The falsification of the Stalinist period in the history of the USSR, which began with the 20th Congress, and then the rabid defamation of those years, logically ended with the "reburial". The operation was carried out in the middle of the night. Stalin's sarcophagus was filled with a thick layer of concrete just in case. And then a buffet was held in the special room of the Mausoleum in honor of the direct participants of the event …
The country had to be distracted from the numerous socio-economic problems generated by the activities of the Khrushchev group. For example, from an increasingly acute shortage of food and consumer goods in many Russian cities and even more so in villages, from the incipient rise in prices and taxes on everything, from the confiscatory monetary reform of 1961, coupled with the conservation of repayment of loans for the restoration and development of the national economy. The people did not hide their sarcasm: “He said: you have to bear with it, keep your bonds. Let us approach communism - again we will introduce a rally. Further it will be more visible there: 20 years - not 20 days. " The dead end of Khrushchev's "reforms" became obvious. And the Stalinist sarcophagus in the Mausoleum, with the failures in politics and the national economy, more and more irritated the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and his associates.
The removal operation was arranged primitively, but, as Stalin said, penny fictions are fraught with disastrous consequences.
On the penultimate day of the XXII Congress of the CPSU (October 30), the floor was given to 77-year-old Dora Abramovna Lazurkina, who raised the issue of de-Stalinization of the Mausoleum. The "Old Bolshevik" was supported by some of the Leningrad delegates. The then party chief, in the very recent past, Stalin's “comrades-in-arms and disciples” could not have come up with such an initiative.
Lazurkina spoke figuratively: “Comrades! It would be incomprehensible why, after what was said, what was opened, Stalin remains next to Ilyich. I always carry Ilyich in my heart, and always, comrades, in the most difficult moments I survived only because I had Ilyich in my heart and I consulted with him how to be. Yesterday I consulted with Ilyich, as if he stood in front of me as if alive and said: it is unpleasant for me to be near Stalin, who brought so many troubles to the party. In the presidium of the congress, they shed tears, in the first, second and third rows of delegates, looking at the senior comrades, they also moistened their eyes …
The head of the Chinese delegation, Premier Zhou Enlai, sent a note (in Russian) to Khrushchev: “What a primitive masquerade? Maybe it's time to stop, comrade. Khrushchev, "disciple and ally" of Stalin? " He read, but did not react. And soon the delegates, as one (as reported by the Soviet media), voted to remove the body. However, many foreign, including Chinese, sources announced that about a third of the audience abstained.
Stalin was outraged even during the "special operation": gold shoulder straps and buttons were cut off from his military uniform, and the order's stock was removed. Later, some American and British media hinted that these accessories were subsequently sold at Western auctions.
By the way, until the beginning of 1970, there was only a tombstone at the place of Stalin's burial. Only under pressure from the Communist Parties of China and some other countries, a bust was nevertheless installed on the grave.
There is evidence that foreign leaders of the highest and middle ranks persistently advised Khrushchev to “remove Stalin”. This, in particular, was hinted at by Tito: they say, the relations between the USSR and the West will immediately improve, the country and its economy will only benefit. As for China and other "uncontrolled" socialist countries, Moscow was sure that, due to their military-political and economic dependence on the USSR, they would not dare to conflict because of anti-Stalinist blasphemy. As you know, the Khrushchevites miscalculated …
With the help of Mao, the Chinese delegation headed by Premier Zhou obtained permission not only to visit Stalin's new resting place, but also to lay a wreath of fresh flowers there with the inscription on its ribbons (in two languages): “To the great Marxist Comrade I. Stalin. As a sign that the CPC did not share the position of N. Khrushchev directed against I. Stalin."
By the way, when public polemics between the CPSU and the CPC began at the end of 1962, one of the letters from the Chinese Central Committee noted: "The Soviet leadership carried Stalin's body out of the Mausoleum and burnt it." At first, this verbal skirmish was openly, without cuts, published in Pravda and People's Daily. But the Khrushchevites did not seem to notice the direct accusation … When asked whether Stalin was lying in the Mausoleum at the end of October 1961, there is no unequivocal answer.
Foreign politicians and the media of non-socialist countries, commenting on the removal of the body, noted almost in unison: Khrushchev, mocking Stalin, put the future of the USSR and its allies on the line. This "bold, outstanding step" has the reverse side of the demoralization of Soviet society and the crisis of the communist ideology itself. Moreover, Khrushchev cannot be compared with Stalin on a political scale. And the matter will most likely end with the "self-liquidation" of the USSR. Caudillo Francisco Franco said in November 1961: "They are preparing the ground by digging up the already defamed Stalin in order to gradually destroy the USSR and demoralize its ideological and administrative cadres."
It is quite remarkable that exactly 30 years after the "reburial" the Soviet Union ordered to live a long time.
