Josef Stalin died 55 years ago
The majority of today’s Russians is hardly able to recall the incidents which happened in the Soviet Union on the 5th March … many, many years ago; whereas Stalin’s death in 1953 left a permanent, deep and serious impression on hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
To many a people it meant something like a great misfortune, causing a terrible shock. Others took the news with elatedness, as they were hoping for a turn of events and a better future. The “Krasnoyarsk Komsomol” Newspaper printed numerous memories auf witnesses auf those days in their issues.
The news about the passing of the “leader of all peoples” was broadcasted on the radio on the 5 March 1953; all Soviet people were deeply shocked, particularly little children, who simply did not understand what was going on. But sooner or later they realized the situation …
Just to give an example, read the memories of Vera Nikolaevna Koroleva who attended school in March 1953:
- I do recall this very day very clearly. We were having a geography lesson. My classmate Galya had just asked for the permission to leave the classroom and go to the toilet; she returned a second later, walking in a very strange way. She was slightly leaning to the side, almost collapsing in front of the blackboard. Everybody felt that something horrible had happened. Galya whispered: “Stalin is dead …” – and then she passed out. The lesson was, of course, discontinued, but nobody decided to go home, either. It seemed as if the whole world had collapsed in an instant, and none of us was able to imagine, how life would go on without him. I do remember that we swore ourselves to utmost studiousness, so that we would never receive low marks again …
Having reached our house, I climbed the staircase to the second floor, dropped in a fit of unbearable anguish at the stair-railing and began to sob violently. One of the neighbours came out of the door and, seeing me in such a horrible state, immediately asked me: “What happened, Little Vera?” – “I tell you what happened: Stalin is dead!” – Thereupon, Anastasia Danilovna (this was the neighbour’s name) began to smile in a rather strange way and then launched out a remark, which, from my point of view at that time, was a very ignominous one: “Best girl, if you grieved all members of the Politbureau, your eyes would not be able to produce enough tears …”.
Albina Alekseevna Besperstova recalls this day in an entirely different way. She was 8 years old and frequented the 1st form of some school in the Khakassian town of Chernogorsk:
- At that time we lived about 300 meters away from the bread factory, where my mum was working as an expediter. She had quite a simple task to fulfil: when the baking of the entire lot of bread was completed, she used to plan their distribution on the delivery vans, which would then supply the goods to the stores; in case of a shortage, um would have been punished by arrest or even execution. That very day, mum had gone to work, while I was sitting at home (we had privately rented a room) solving arithmetic problems. In the adjoining room they had a radio receiver. All of a sudden I heard the following: “Oh my God! … Oh, my goodness! …” – And then our neighbour’s daughter Klara burst into tears. However, I decided not to go and comfort her, for we were no close friends. About 10-15 minutes later mum came running home – she had not even changed her clothes, but wore her smock, headscarf and sandals, although it was very cold outside.
She came running up towards me shouting: “Stalin is dead!” – When Klara heard her scream, she ran into the street and she and my mum embraced eachother crying violently. Later on the same day, I went to school, where they were already making preparations for a commemorative ceremony; all teachers were drenched in tears. The students just kept silent. And then we were dismissed. All children went home sadly. Everybody had the dim feeling that the father of a big family had died; a very provident father, who had always supplied the members of this family with money and bread. And now they do not know what to live on …
On the 12 May (the day when many arrestees were amnistied – “Krasnoyarsk Komsomol”) I got a stepfather. I called him dad.
Prisoners, such as Stepan Ratsevich, who was serving his sentence in Norilsk as an exile at that time, received the news about Stalin’s death differently:
- It was not windy at all, but everybody was chilled to the bone. The thermometer showed minus 38 degrees Celsius. The rising sun looks like a crimson ball. The labourers who were trying hard to pull out the logs, which had been left in the river water in autumn, from under a thick layer of ice (about 2 meters), ran back to the little cabin every 20 minutes in order to warm themselves up. Master Litvinov stepped in, a fancier of buffoonery and quirky jokes. But this time he looked all serious. “Well, lads, let me sit down at the stove; I am frozen to the marrow. I am going to tell you something, which will give you much cause for thought!…” – Without saying a word the men let Litvinov pass. “Well, listen … Comrade Stalin is dead …” – Dead silence. They had all learned about Stalin’s disease from newspapers and radio transmissions. Nobody dared to comment the news; the were all sitting or standing around in pondering silence; nobody said a word.
Here, in this place, none of them had the feeling of a great loss, as they would call it on the continent – just the opposite was the case: they were hardly able to hide away their joy. After the death of the tyrant, there was at least some flicker of hope that their sentences might be commuted, that they would even get amnestied, although this ray of hope had only come up in the very depths of consciousness. It seemed to me as if Stalin’s death would soon bring about a number of corrective actions regarding the political life of the country, and that one would be found to change its inner state; this was to affect in particular our companions in misfortune – exiles and prisoners who had been sentenced on section 58. There remained just one question: how far should they turn the screw? Should they tighten it as far as it would go or should they better leave it slightly loosened?
Jan Minorovich, prisoner of the Gorlag has the same opinion:
- About one week before Stalin’s death, the major called for me. In a very sad voice he told me that Stalin had fallen ill. And I replied: “And I thought he would never die; but, apparently, it’s his turn now – his last hour has come!” – The major asked me to hold my tongue. A few days later, the camp broadcast stations transmitted the news about Stalin’s death. Joy and cheerfulness were coming up in the camp, while those living and working beyond the barbed wire fence, the NKVD men, began to cry , sob and burst into wails.
Those who, at that time, bore the disgraceful denotation “children of enemies of the people” received the news about Stalin’s death their way. One of them was Edita Shishkina:
- I do remember Stalin’s obit with outmost self-mockery. I recall, how I was standing near the public address system, holding my daughter in my arms. I listened to the sad voice and burst into tears. How were we supposed to live without leader? On the other side he had played some cataclysmic roll in the fates of my mother and stepfather. In 1936, after having become a prisoner of the Norillag, my stepfather, who was working as a chief electrician for the steel combine in Saporozhe, went from Dudinka to Norilsk on foot. In 1937, they arrested mum, who had been working for the Party Central Committee in the Ukraine, for being the wife of an enemy of the people. Now that I new about this and about many things more, I stood there crying. Throughout so many years they had again and again they had hammered into us: Stalin, Stalin, everything is solely due to him. We were like dogs in chains, who were not permitted to remove ourselves just one step from our kennels, and then, all of a sudden they released us from our bonds, although we had no idea where to go and what to do afterwards.
Moreover, I remember that poets came to Norilsk after the 20th Party Congress, during which Stalin’s personality cult was finally revealed. One of these poets (I do not remember his surname), read out poems, which he had been keeping in various hiding-places for a period of more than 12 years and which had not been introduced in public yet.
And then the whole country was in deep mourning. The funeral ceremony took place in Moscow – hundreds of innocent people lost their lives in the huge crowd. It seemed as if the deceased leader was keen to take his very last victims along to kingdom come. In Siberia Josef Vissarionovich took his gory “toll”, as well.
What happened there? Twenty-two year old Vera Doronenko, for example, meteorology technician at Kliukvennaia Station in the Krasnoyarsk territory: 2-3 days after Stalin’s death she was arrested due to false evidence given by her neighbour. This neighbour had had the impression that Doronenko burnt Stalin’s portrait. Or, just to give one more example: Nikolai Panchuk, an are welder, who was arrested on the 7 March 1953, because he, as the reason for judgement said,“being in a state of insobriety, expressed his joy and satisfaction about Stalin’s death “. On the 3 April Panchuk was sentenced to 25 years’ camp detention and a 5 years’ deprivation of all political rights with confiscation of his entire property. On the 24 March 1955 only his sentence was amended in to a 5 years’ camp detention without any deprivation of rights and without conficsation of his property. Nikolai Panchuk was only rehabilitated in 1993.
P.S. The “Krasnoyarsk Komsomol” is very grateful to the regional Krasnoyarsk “Memorial” Organization for the supply of various materials.
“Krasnoyarsk Komsomol”; N° 8 (9211), 5 March 2008