History is full of controversial events, the attitude to which is the subject of controversy both by researchers and scientists, and ordinary people. Such ambiguous moments include, of course, the life and death of the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union I. Stalin.
Nowadays, few young people know where Stalin is buried, and does not think at all about how people lived in the era of his reign. But once he occupied himself with the thoughts of almost all citizens of the country.
Joseph Dzhugashvili was born in a working class family. His mother was the daughter of a serf, his father worked in a shoe factory in Tiflis. The Georgian accent remained with Stalin for life.
His mother dreamed that his son would become a priest. It was because of this that he entered the theological seminary, where he first became interested in politics.
Over time, taking the post of Secretary General of the USSR, Stalin became known in the world as one of the most controversial and mysterious personalities. Reviews of contemporaries about him are striking in their diversity. Someone called him very pleasant in communication, for example, Herbert Wells wrote about him as a sincere, decent and honest person. Others characterize him as a cunning and ignorant dodger. Most of the flattering reviews remained from famous foreigners, while compatriots scolded him.
His name is shrouded in mystery. Now we cannot understand how it could have turned out that they hated and feared him, but at the same time half the country came to Stalin’s funeral, and many sincerely grieved.
The death of Stalin, like his life, is incomprehensible, mysterious and raised many speculations and questions. Almost 60 years after his death, puzzles continue to excite people's minds, for example, many ask the question of where Stalin was actually buried.
He died on March 5, 1953 . The next day, his body was put up for farewell in the Column Hall of the House of Unions.
Day and night on the streets, huge crowds of people who came not only from all over the Soviet Union, but also from abroad, were waiting for their turn to say goodbye to the leader.
Farewell to Stalin took place for three days and three nights. During the ceremony, there was a terrible crush in the area of Trubnaya Square, in which more than 200 people died. The exact data is currently classified.
The reason for this tragedy was that it was possible to go to say goodbye to the body only from Trubnaya Square, where only two narrow passages curved in the shape of the letter “G” were fenced off with military equipment. The newly arriving crowd pressed behind those who had not yet passed the passage, people were squeezed, it was not possible to get out of this crowd, many fell and could not crawl away. And some, even after passing through the crowd, did not see Stalin
In general, the funeral of Stalin, the stampede that arose on the streets, is a unique socio-psychological phenomenon. After all, people dropped everything and ran to look at Stalin. They were ready to sacrifice themselves to get to the coffin. This is not to say that this was a manifestation of love for the leader. But people felt that something very important was happening, life had changed forever. Few people now know that when the news of Stalin's death came, many ordinary people cried (quite sincerely). They sought to say goodbye to the "beloved leader", to visit the place where Stalin was buried. Perhaps their tears were due to the fact that everyone unknowingly felt the end of the era and experienced the fear that always arises at the turning point. Or perhaps the reason is that the mass consciousness at that time was captured by propaganda and the ruling idea. It never occurred to people to doubt the greatness and power of the “father of peoples”.
Stalin was truly an odious figure; there was not a single person in the whole country who would be indifferent to him. And while people never saw him alive, only in the chronicles. And now there is an opportunity to see with your own eyes an already safe dictator, a human legend. This desire in many people was stronger than reason.
Stalin's body was embalmed, the coffin was erected in a mausoleum next to the body of Lenin. And in 1961, after the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, it was decided to remove the body of Stalin from the mausoleum. He was reburied in the grave near the Kremlin wall.
The body was transferred secretly, at night, Red Square was cordoned off under the pretext of preparing for the parade on November 7th.
It is precisely because the whole procedure was carried out so as not to attract attention that many now doubt where Stalin was actually buried, and suggest that his body was even taken out of Moscow.
Now we just have to make guesses and assumptions about what drove people who condemned themselves to death in the crowd out of a desire to look at the leader at least once in their lives. But in some ways their behavior is understandable. After all, the gloomy and mysterious figure of the Generalissimo still captures the imagination of both historians and ordinary people.