Late in the evening on March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin, who was frequently called ‘the leader of the nations’ in the USSR, passed away.
Early in the morning on March 6, the news was broadcast to the country. Pictured below are factory workers listening to the radio that day.
The mass farewell to Stalin began in the House of the Unions on March 6, where a coffin with his body was on display. And it lasted for three days and three nights.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Nicholas in a honor guard next to Joseph Stalin’s coffin.
On March 9, Moscow held Stalin’s funeral, infamous for the massive stampede crush in central Moscow, where more than a hundred people died - and that’s only the “official” number.
On September 1, one of the Seven Sisters skyscrapers, the last relic of Stalin’s era, was opened - the building of Moscow State University.
Works on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also being completed this year.
The new Arbatskaya metro station also opened in Moscow that year.
Arbatskaya metro station outside.
Installation of a mosaic inside Kievskaya metro station in Moscow, which would eventually be opened in 1954.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was just released from the Gulag, but was immediately sent to exile in the Kazakh SSR. He is pictured below in a camp jacket.
New models of vatnik, a warm cotton wool-padded jacket.
Children listening to the radio.
“Everyone, to the elections!”
“Hmmm, what’s the problem here?”
Reading hall of the Lenin Library.
Everyone’s busy studying - even Dad!
An artistic gymnast making a spectacular leap.
A family taking a picture in front of the ‘Bronze Horseman’ monument to Peter the Great in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg).
A futuristic grain dryer in a kolkhoz collective farm in the Russian North.
Komsomol members celebrating the upcoming departure to develop virgin lands in the Altai Territory - a truly rare opportunity!
Children in kindergarten washing their hands before lunch.
Summer. Friends. Youth.
A beekeeper showing off his bees.
Schoolgirls busy with broadcasting school radio.
A head of a technical club teaching his student.
Ivan Kartashev, Stalin Prize laureate and locksmith at a machine-building plant.
Labor Day parade in Moscow.
A soldier paying respects to a fallen brother in arms.
Kaliningrad (former Königsberg) had recently become a part of the USSR. Below, tourists are visiting Immanuel Kant’s grave.
From the times of World War II and up to 1954, there were separate schools for girls and boys.
In the assembly shop of the Moskvich-400 car.
Reconstruction of GUM department store in Moscow.
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