The Death Of Stalin: 70 Years Ago

This was the scene half a kilometer north of Red Square on March 6, 1953, as crowds gathered to view the body of Josef Stalin inside Moscow’s House of the Unions.

Workers at a Moscow factory gather on March 6 to "listen to the announcement of Stalin’s death."

The Soviet ruler had died the previous evening at 9:50 p.m. after suffering a brain hemorrhage following a long night of drinking and watching movies with his inner circle.

Evening crowds gather to pay their respects to Stalin as he lay in state in the House of the Unions on March 6.

Several mourners died in a crush outside the building as crowds gathered to view Stalin's remains. A witness describes crowds shouting to remove trucks that people were being smothered against as one desperate policeman shouted that he had "no instructions" to move one of the vehicles that he was sitting inside.

Senior Soviet communists (left to right) Kliment Voroshilov, Lavrenty Beria, and Georgy Malenkov stand in the guard of honor in front of Stalin’s casket at the House of the Unions.

Stalin had failed to name a successor, and in the uncertain period after his death a quiet power struggle raged within the Kremlin that would end with Beria’s arrest and execution and Malenkov’s demotion to manager of a hydroelectric plant in Far Eastern Soviet Kazakhstan. Voroshilov got off relatively lightly and died peacefully in 1969.  

The body of Stalin was kept on display inside the House of the Unions until March 9, when it was carried out for its final journey to Red Square. 
 

Members of Stalin’s inner circle including Vyacheslav Molotov (center left, in black), Malenkov (front), and Beria (on far right) carry Stalin’s coffin out of the House of the Unions building on March 9.

Many Russians recall genuine grief and a sense of uncertainty during the days of official mourning. Others, including political prisoners, remember an atmosphere of discreet, feverish celebration.

One labor camp inmate recalled, "I was slogging in the permafrost with a pickax when I heard my partner from above: 'Tolya, get out here. The bastard is dead!' Every camp inmate was joyful. You could notice it."

Soldiers escort Stalin’s body past the Kremlin on March 9. On the far right is Nikita Khrushchev, who would soon come out on top in the Kremlin’s internal cold war to become leader of the Soviet Union. 

This photo of Stalin’s March 9 funeral cortege advancing toward Red Square was shot from a balcony of the U.S. Embassy by U.S. Army Major Martin Manhoff.

Stalin’s coffin, which featured a clear “bubble” for viewing the dictator’s face, is wheeled past the U.S. Embassy.

Manhoff's photos are believed to be the only unofficial color images taken of the funeral.

 

A photo by Manhoff shows a formation of airplanes flying over the Kremlin as Stalin’s body was wheeled to Red Square. The Soviet ruler was initially interred next to Lenin inside the Red Square mausoleum.
 

A 1958 photo shows the names Lenin and Stalin at the entrance to the Red Square mausoleum.

In 1961, amid “de-Stalinization” and the denouncement of the mass killings under Stalin, his body was removed from the mausoleum.

After his embalmed body was taken out of the mausoleum, Stalin was buried alongside the walls of the Kremlin, where his remains lie today.