Funerals of Stalin in the magazine Soviet Union (1953)
Funerals of Stalin in the magazine Soviet Union (1953)
First of all, Sovetsky Soyuz, or “The Soviet Union”, was a monthly magazine published in 1930-1990 in Moscow. Noteworthy, the magazine, distributed in the USSR and abroad, in addition to Russian language, was available in 18 languages. In particular, in English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Serbian-Croatian, Urdu, Hindi, Finnish, Romanian, Hungarian, Mongolian, Bengali, Vietnamese, and Italian. Founded by Maxim Gorky, until 1950 the magazine was called “USSR on the construction site”.
However, of all the issues released in the period of 1930-1990s I have chosen only No. 3 (37) released in March of 1953. It was a historical issue, which, alongside with traditional articles on socialist achievements, published information about the death of Joseph Stalin (died 5 March 1953).
The obituary puiblished for all party members, to all working people of the Soviet Union:
From the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Dear comrades and friends!
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, with a feeling of great sorrow, inform the Party and all the working people of the Soviet Union that on March 5, 9.50 in the evening after a serious illness the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin died.
The heart of the comrade-in-arms and the genius continuer of the cause of Lenin, the wise leader and teacher of the Communist Party and the Soviet people, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, ceased to beat.
Stalin’s name is infinitely dear for our party, for the Soviet people, for the working people of the whole world. Together with Lenin, Comrade Stalin created a powerful Communist Party, educated and tempered it. Comrade Stalin was the inspiration and leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution, together with Lenin, the founder of the world’s first socialist state. Continuing the immortal cause of Lenin, Comrade Stalin led the Soviet people to a world-historic victory of socialism in our country.
Comrade Stalin led our country to victory over fascism in the Second World War, which radically changed the entire international situation. Comrade Stalin armed the Party and all the people with a great and clear program of building communism in the USSR.
On March 9, on the day of the funeral of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Generalissimo IV Stalin, mourning rallies were held throughout the country – in towns and villages.
At the time of the burial of Stalin’s body throughout the country, the work of enterprises stopped for five minutes, the movement of rail, water and road transport stopped. For three minutes the mourning salute went on with whistles in factories, railways, ships of the river and sea fleet. In Moscow, the capitals of the union republics and in the hero cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Odessa, as well as in Kaliningrad, Lvov, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok – fired an artillery salute.