history"Name of Russia".
Childhood and youth
The future "father of nations" was born on December 18, 1878 (according to another version - December 21, 1879) in the east of Georgia. His ancestors belonged to the lower strata of the population. Father Vissarion Ivanovich was a shoemaker, earned little, drank a lot and often beat his wife. Little Soso got it from him, as his mother Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze called her son.The two oldest children in their family died shortly after birth. And the surviving Soso had physical disabilities: two fingers fused on his leg, damage to the skin of his face, an arm that did not fully unbend due to an injury received at the age of 6 when he was hit by a car.
Joseph's mother worked hard. She wanted her beloved son to achieve “the best” in life, namely, to become a priest. He is in early age he spent a lot of time among street brawlers, but in 1889 he was admitted to a local Orthodox school, where he demonstrated extraordinary talent: he wrote poetry, received high marks in theology, mathematics, Russian and Greek.
In 1890, the head of the family died from a knife wound in a drunken brawl. True, some historians argue that the boy’s father was in fact not the official husband of his mother, but her distant relative, Prince Maminoshvili, confidant and friend of Nikolai Przhevalsky. Others even attribute paternity to this famous traveler, outwardly very similar to Stalin. Confirmation of these assumptions is the fact that the boy was accepted into a very solid spiritual educational institution, where the path was ordered for people from poor families, as well as the periodic transfer of funds by Prince Maminoshvili to Soso's mother for raising her son.
After graduating from college at the age of 15, the young man continued his education at the theological seminary of Tiflis (now Tbilisi), where he made friends among the Marxists. In parallel with his main studies, he began to engage in self-education, studying underground literature. In 1898, he became a member of the first social democratic organization in Georgia, showed himself as brilliant speaker and engaged in the propaganda of the ideas of Marxism among the workers.
Participation in the revolutionary movement
On the last year Joseph was expelled from the seminary with the issuance of a document on the right to work as a teacher in institutions that provided primary education.Since 1899, he began to professionally engage in revolutionary work, in particular, he became a member of the party committees of Tiflis and Batumi, participated in attacks on banking institutions to obtain funds for the needs of the RSDLP.
In the period 1902-1913. he was arrested eight times and sent into exile seven times as a criminal punishment. But between arrests, while at large, he continued to be active. For example, in 1904, he organized a grandiose Baku strike, which ended with the conclusion of an agreement between workers and oil owners.
Out of necessity, the young revolutionary then had many party pseudonyms - Nizheradze, Soselo, Chizhikov, Ivanovich, Koba. Them total exceeded 30 names.
In 1905, at the first party conference in Finland, he first met Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. Then he was a delegate at the IV and V congresses of the party in Sweden and in the UK. In 1912, at a party plenum in Baku, he was included in absentia into the Central Committee. In the same year, he decided to finally change his surname to the party nickname "Stalin", consonant with the established pseudonym of the leader of the world proletariat.
In 1913, the “fiery Colchian,” as Lenin sometimes called him, once more got into the link. Released in 1917, together with Lev Kamenev (real surname Rosenfeld), he headed the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, worked to prepare an armed uprising.
How did Stalin come to power?
After the October Revolution, Stalin became a member of the Soviet people's commissars, in the Bureau of the Central Committee of the party. During the period civil war he also held a number of positions of responsibility and gained tremendous experience in political and military leadership. In 1922, he took the post of general secretary, but the general secretary in those years was not yet the head of the party. 
When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin took over the leadership of the country, defeating the opposition, and embarked on industrialization, collectivization and cultural revolution. The success of Stalin's policy consisted in a competent personnel policy. “Cadres decide everything,” is a quote from Joseph Vissarionovich in a speech to graduates of the military academy in 1935. During the first years in power, he appointed more than 4 thousand party functionaries to responsible posts, thereby forming the backbone of the Soviet nomenklatura.
Joseph Stalin. How to become a leader
But above all, he eliminated competitors in the political struggle, not forgetting to take advantage of their developments. Nikolai Bukharin became the author of the concept national question, which the Secretary General took as the basis of his course. Grigory Lev Kamenev owned the slogan "Stalin is Lenin today", and Stalin actively promoted the idea that he was the successor of Vladimir Ilyich and literally planted the cult of Lenin's personality, strengthened the leader's moods in society. Well, Leon Trotsky, with the support of economists close to him ideologically, developed a plan for forced industrialization.
It was the latter who became the main opponent of Stalin. Disagreements between them began long before that - back in 1918, Joseph was indignant that Trotsky, a newcomer to the party, was trying to teach him the right course. Immediately after the death of Lenin, Lev Davidovich fell into disgrace. In 1925, the plenum of the Central Committee summed up the "harm" that Trotsky's speeches had inflicted on the party. The figure was removed from the post of head of the Revolutionary Military Council, Mikhail Frunze was appointed in his place. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR, a struggle began in the country against manifestations of "Trotskyism". The fugitive settled in Mexico, but was killed in 1940 by an NKVD agent.
After Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev fell under Stalin's sights, and were finally eliminated in the course of the apparatus war.
Stalinist repressions
Stalin's methods of achieving impressive success in turning an agrarian country into a superpower - violence, terror, repression with the use of torture - cost millions of human lives. 
The victims of dispossession (eviction, confiscation of property, executions), along with the kulaks, became the innocent rural population of average income, which led to the actual destruction of the village. When the situation reached critical proportions, the Father of Nations issued a statement about "excesses on the ground."
Forced collectivization (unification of peasants into collective farms), the concept of which was adopted in November 1929, destroyed the traditional Agriculture and led to dire consequences. In 1932, mass famine struck Ukraine, Belarus, Kuban, the Volga region, Southern Urals, Kazakhstan, Western Siberia.
Researchers agree that the state was also harmed by political repression dictator-“architect of communism” in relation to commanders of the Red Army, persecution of scientists, cultural figures, doctors, engineers, mass closing of churches, deportations of many peoples, including Crimean Tatars, Germans, Chechens, Balkars, Ingrian Finns.
In 1941, after Hitler's attack on the USSR, the Supreme Commander made many erroneous decisions in the art of warfare. In particular, his refusal to promptly withdraw military formations from Kyiv led to the unjustified death of a significant mass of the armed forces - five armies. But later, when organizing various military operations, he already showed himself to be a very competent strategist.
The significant contribution of the USSR to the defeat Nazi Germany in 1945, he contributed to the formation of the world socialist system, as well as to the growth of the authority of the country and its leader. The "Great Pilot" contributed to the creation of a powerful domestic military-industrial complex, the transformation of the Soviet Union into a nuclear superpower, one of the founders of the UN and a permanent member of its Security Council with veto power.
Personal life of Joseph Stalin
"Uncle Joe", as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill called Stalin among themselves, was married twice. His first chosen one was Ekaterina Svanidze, the sister of his friend who studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Their wedding took place in the church of St. David in July 1906. 
A year later, Kato gave her husband the firstborn Jacob. When the boy was only 8 months old, she died (according to some sources from tuberculosis, others from typhoid fever). She was 22 years old. As the English historian Simon Montefiore noted, during the funeral, 28-year-old Stalin did not want to say goodbye to his beloved wife and jumped into her grave, from where he was taken out with great difficulty.
After the death of his mother, Jacob met his father only at the age of 14. After school, without his permission, he got married, then because of a conflict with his father, he tried to commit suicide. During WWII, he died in German captivity. According to one of the legends, the Nazis offered to exchange Jacob for Friedrich Paulus, but Stalin did not take the opportunity to save his son, saying that he would not change the field marshal for a soldier.
The second time the "Locomotive of the Revolution" tied the bonds of Hymen at the age of 39, in 1918. His affair with 16-year-old Nadezhda, the daughter of one of the revolutionary workers Sergei Alliluyev, began a year earlier. Then he returned from Siberian exile and lived in their apartment. In 1920, the couple had a son, Vasily, the future lieutenant general of aviation, in 1926, a daughter, Svetlana, who emigrated to the United States in 1966. She married an American and took the surname Peters. Stalin's main hobby was reading.
The leader's main hobby was reading. He loved Maupassant, Dostoyevsky, Wilde, Gogol, Chekhov, Zola, Goethe, without hesitation he quoted the Bible and Bismarck.
Death of Stalin
At the end of life Soviet dictator praised as a professional in all fields of knowledge. One of his words could decide the fate of anyone scientific discipline. A struggle was waged against "servile worship of the West", against "cosmopolitanism", and the exposure of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.Stalin's last speech (Speech at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, 1952)
In his personal life, he was lonely, rarely talked with children - he did not approve of his daughter's endless novels and his son's spree. At the dacha in Kuntsevo, he remained alone at night with the guards, who usually could enter him only after a call.
Svetlana, who came on December 21 to congratulate her father on his 73rd birthday, later noted that he did not look well and, apparently, did not feel well, as he suddenly quit smoking.
On the evening of Sunday, March 1, 1953, the assistant commandant entered the leader with mail received at 22 o'clock, and saw him lying on the floor. Transferring him, along with the guards who came running to help, to the sofa, he informed the top leadership of the party about what had happened. At 9 am on March 2, a group of doctors diagnosed the patient with paralysis on the right side of the body. The time for his possible rescue was lost, and on March 5 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
The scandal surrounding the comedy film by Scottish director Armando Ianucci "The Death of Stalin", banned from showing by the decision of the Ministry of Culture, gave rise to a whole storm of emotions in the country
So, some believe that this is just a comedy that should be taken accordingly, while others, on the contrary, are sure that this film is a weapon " hybrid war"and is intended to denigrate Soviet history. Therefore, the "Stol" decided to remember how eyewitnesses actually remembered the day of March 5, 1953.
Lazar Kaganovich: “Stalin died unexpectedly…”
Stalin died unexpectedly. Although some of us in the last period of his life were less likely to visit him at home, but at meetings, official meetings, we saw with satisfaction that, despite the fatigue from the war, Stalin looked good. He was active, cheerful, and continued to discuss issues in a lively and meaningful way. When I was called to the “Near Dacha” at night, I found Beria, Khrushchev and Malenkov there. They told me that Stalin had a stroke, he was paralyzed and speechless, that doctors had been called. I was shocked and cried.
From left to right: Kaganovich, Stalin, Postyshev, Voroshilov
Soon the other members of the Politburo arrived: Voroshilov, Molotov, Mikoyan and others. Doctors arrived, headed by the Minister of Health.
When we entered the room where Stalin lay with eyes closed, he opened his eyes and looked around us all with his eyes, peering into each of us. From this look it was clear that he retained consciousness, tried to say something, but could not and closed his eyes again. We all looked at Stalin, who was in a difficult condition, with deep sorrow and sadness. For several days there was a struggle to save Stalin's life, the doctors did everything possible. We, members of the Politburo, were here all the time, leaving only for a short time.
When death came, we gathered on March 5 to draw up an appeal to all members of the Party and all the working people of the Soviet Union. In this appeal, we expressed the deep feelings of bitterness, sorrow and feelings of the entire Party and people.
How, Lazar, will we live and work without Stalin? It will be hard for us
Particularly important for correct understanding The current moment is that this appeal of the Central Committee and the Government in connection with the death of Stalin was developed and unanimously adopted by all members of the Central Committee, the Government, the vast majority of the Party and the Soviet people.
I remember such an episode: together with Khrushchev, I was included in the Commission for Stalin's funeral, and when we were driving in a car with Stalin's body, Khrushchev touched my hand and said:
- How, Lazar, will we live and work without Stalin? It will be hard for us.
I remember my answer:
- In 1924, when Lenin died, the situation in the country and in the party was more difficult: there was the NEP, NEPmen, the restoration of the destroyed economy was not yet completed, the Trotskyist and other oppositions were operating in the party - but we survived, and how we went forward because the cadres loyal to Leninism rallied around the Central Committee, which led the party along the Leninist path. If we firmly adhere to this Leninist path along which Stalin led us, we will survive and move forward successfully.
(L.M. Kaganovich "So spoke Kaganovich")
Stalin's coffin
Vyacheslav Molotov: “I raised it, but…”
Mgeladze told how Malenkov and Beria formed a new government. Suddenly Malenkov makes a statement: “Comrade Stalin is in a very serious condition. It is unlikely that he will come out of it. And if he does, he will need at least six months to return to work. Therefore, the country cannot be without leadership.”
After that, Beria read out the list of the government. Cheerful, as if he wants to show that nothing terrible has happened for the country.
- Maybe. I do not remember these details... Before his death, Stalin raised his hand. Raise something lifted, but ...
(Felix Chuev "One Hundred and Forty Conversations with Molotov")
Removal of Stalin's awards
Svetlana Alliluyeva: “Father died terribly and hard”
"It was then terrible days. The feeling that something habitual, stable and lasting has shifted, shaken, began for me from the moment when on March 2 I was found at the lesson French in Academy social sciences and they said that "Malenkov asks to come to the Middle." (The father's dacha in Kuntsevo was called the near one.) It was already unbelievable - that someone other than the father would invite him to come to his dacha ...
I drove there with a strange feeling of confusion. When we drove through the gate and N. S. Khrushchev and N. A. Bulganin stopped the car on the path near the house, I decided that it was all over ...
I went out and they took me by the arms. Both of their faces were in tears. “Let’s go to the house,” they said, “where Beria and Malenkov will tell you everything.”
Everyone fussed, saving a life that could no longer be saved.
In the house—already in the hall—everything was not as usual; instead of the usual silence, deep silence, someone was running and fussing. When they finally told me that my father had a stroke at night and that he was unconscious, I even felt relieved, because it seemed to me that he was no longer there. I was told that, apparently, the blow happened at night, they found him at three in the morning lying here in this room, right here, on the carpet, near the sofa, and they decided to transfer him to another room on the sofa, where he usually slept. There he is now, there are doctors - you can go there.
Stalin's funeral. People on Red Square
In the large hall where the father was lying, a mass of people crowded. Unfamiliar doctors who saw the patient for the first time (academician V. N. Vinogradov, who had been watching his father for many years, was in prison), terribly fussed around. They put leeches on the back of the head and neck, took cardiograms, took x-rays of the lungs, the nurse constantly gave some kind of injections, one of the doctors continuously wrote down the course of the disease in a journal. Everything was done as it should. Everyone fussed, saving a life that could no longer be saved. Somewhere a special session of the Academy of Medical Sciences was meeting, deciding what else to do.
He was excited to the extreme, his face, already disgusting, now and then distorted from the passions bursting him
In a nearby small hall, some other medical council was constantly conferring, also deciding what to do.
They brought an apparatus for artificial respiration from some research institute, and with it young specialists - except for them, it must be no one would have been able to use it. The bulky unit stood idle, and the young doctors looked around dumbfounded, completely depressed by what was happening.
I suddenly realized that I know this young female doctor - where did I see her? ... We nodded to each other, but did not talk. Everyone tried to be silent, as in a temple, no one talked about extraneous things. Here, in the hall, something significant, almost great, was happening - everyone felt it - and behaved appropriately.
It was a magnificent modern type of crafty courtier, the embodiment of oriental deceit, flattery, hypocrisy
Only one person behaved almost indecently - it was Beria. He was excited to the extreme, his face, already disgusting, now and then distorted from the passions bursting him. And his passions were - ambition, cruelty, cunning, power, power ...
He tried so hard, at this crucial moment, how not to outwit, and how not to underwire! And it was written on his forehead.
AT last minutes When everything was already over, Beria suddenly noticed me and ordered:
- Take Svetlana away!
Those who stood around looked at him, but no one thought to move. And when it was all over, he was the first to jump out into the corridor and in the silence of the hall, where everyone stood silently around the bed, he could be heard loud voice who did not hide the celebration:
- Khrustalev! car!
He was a magnificent modern type of a crafty courtier, the embodiment of oriental treachery, flattery, hypocrisy, which entangled even his father - who, in general, was difficult to deceive.
Stalin's funeral. On the podium - Lavrenty Beria
The father was unconscious, as stated by the doctors. The stroke was very strong; speech was lost, the right half of the body was paralyzed. Several times he opened his eyes - his eyes were hazy, who knows if he recognized anyone. Then everyone rushed to him, trying to catch the word, or at least the desire in his eyes.
I sat next to him, holding his hand, he looked at me - he hardly saw. I kissed him and kissed his hand - there was nothing else left for me.
How strange, in these days of illness, in those hours when only the body lay before me, and the soul flew away from it, in the last days of farewell in the Hall of Columns, I loved my father more and more tenderly than in my entire life.
I understood that this was a liberation for everyone, and for me too, from some kind of oppression that crushed all souls, hearts and minds as a single, common block
He was very far from me, from us children, from all his neighbors. On the walls of the rooms at his dacha in last years there were huge, enlarged photos of children - a boy on skis, a boy at the cherry blossoms - and he never bothered to see five of his eight grandchildren. And yet he was loved - and loved now, by these grandchildren, who never saw him. And in those days when he finally calmed down on his bed, and his face became beautiful and calm, I felt how my heart was torn from sadness and from love. I have never experienced such a strong influx of feelings, so contradictory and so strong, neither before nor after. When I stood in the Hall of Columns almost all the days (I literally stood, because no matter how much they forced me to sit down and shoved a chair at me, I could not sit, I could only stand despite what was happening), petrified, without words, I understood that some kind of liberation has come. I still didn’t know and didn’t realize what it would be expressed in, but I understood that it was a liberation for everyone, and for me too, from some kind of oppression that crushed all souls, hearts and minds as a single, common block.
Stalin in the mausoleum
And at the same time, I looked at Beautiful face, calm and even sad, listened to mourning music (an old Georgian lullaby, folk song with an expressive, sad melody), and I was torn apart from sadness. I felt that I was a good-for-nothing daughter, that I had never been a good daughter, that I lived in the house as a stranger, that I did nothing to help this lonely soul, this old, sick, rejected and lonely person on his Olympus. who, after all, is my father, who loved me as best he could and as best he could, and to whom I owe not only evil, but also good ...
I didn’t eat anything all those days, I couldn’t cry, I was crushed by stone calmness and stone sadness. My father died terribly and hard. And that was the first—and the only—so far—death I had seen. God gives easy death to the righteous...
It was a terrible look, either insane, or angry and full of horror before death.
A hemorrhage in the brain spreads gradually to all centers, and with a healthy and strong heart, it slowly captures the centers of respiration and the person dies of suffocation. Breathing quickened and quickened. For the last twelve hours it was already clear that the oxygen deprivation was increasing.
His face darkened and changed, gradually his features became unrecognizable, his lips turned black. last hour or two people just slowly suffocated.
The agony was terrible. She strangled him in front of everyone. At some point - I don't know if it was really so, but it seemed so - obviously at the last minute, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked around at everyone who was standing around. It was a terrible look, either insane or angry and full of horror before death and before the unfamiliar faces of the doctors who bent over him. This look went around everyone in a fraction of a minute. And then - it was incomprehensible and scary, I still don't understand, but I can't forget - then he suddenly lifted up left hand(which was moving) and either pointed it somewhere up, or threatened all of us. The gesture was incomprehensible, but threatening, and it is not known to whom and what it referred to ...
In the next moment, the soul, having made the last effort, escaped from the body.
I thought that I would suffocate myself, I dug my hands into a young doctor friend who was standing near - she groaned in pain, we held on to each other.
The soul flew away. The body calmed down, the face turned pale and took on its familiar shape; in a few moments it became serene, calm and beautiful. Everyone stood around, petrified, in silence, for several minutes—I don’t know how long—it seemed like a long time.
(Svetlana Alliluyeva "Twenty Letters to a Friend")
Newspaper "Pravda"
Yevgeny Yevtushenko: “I never saw Stalin”
“Almost no one saw Stalin alive. Or only from afar, at a demonstration. There was also practically no television. They saw it only in the chronicle: before each session, there was a chronicle in the cinema. So we saw Stalin alive. Therefore, when it was announced that access to Stalin's body was open, everyone immediately ran there. Everyone understood that there would be a crush. But they didn't know what...
So I ran from the 4th Meshchanskaya (this is opposite the Forum cinema), barely hearing this news on the radio ... Well, people were running around. Forgetting about work, they ran ...
People always ask me, especially abroad: “What does Charlie Chaplin have to do with it?” There, in the film, a man in a bowler hat and Charlie Chaplin makeup is shown. And I saw him. It was, apparently, a clown from the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, and he fled without even peeling off Chaplin's mustache.
Why did I run? I realized that some unique event happened
There were Lilliputians - and I also placed them in the film. Why did I run? I realized that some unique event had happened. Here: there was a sense of uniqueness. I cannot say that I was driven by love for Stalin. But it was not ordinary curiosity either. I wanted to see what was happening.
And when we all got there, on Trubnaya Square, from the boulevards, from two sides, a huge crowd began to advance. And there trucks separated Trubnaya from the continuation of the Neglinka. And the crowds that came up from all three sides had to seep into narrow passages on both sides of the square between the houses and these trucks. The crowd pressed against the traffic light and only the bones crunched ...
I remember the house where the theater-school of the modern play is now - there was a traffic light on the corner, on which several people were crucified to death in front of my eyes. To death!
Streets blocked by trucks on the day of Stalin's funeral
In some places, you just had to tighten your legs, because they were walking on meat. I remember the truck and the officer to whom the children were handed over. Because they fled with the children ... Children were handed over there, over the crowd. I also remember a picture that I will never forget: the shaking face of an officer, to whom dying people shouted: “Put away the trucks!”, “Put away the trucks!”. The fact that the trucks were delivered was a crime. Well, people were chirping on those truck corners. And this officer almost cried... And only answered: "no instructions"... That's what I remember. The instruction was - to put, not to remove. And that's when I realized what it means - "there is no indication." Unfortunate man!
I was the initiator of a case there that saved so many people. I don’t know why, I shouted to people to join hands, gather in chains. Such extreme situations some kind of energy turns on, and the idea came to my mind that people, holding hands, would cut this chaos into segments. For the maelstrom of the crowd was uncontrollable. Not because people deliberately trampled each other: they simply could not do anything. And the chains calmed this sea a little ... "
Pavel Men (brother of priest Alexander Men): “The balabus threw off its hooves!”
I remember well the "doctors' case" - it was a stressful time. Every time my father took a newspaper out of the mailbox and opened it in the morning, his face turned pale and he became incredibly gloomy. Father, of course, perfectly understood the situation. He was the chief engineer at the factory and understood that he threatened the Jewish population.
In March 1953, I was 14 years old, I studied in the 7th grade of the 554th school in Stremyanny Lane (now it is waldorf school No. 1060). Our director's name was Timofey Alekseevich, he always went to military uniform, in a tunic. He was very fat. We often met him at the pubs, where he and his drinking buddy, the school watchman, got a little drunk. Our attitude towards him was ironic: we called him Behemoth, because he had such an unusual chin, and not one, but several.
And on that day we came to school, we were all lined up in the corridor, and Behemoth announced that Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin had died. It was terrible. Why? Because Behemoth started crying, and all his chins shook at once, and it was a terribly funny sight.
when I came home, dad happily said: “The balabus threw off its hooves!”
Some of the guys, even many, sobbed, but I was very far from such feelings and, on the contrary, took the news with joy. And here we are, and in that corridor there were portraits of members of the Politburo, and in order not to laugh out loud, I began to look at Beria, who was so serious and in glasses, and he somehow brought me to my senses. I never laughed, thank God, because in fact, many guys took it seriously. In general, the director wept, and we were released from school for three days.
Opposite the building of the Museum of the Revolution. Photo: Ogonyok magazine
I remember well how, when I came home, dad happily said: “The balabus threw off its hooves!” Balabus is Yiddish for “owner”: “The owner threw off his hooves!” He was overjoyed. And my friend Misha Kunin (he was from a family where they perfectly understood who Stalin was) and I were also terribly pleased: three free days! We walked the streets, and the only thing that made us sad was that because of the mourning, all the cinemas were closed. And rollers. We felt hurt by this to some extent. In general, the situation in the city was mourning.
I did not go to look at Stalin - why? I don't like crowds: since childhood, I have rather gloomy memories and impressions of the May Day demonstrations, which my aunt was forced to attend - she worked at the Institute of Defectology. As a support, sometimes I went with her so that somehow she would have more fun. And all this crowd, and these walks, and when they started shouting - all this did not seem to me sincere or meaningful. Auntie, who, along with the employees, was driven to demonstrations, herself treated this accordingly, and this, of course, was reflected in my attitude. That's why I decided - a funeral and a funeral. Instead, it's better to take a walk.
The flea market was such that they felt that it was already life threatening. They rushed to the fire escapes, climbed on the roof
But Alik, my brother (the future priest Alexander Men), - with the guys still went to see Balabus, how he lies in a coffin. Just out of curiosity.
And when they reached Trubnaya Square - there were four of them - they realized that a meat grinder had begun. There was something terrible going on! The flea market was such that they felt that it was already life threatening. They rushed to the fire escapes, climbed onto the roof, and along the roofs they managed to escape from the square. That was the only way to be saved. Moreover, this fire escape began high, and they somehow climbed onto the shoulders of one another in order to get out and still leave this crowd.
Stalin's funeral
Dmitry Chukovsky: “Korney Ivanovich didn’t have any sobs”
I was nine years old when the whole world learned about Stalin's death. I will say a few words about the situation in our house, so that it is clear what I could feel and what influenced me. As you know, in those days, bulletins about Stalin's illness were printed all the time, people guessed them, trying to understand what was really happening. In our family, this was discussed informationally, no one called anyone, did not ask what “Cheyne-Stokes breathing” really was, it was of little interest to everyone, everyone just watched ...
At home there were no conversations about this, only an exchange of opinions that they were going to go there, for example, dad had to go on business to a publishing house or to the Writers' Union, but now everything is incomprehensible. There were some calls, they found out what the situation was, whether he should go or not to continue his business.
someone proved to someone that he lives there or studies there, there were big disputes, but the police were adamant
A few days later, when they announced that there would be a funeral, I already insisted, asked my mother - let's go and see. I had no idea what it was, she agreed under my pressure, and we went. Since we lived on the Old Arbat, we got out and walked along the Arbat towards the center, reached the Arbat Square, where at that time there was no tunnel yet and trams ran, crossed tram rails and went out to the Khudozhestvenny cinema, but faced the fact that the street was blocked by trucks. Trucks and buses stood across, and it was impossible to get inside the Boulevard Ring. We stood there and watched how it all happened. There were people who also looked for gaps, loopholes, looking for ways to get through, someone proved to someone that he lives there or studies there, there were big disputes, but the police were adamant. The police were enough; I don't remember the military being there. We stood, turned and went back.
Then we did not study for several days, and I was sent to Peredelkino to Korney Ivanovich and Maria Borisovna, and I stayed there for several days.
There was no talk about Stalin. Everyone understood that there would be changes, but I did not hear anyone say rudeness about this, as somewhere, I read, someone said: “Ah, finally dead” ... No, this was not. Korney Ivanovich somehow reacted to this, of course, but he had to rethink this news, realizing that new era. Apparently so. He did not talk about Stalin, what Stalin was, what he was not, there were no sobs, but there was also no way to say anything vindictively after the tyrant - he did not allow himself this.
