Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin, second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at his Kuntsevo Dacha after suffering a stroke, at age 74. He was given a state funeral in Moscow on 9 March, with four days of national mourning declared. On the day of the funeral, hundreds or thousands of Soviet citizens visiting the capital to pay their respects died in a human crush.

"Death of Stalin" redirects here. For the 2017 film, see The Death of Stalin. For other uses, see Death of Stalin (disambiguation).

Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin
Stalin's funeral procession on Okhotny Ryad
Date5–9 March 1953
LocationRed Square, Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
Organized bySoviet state
ParticipantsNikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lavrentiy Beria, Patriarch Alexy I, Nicholas (Yarushevich) and other Soviet, Church and foreign dignitaries

Stalin's body was embalmed and interred in Lenin's Mausoleum until 1961, when it was moved to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The members of Stalin's inner circle in charge of organizing his funeral were Nikita Khrushchev, then-head of the Moscow branch of the Communist Party; Lavrentiy Beria, head of the NKVD; Georgy Malenkov, the chairman of the Presidium; and Vyacheslav Molotov, previously the Soviet Union's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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