[The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Volume V, No. 6 ( March 21, 1953), 4-5, 24.]

Announcement of Stalin’s Illness and Death

GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENT — On the Illness of Comrade Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 4, p. 1. Complete text:) The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers announce a great misfortune which has befallen our party and our people-the grave illness of Comrade J. V. Stalin.

During the night of March 1-2 Comrade Stalin, while in his Moscow apartment, had a hemorrhage of the brain, which affected vital parts of his brain. Comrade Stalin lost consciousness.

Paralysis of the right arm and leg developed. Loss of speech occurred. Serious disturbances developed in the functioning of the heart and breathing.

The best medical personnel has been called in to treat Comrade Stalin: Prof. P. Ye. Lukomsky, therapeutist; Members of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medicine Prof. N. V. Konovalov, neuropathologist, Prof. A. L. Myasnikov, therapeutist, and Prof. Ye. M. Tareyev, therapeutist; Prof. I. N. Filimonov, neuropathologist; Prof. R. A. Tkachev, neuropathologist; Prof. I. S. Glazunov, neuropathologist; Docent V. I. Ivanov-Neznamov, therapeutist. Treatment of Comrade Stalin is under the guidance of Comrade A. F. Tretyakov, U.S.S.R. Minister of Public Health, and Comrade I. I. Kuperin, chief of the medical office of the Kremlin.

Treatment of Comrade Stalin is under the constant supervision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government.

In view of Comrade Stalin’s grave condition, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers has found it necessary to publish, beginning today, medical bulletins on the condition of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers, like our entire party, our whole Soviet people, realize the full significance of the fact that Comrade Stalin’s grave illness will involve his more or less prolonged non-participation in leading activity.

In guiding the Party and the country, the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers take into account the full gravity of all the circumstances connected with the temporary withdrawal of Comrade Stalin from leading state and Party activity.

The Central Committee and the Council of Ministers express confidence that our party and the whole Soviet people in these difficult days will display the greatest unity and cohesion, staunchness of spirit and vigilance, will redouble their energies in building communism in our country, will rally closer around the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union.

—CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION
—U.S.S.R. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

March 3, 1953.

MEDICAL BULLETIN on J. V. Stalin’s Condition at 2 a.m. March 4, 1953. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 4, p. 1. Complete text:) On the night of March 2, 1953, J. V. Stalin had a sudden brain hemorrhage, affecting vital areas of the brain, as a result of which he developed a paralysis of the right leg and right arm, with loss of consciousness and speech.

March 2 and 3 suitable measures of treatment were undertaken, directed toward improvement of the disturbed functions of breathing and circulation. So far these measures have not brought any substantial change in the course of the illness.

At 2 a.m., March 4, J. V. Stalin’s condition remains serious. Considerable disturbance of breathing is observed; frequency of breathing is 36 per minute and the rhythm of breathing is irregular, with periodic, prolonged pauses.

It is observed that pulse beats are up to 120 a minute and there is complete arrhythmia. Maximum blood pressure is 220, minimum 120.

Temperature is 38.2 [Centigrade]. In connection with the disturbed breathing and blood circulation, inadequacy of oxygen is observed. The degree of disturbance of the function of the brain has increased somewhat.

At the present time a series of therapeutic measures are being applied to restore the vitally important functions of the organism.

— A. F. TRETYAKOV, U.S.S.R. Minister of Public Health; I. I. KUPERIN, head of the Kremlin Medical Office; Prof. P. Ye. LUKOMSKY, Chief Therapeutist of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Public Health; Prof. N. V. KONOVALOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. A. L. MYASNIKOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. Ye. M. TAREYEV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Professors I. N. FILIMONOV, I. S. GLAZUNOV, R. A. TKACHEV; Docent V. I. IVANOV-NEZNAMOV.

MEDICAL BULLETIN on J. V. Stalin’s Condition at 2 a.m. March 5, 1953. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 5, p. 1. Complete text:) During the past 24 hours the state of health of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin remained grave. Arteriosclerosis, which developed during the night of March 1-2 on the basis of hypertonia and cerebral hemorrhage in his left brain hemisphere, has resulted, apart from the right-side paralysis of limbs and loss of consciousness, in impaired stem section of the brain, accompanied by disturbances of the vital functions of breathing and blood circulation.

During the night of March 3-4, disturbed breathing and blood circulation continued. The greatest changes were observed in the breathing functions.

Instances of periodic so-called Cheyne-Stokes breathing be-came more frequent. In connection with this, the condition of the blood circulation deteriorated and the degree of lack of oxygen increased.

Systematic introduction of oxygen and of medicines which regulate breathing and action of the heart vessels gradually somewhat improved the condition and on the morning of March 4 the degree of lack of breathing was somewhat reduced.

Further, during the day of March 4, grave breathing disturbances recommenced. The rate of breathing was 36 per minute. Blood pressure continued to remain high (210 maximum-110 minimum) with pulse 108-116 per minute, irregular, fluttering and arrhythmic.

The heart is not unduly enlarged. During the past 24 hours no fundamental changes in the condition of the lungs and organs of the peritoneal cavity were established. Albumen and red blood corpuscles were found in the normal ratio.

When blood was tested, increase in the number of white corpuscles to the extent of up to 17,000 was observed. Temperature during the morning and afternoon rose to 38.6 [Centigrade].

Medical measures taken during March 4 consisted of introducing oxygen, camphor compounds, caffeine and glucose. For the second time, leeches were used to draw blood.

In connection with the raised temperature and high leucocytosis, penicillin therapy, which has been carried out for purposes since the beginning of the illness, was intensified.

Toward the end of March 4 the state of health of Joseph V. Stalin continues grave.

The patient is in a state of deep unconsciousness.

Nervous regulation of breathing, as well as cardiac activity, continue to remain greatly impaired.

—A. F. TRETYAKOV, U.S.S.R. Minister of Public Health; I. I. KUPERIN, head of the Kremlin Medical Office; Prof. P. Ye. LUKOMSKY, Chief Therapeutist of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Public Health; Prof. N.V. KONOVALOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. A.L. MYASNIKOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. Ye. M. TAREYEV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Professors I.N. FILIMONOV, I.S. GLAZUNOV, R.A. TKACHEV; Docent V.I. IVANOV-NEZNAMOV

MEDICAL BULLETIN on J. V. Stalin’s Condition at 4 p.m. March 5, 1953. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 6, p. 1. Complete text:) During the night and the first half of March 5, J. V. Stalin’s condition became worse. Acute disturbances in the cardiovascular system have been added to the impairment of vital functions of the brain. For three hours this morning there was serious respiratory deficiency, which yielded with difficulty to the proper therapeutics.

At 8 this morning there developed signs of an acute cardiovascular deficiency, a collapse. The blood pressure dropped. The pulse quickened. There was an increase in pallor. Emergency treatment eliminated these developments.

An electrocardiogram taken at 11 A.M. revealed acute disturbances in blood circulation in the coronary arteries of the heart with lesions in the back wall of the heart. (The electrocardiogram taken March 2 had not established such changes.) At 11:30 A.M., there was a second serious collapse, which was eliminated with difficulty by the proper medical treatment. Later in the day, the cardiovascular disturbances subsided to some extent, but the patient’s general condition continued extremely grave.

At 4 p.m. the blood pressure ranged from a maximum of 160 to a minimum of 100. The pulse was 120 per minute and arrhythmic. The rate of respiration: 36 per minute. Temperature: 37.6 [Centigrade]. The leucocyte count: 21,000. Treatment at present is aimed primarily at combating the disturbances in respiration and blood circulation, specifically coronary blood circulation.

— A. F. TRETYAKOV, U.S.S.R. Minister of Public Health; I. I. KUPERIN, head of the Kremlin Medical Office; Prof. P. Ye. LUKOMSKY, Chief Therapeutist of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Public Health; Prof. N. V. KONOVALOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. A. L. MYASNIKOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. Ye. M. TAREYEV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Professors I. M. FILIMONOV, I. S. GLAZUNOV, R. A. TKACHEV; Docent V. I. 1VANOV-NEZNAMOV.

MEDICAL REPORT ON ILLNESS AND DEATH OF J. V. STALIN. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 6, p. 1. Complete text:) On the night of March 2. J. V. Stalin suffered a hemorrhage of the brain (left hemisphere) on the basis of hypertonia and arteriosclerosis. As a result, paralysis of the right side and loss of consciousness ensued. The very first day of illness, symptoms of impaired respiration appeared as a consequence of deficiency in the functions of the nerve centers. These symptoms grew from day to day and were in the nature of so-called periodic respiration (Cheyne-Stokes breathing). On the night of March 3 the respiratory disorder assumed a grave nature at times. From the start of the illness considerable changes in the cardiovascular system were also established, that is, high blood pressure, faster and irregular pulse (fluttering arrhythmia) and dilation of the heart. In view of the aggravated disturbances of respiration and blood circulation, symptoms of oxygen deficiency emerged as early as March 3. From the first day of illness, the temperature rose and high leucocyte count was observed. This may have pointed to development of inflamed lesions in the lungs.

On the last day of illness, with sharp deterioration in the general condition, repeated attacks occurred of severe cardiovascular deficiency (collapse). Examinations by electrocardiogram established acute disturbance in blood circulation of the coronary artery, accompanied by focal failures of the cardiac muscles.

On the afternoon of March 5 the condition of the patient deteriorated especially rapidly: respiration became shallow and much faster, the pulse reached 140-150 beats per minute and Pulse pressure dropped.

At 2150 hours, with cardiac failure growing and insufficiency of breathing, J. V. Stalin died.

— A. F. TRETYAKOV, U.S.S.R. Minister of Public Health; I. I. KUPERIN, head of the Kremlin Medical Office; Prof. P. Ye. LUKOMSKY, Chief Therapeutist of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Public Health; Prof. N. V. KONOVALOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. A. L. MYASNIKOV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Prof. Ye. M. TAREYEV, Member of the Academy of Medicine; Professors I. M. FILIMONOV, I. S. GLAZUNOV, R. A. TKACHEV; Docent V. I. IVANOV-NEZNAMOV.

FROM CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION, U.S.S.R. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND PRESIDIUM OF THE. U.S.S.R. SUPREME SOVIET.—To All Members of the Party, to All the Working People of the Soviet Union. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 6, p. 1. Complete text:) Dear Comrades and Friends: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet announce with profound sorrow to the Party and all working people of the Soviet Union that at 9:50 p.m. March 5, Joseph Vissarionovich STALIN, Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, died after a grave illness.

The heart of Lenin’s comrade-in-arms and the inspired continuer of Lenin’s cause, the wise leader and teacher of the Communist Party and the Soviet people—Joseph Vissarionovich STALIN—has stopped beating.

STALIN’s name is boundlessly dear to our party, to the Soviet people, to the working people of the world. Together with Lenin, Comrade STALIN created the mighty party of Communists, reared and forged that party; together with Lenin, Comrade STALIN was the inspirer and leader of the great October socialist revolution, founder of the world’s first socialist state. Continuing Lenin’s immortal cause, Comrade STALIN led the Soviet people to the world-historic triumph of socialism in our land. Comrade Stalin led our country to victory over fascism in the second world war, which wrought a radical change in the entire international situation. Comrade STALIN armed the Party and the entire people with a great and clear program of building communism in the U.S.S.R.

The death of Comrade STALIN, who devoted all his life to the great cause of communism, constitutes a great loss to the Party and to the working people of the Soviet land and of the whole world.

The news of Comrade STALIN’s death will bring profound pain to the hearts of the workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia and all the working people of our motherland, to the hearts of the warriors of our glorious army and navy, to the hearts of millions of working people in all countries of the world.

In these sorrowful days all the peoples of our country are rallying closer in a great fraternal family under the tested leadership of the Communist party, created and reared by Lenin and STALIN.

The Soviet people have boundless faith in and are imbued with deep love for their Communist Party, for they know that the supreme law governing all the activity of the Party is to serve the interests of the people.

The workers, collective farmers, Soviet intelligentsia and all the working people of our country steadfastly follow the policy mapped out by our party, which is in conformity with the vital interests of the working people and pursues the continued consolidation of the might of our socialist motherland. The correctness of this policy of the Communist Party has been proved by decades of struggle. It has led the working people of the Soviet country to the historic victories of socialism. Inspired by this policy, the peoples of the Soviet Union, under the leadership of the Party, advance confidently toward fresh successes of communist construction in our land.

The working people of our country know that the further improvement of the material well-being of all strata of the population—workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia—maximum satisfaction of constantly growing material and cultural needs of the entire society has always been and is the subject of the particular concern of the Communist Party and the Soviet government.

The Soviet people know that the defense capacity and might of the Soviet state are growing and strengthening, that the Party is in every way strengthening the Soviet Army, Navy and intelligence agencies with a view to constantly raising our preparedness for decisive rebuff to any aggressor.

The foreign policy of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union has always been and is a policy of maintaining and strengthening peace, of struggle against the preparing and unleashing of another war, a policy of international cooperation and development of business relations with all countries.

The peoples of the Soviet Union, true to the banner of proletarian internationalism, are strengthening and developing fraternal friendship with the great Chinese people, with the working people of all the people’s democracies, friendly relations with the working people of capitalist and colonial countries who are fighting for the cause of peace, democracy and socialism.

Dear Comrades and friends!

The great directing and guiding force of the Soviet people in the struggle for the building of communism is our Communist Party. The steel-like and monolithic unity of the ranks of the Party constitutes the main condition for its strength and might. Our task is to guard the unity of the Party as the apple of our eye, to educate Communists as active political fighters for carrying out the policy and decisions of the Party, to strengthen even move the Party’s ties with all the working people, the collective farmers and the intelligentsia—for in this indissoluble link with the people lies the strength and invincibility of our party.

The Party regards as one of its most essential tasks the education of all Communists and working people in high political vigilance, irreconcilability and stalwartness in the struggle against internal and external foes.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet, appealing in these sorrowful days to the Party and the people, express their firm conviction that the Party and all the working people of our motherland will rally closer around the Central Committee and the Soviet government, will mobilize all their forces and creative energy in the great cause of building communism in our land.

The immortal name of STALIN will live forever in the hearts of the Soviet people and all progressive mankind.

Long live the great and all-conquering teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin!

Long live our mighty socialist motherland!

Long live our heroic Soviet people!

Long live the great Communist Party of Soviet Union!

—CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION
—U.S.S.R. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
—PRESIDIUM OF U.S.S.R. SUPREME SOVIET

March 5, 1953.

ON FORMATION OF A COMMISSION TO ORGANIZE THE FUNERAL OF JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH STALIN, CHAIR-MAN OF THE U.S.S.R. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 6, p. 1. Complete text:) The U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decree:

That a commission be formed to organize the funeral of Generalissimo Joseph Vissarionovich STALIN, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and that the commission be composed of Comrades N. S. Khrushchev, Chairman; L. M. Kaganovich, N. M. Shvernik, A. M. Vasilevsky, N. M. Pegov, P. A. Artemyev and M. A. Yasnov.

FROM THE FUNERAL COMMISSION. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 6, p. 1. Complete text:) The body of Joseph Vissarionovich STALIN will lie in state in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions.

A special announcement will be made of the times during which the public will have access to the Hall of Columns.

[ The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Volume V, No. 7 ( March, 28, 1953), 8-10, 43.]

Funeral Orations by Malenkov, Beria, Molotov

FUNERAL OF JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH STALIN. (Pravda and Izvestia, March 10, pp. 1-2. Complete text) Memorial Meeting on Red Square.—The funeral of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin took place March 9, 1953, on Red Square, Moscow.

Comrade N. S. Khrushchev, chairman of the commission for organization of the funeral of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, granted the platform to Comrade Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov, Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The next speech was pronounced by Comrade Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, First Vice-Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers.

Then Comrade Vyacheslav Milthailovich Molotov, First Vice-Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers, spoke.

Speech by Comrade G. M. Malenkov.—Dear compatriots, comrades, friends! Dear foreign comrades!

Our party, the Soviet people, all mankind, have suffered a most grievous, irreparable loss. Our teacher and leader, the great genius of mankind, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin has come to the end of his glorious life-path.

In these sorrowful days, the deep sorrow of the Soviet people is shared by all advanced and progressive humanity. Stalin’s name is infinitely dear to the Soviet people and the broadest masses of the people in all parts of the globe. Boundless are the grandeur and significance of Comrade Stalin’s activities for the Soviet people and for the working people of all lands, Stalin’s cause will live forever, and grateful posterity, in common with us, will praise Stalin’s name.

Comrade Stalin devoted his life to the cause of liberating the working class and all working people from the oppression and bondage of the exploiters, the cause of freeing mankind from wars of extermination, the cause of the struggle for a free and happy life on earth for the working people.

Comrade Stalin, the great thinker of our epoch, creatively developed the teachings of Marxism-Leninism in new historical conditions; Stalin’s name rightly stands alongside the names of the greatest men in the history of mankind—Marx, Engels and Lenin.

Our party adheres to the great teachings of Marxism-Leninism, which give the Party and people the invincible strength and ability to blaze new trails in history. For many long years, Lenin and Stalin waged a struggle, under difficult underground conditions, for deliverance of the peoples of Russia from the yoke of the autocracy and from the oppression of landowners and capitalists. Headed by Lenin and Stalin, the Soviet people accomplished a great revolution in the history of mankind, put an end to the system of capitalism in our country and entered upon a new path, the path of socialism.

Continuing the work of Lenin and steadily developing Lenin’s teaching, which illuminates the road ahead for the Party and Soviet state, Comrade Stalin led our country to the world-historic victory of socialism, which secured, for the first time in the many thousands of years of the existence of human society, the abolition of exploitation of man by man. Lenin and Stalin founded the first workers’ and peasants’ state in the world, our Soviet state. Comrade Stalin labored tirelessly to strengthen the Soviet state. The strength and might of our state are a most important condition for the successful building of communism in our country.

It is our sacred duty to continue tirelessly and in every way to strengthen our great Socialist state, the bulwark of the peace and security of peoples.

With the name of Comrade Stalin is connected the solution of one of the most complex questions in the history of the development of society—the national question.

For the first time in history, Comrade Stalin, the great theoretician of the national question, saw to elimination of age-old national strife on the scale of a tremendous multinational state. Under Comrade Stalin’s leadership, our party has overcome the economic and cultural backwardness of peoples who were formerly oppressed, uniting into one brotherly family all the nations of the Soviet Union and forging friendship among peoples.

Our sacred duty is to see to further strengthening the unity and friendship of the peoples of the Soviet land, strengthening the Soviet multinational state. With the friendship among the peoples of our country, we need fear no enemies, domestic or foreign.

The Soviet Army was established, grew and gained in strength under the direct leadership of Comrade Stalin. Strengthening of the country’s defense capacity and the consolidation of the Soviet armed forces were the untiring concern of Comrade Stalin. Headed by its great military leader, Generalissimo Stalin, the Soviet Army won a historic victory during the second world war and delivered the peoples of Europe and Asia from the threat of fascist slavery.

Our sacred duty is to strengthen by every means the mighty Soviet armed forces. We must keep them in a state of fighting preparedness for a crushing rebuff to any enemy attack.

As a result of Comrade Stalin’s ceaseless labors and in accordance with plans worked out by him, our party has converted a formerly backward country into a mighty industrial and collective farm power, and has created a new economic order which knows no crises nor unemployment.

It is our sacred duty to secure the further flourishing of the socialist motherland. We must thoroughly develop socialist industry, the bulwark of our country’s might and strength, We must thoroughly develop the collective farm system and strive for further advancement and flourishing of all collective farms of the Soviet land and to strengthen the alliance of working class and collective farm peasantry.

In the sphere of domestic policy our main task is ceaselessly to strive for further improvement in the material welfare of the workers, the collective farmers, the intelligentsia and all the Soviet People. A law for our party and Government is the duty to strive constantly for the good of the people, for the maximum satisfaction of their material and cultural needs.

Lenin and Stalin created and tempered our party as the great transforming force of Society. All his life Comrade Stalin taught that there is nothing loftier than the title of member of the Communist Party. In stubborn struggle against enemies, Comrade Stalin defended the unity, the monolithic nature and cohesion of the ranks of our party.

It is our sacred duty to go on strengthening the great Communist Party. The strength and invincibility of our party lie in the unity and cohesion of its ranks, in unity of will and action, in the ability of Party members to fuse their will with the will and desires of the Party. The strength and invincibility of our party lie in its indivisible ties with the masses of the people. The unity of the Party and the people is based on the Party’s invariable serving of the interests of the people. We must treasure the unity of the Party as the apple of our eye. We must strengthen further the unbreakable bonds between the Party and people and train the Communists and all working people in high political vigilance, irreconcilability and firmness in the struggle against internal and foreign enemies.

Under the leadership of the great Stalin, a mighty camp of peace, democracy and socialism has been established. In that camp, in close fraternal unity with the Soviet people, march the great Chinese people, the fraternal peoples of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Albania, the German Democratic Republic and the Mongolian People’s Republic. In stubborn battle, the heroic Korean people are defending the independence of their motherland. The people of Vietnam are fighting courageously for freedom and national independence.

It is our sacred duty to preserve and strengthen the supreme achievement of the peoples—the camp of peace, democracy and socialism—to strengthen the ties of friendship and solidarity of the peoples of the countries of the democratic camp. We must in every way strengthen the eternal, indestructible fraternal friendship of the Soviet Union with the great Chinese people and with the working people of all the people’s democracies

The peoples of all lands know Comrade Stalin as the great standard-bearer of peace. Comrade Stalin directed the great force of his genius toward championing the cause of peace for the peoples of the countries. The foreign policy of the Soviet state, a policy of peace and friendship among peoples, is the decisive barrier to the unleashing of a new war and accords with the vital interests of all peoples. The Soviet Union has stood invariably and stands for defense of the cause of peace, for its interests are inseparable from the cause of world peace. The Soviet Union has waged and is waging a consistent policy of preservation and strengthening of peace, a policy of struggle against the preparation and unleashing of a new war, a policy of international cooperation and development of business relations with all countries, a policy based on the Lenin-Stalin premise of the possibility of prolonged coexistence and peaceful competition of two different systems, capitalist and socialist.

The great Stalin trained us in the spirit of supremely devoted service to the interests of the people. We are faithful servants of the people, and the people want peace and hate war. May all of us keep sacred the people’s wish to prevent the spilling of the blood of millions of people and to assure peaceful building of a happy life!

In the sphere of foreign policy, our principal concern is not to permit a new war, to live in peace with all countries. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government consider the most correct, essential and just foreign policy to be the policy of peace among all peoples, founded on mutual trust, an effective policy resting on the facts and confirmed by the facts. The governments must serve their peoples faithfully, and the peoples crave peace and curse war. Criminal are those governments which will wish to deceive the peoples and go against the sacred desire of peoples to maintain peace and prevent a new bloody carnage. The Communist Party and Soviet government take the stand that a policy of peace among nations is the only correct policy, corresponding to the vital interests of all peoples.

Comrades! The passing of our great leader and teacher, the great Stalin, imposes on all the Soviet people the duty to multiply their efforts to realize the huge tasks facing the Soviet people and increase their contribution to the common cause of building a communist society and strengthening the might and defense capacity of our socialist motherland.

The working people of the Soviet Union see and know that our mighty motherland is advancing toward new successes.

We have all that is necessary to build a completely communist society.

With firm faith in their limitless forces and potentialities, the Soviet people will proceed with the great cause of building communism. There are no forces in the world which can arrest the forward movement of Soviet society toward communism!

Farewell, our teacher and leader, our dear friend, our own Comrade Stalin!

Forward, along the road to the complete triumph of the great cause of Lenin and Stalin!

Speech by Comrade L. P. Beria. —Dear comrades, friends!

It is difficult to express in words the feeling of profound grief that is being experienced during these days by our party and the peoples of our country, as well as all progressive mankind.

Stalin, the great comrade-in-arms and inspired continuer of Lenin’s work, is no more.

We have lost a man who is near and dear to all Soviet peoples, to millions of working peoples of the whole world.

The whole life and work of the great Stalin are an inspiring example of loyalty to Leninism, an example of selfless service to the working class and the whole working people, to the cause of liberation of the working people from oppression and exploitation.

The great Lenin founded our party and led it to the victory of the proletarian revolution.

Together with the great Lenin, his brilliant comrade-in-arms, Stalin, consolidated the Bolshevist party and established the first socialist state in the world.

For almost 30 years after Lenin’s death, Stalin led our party and the country along Lenin’s path. Stalin upheld Leninism against numerous enemies and he developed and enriched Lenin’s teaching in the new historical conditions. The wise leadership of the great Stalin secured for our people the building of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the world-historic victory of the Soviet Union in the great patriotic war. The great architect of communism, the brilliant leader, our own Stalin, armed our party and people with the majestic program of building communism.

Comrades! The grief in our hearts is unquenchable, the loss is immeasurably heavy, but even under this burden the steel will of the Communist Party will not bend; its unity and its firm will in the struggle for communism will not waver.

Our party, armed with the revolutionary theory of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, taught by the half-century-long struggle for the interests of the working class and all the working people, knows how to lead the cause in order to secure the building of a communist society.

The Central Committee of our party and the Soviet government have been trained in the great school of Lenin and Stalin to direct the country.

In the fire of the Civil War and intervention, during the difficult years of struggle against devastation and famine, in the struggle for the industrialization of the country and collectivization of agriculture, in the difficult years of the great patriotic war, when the fate of our motherland hung in the balance, as well as the fate of the whole of mankind, the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet government, heading and directing the heroic struggle of the Soviet people, gained enormous experience in the leadership of the Party and the country.

Accordingly, the peoples of the Soviet Union can continue to rely with complete trust on the Communist Party, its Central Committee and their Soviet government.

The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks.

But their expectations are in vain: harsh disillusionment awaits them.

He who is not blind sees that our party, during its difficult days, is closing its ranks still more closely, that it is united and unshakable.

He who is not blind sees that during these grievous days all the peoples of the Soviet Union, in fraternal unity with the great Russian people, have rallied still more closely around the Soviet government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

The Soviet people unanimously support both the domestic and the foreign policy of the Soviet state.

Our domestic policy is based on the indestructible alliance of the working class and the collective farm peasantry, on fraternal friendship among the peoples of our country, on the firm union of all the Soviet national republics in the system of a single great multinational state—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This policy is directed toward the further strengthening of the economic and military might of our state, the further development of the national economy and the maximum satisfaction of the growing material and cultural requirements of all Soviet society.

The workers, collective farm peasantry and intelligentsia of our country can work calmly and confidently, knowing that the Soviet government will solicitously and untiringly guard their rights, which are recorded in the Stalin Constitution. Our foreign policy is clear and understandable. From the first days of Soviet rule, Lenin defined the foreign policy of the Soviet state as a policy of peace.

The great continuer of the cause of Lenin, our wise leader Stalin, has unswervingly followed this policy of peace.

And the foreign policy of the Soviet government will continue to be the Lenin-Stalin policy of safeguarding and strengthening peace, of fighting against the preparation and unleashing of a new war, a policy of international cooperation and development of business relations with all countries on the basis of reciprocity.

The Soviet government will further strengthen the fraternal alliance and friendship, the cooperation in the common struggle for the cause of world peace, the extensive economic and cultural collaboration with the great Chinese People’s Republic, with all the countries of people’s democracy and the German Democratic Republic.

Our brothers and friends abroad can be sure that the Communist Party and the peoples of the Soviet Union, faithful to the banner of proletarian internationalism, the banner of Lenin and Stalin, will continue to strengthen and develop ties of friendship with the working people of the capitalist and colonial countries fighting for the cause of peace, democracy and socialism.

A deep feeling of friendship links our people with the heroic Korean people, who are fighting for their independence.

Our great leaders, Lenin and Stalin, taught us to intensify and sharpen constantly the vigilance of the Party and of the people against the machinations and wiles of the enemies of the Soviet state.

Now we must intensify our vigilance still more.

Let no one think that the enemies of the Soviet state can catch us unawares.

Our glorious armed forces are equipped with all types of modern weapons for the defense of the Soviet motherland. Our soldiers and sailors, officers and generals, enriched by the experience of the great patriotic war, will know how to meet in due fashion any aggressor who may dare to attack our country.

The strength and invincibility of our state consist not only in having an army steeled in battle and covered with glory.

The might of the Soviet state consists in the unity of the Soviet people and their confidence in the Communist Party, the leading force of Soviet society, in the people’s confidence in their Soviet government. The Communist Party and the Soviet government highly value this confidence of the people.

The Soviet people have greeted with unanimous approval the decree of the Central Committee of our party, the Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet on taking exceptionally important decisions directed at ensuring uninterrupted and correct direction of the whole life of the country.

One of these important decisions is the appointment to the post of Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers of the talented disciple of Lenin and loyal comrade-in-arms of Stalin, Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov.

The decisions adopted by the highest Party and state organs of our country are a vivid expression of the complete unity and singleness of leadership of the Party and the state. This unity and singleness of leadership of the country is the pledge of successful conduct of the domestic and foreign policy worked out over the years by our party and government under the guidance of Lenin and Stalin.

Stalin, like Lenin, bequeathed to our party and country a great heritage, which must be treasured as the apple of our eye and unceasingly multiplied.

Great Stalin trained and rallied around himself a cohort of leaders tested in battle, possessed of the Lenin-Stalin art of leadership, on whose shoulders has fallen the historic responsibility of carrying to a victorious end the great cause begun by Lenin and successfully continued by Stalin.

The peoples of our country can be confident that the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union will not spare their forces and their lives to preserve the steel unity of the ranks of the Party and its leadership; to strengthen the indestructible friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union; to strengthen the might of the Soviet state; to maintain unchanging loyalty to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, and, following the behests of Lenin and Stalin, to lead the country of socialism to communism.

Eternal glory to our beloved and dear leader and teacher, the great Stalin.

Speech by Comrade V. M. Molotov.-Dear comrades and friends!

In these days we are all suffering a deep sorrow—the demise of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the loss of a great leader and at the same time a close and infinitely dear person. We, his old and close friends, and millions and millions of Soviet people, like the working people in all countries the world over, take leave today of Comrade Stalin, whom we have all loved so much and who will live in our hearts forever.

Comrade Stalin called himself a disciple of Lenin, with whom he founded and built our great Communist Party, with whom he guided the revolutionary struggle of the people against Tsarism and capitalism, for the overthrow of the yoke of the landlords and capitalists in our country; with Lenin, he designed and built our Soviet socialist state, with him he laid the foundations of the fraternal collaboration and unification— growing even as we watch it—of great and small peoples. Stalin is the great continuer of the great cause of Lenin.

<,p>Under the leadership of the Communist Party, headed by Comrade Stalin, the Soviet people have built socialism in our country and have developed the implementation of the great program for the steady rise of the material welfare and cultural level of the Soviet people: they won a world-historic victory over fascism in the second world war and thereby decisively weakened the forces of the foreign enemies of the U.S.S.R.; they brought the Soviet Union out of a position of international isolation by securing the formation of an invincible camp of peace-loving states with a population of 800,000,000; they opened up to our country bright vistas of the construction of a communist society based on free labor, true equality and fraternity of people.

We can truly be proud of the fact that during the past 30 years we have lived and worked under the leadership of Comrade Stalin. We have been trained by Lenin and Stalin, we are Lenin’s and Stalin’s pupils. We shall forever remember what Stalin taught us to his last days, for we wish to be loyal and worthy disciples and followers of Lenin, loyal and worthy disciples and followers of Stalin.

Comrade Stalin’s whole life was irradiated with the shining light of the great ideas of an inspired people’s fighter for communism—a living and vital example to us.

Stalin came from the people and was always aware of his close ties with the people, the working class and toiling peasantry; he devoted all his mighty powers, his whole great genius to the people. When still a youth, Comrade Stalin realized with his bright intellect and profoundly understood that in our times the people can find their way to a happy life only by way of struggle for communism. This determined the course of his life. Stalin dedicated himself and his whole life, without any reservation, to the struggle for communism, to selfless struggle for the happiness of the working people, for the happiness of the people.

Stalin always knew how to combine the difficult everyday work of a Communist revolutionary among the working masses with profound study of the theory of Marxism. This is how he was in his early years in Tbilisi and Baku. This is how he was in the stormy years of the Russian revolution and in the difficult years of Tsarist reaction, when he was closely connected with the workers of Petersburg. He was constantly under the fire of police measures, suffering persecution in prisons and exile.

Comrade Stalin’s exceptional talent as incomparable organizer of our party and Soviet state and brilliant theoretician of Marxism-Leninism developed fully in the years of the revolution and the building of socialism.

In the course of those years our party grew, and became the great directing force of the socialist revolution in our country and acquired the significance of leading force of the whole international workers’ movement. In the course of those years the Soviet multinational state, which became a model of the practical realization of friendship and fraternal cooperation of peoples—in the course of those years our state, supported by the working class and collective farm peasantry, grew strong as the state of triumphant socialism and took the path of establishing a communist society. A tremendous role in directing all this work, in directing the entire development the forces of our party and the Soviet state, belongs to Comrade Stalin.

During all these years Stalin not only conducted the day-to-day guidance of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. He constantly worked on the theoretical problem of building communism in our country and on the problems of international development as a whole, illuminating with the light of Marxist-Leninist science the ways to further development of the U.S.S.R. and the laws of development of socialism and capitalism in present-day conditions. He armed our party and the whole Soviet people with new and most important discoveries of Marxist-Leninist science, discoveries which for many years have been lighting and will light the way for our advance toward the triumph of communism.

Stalin directly guided the work of creating and organizing the Red Army and its glorious battle deeds at the most decisive fronts during the years of the Civil War. As Supreme Commander in Chief during the years of the great patriotic war, he led our country to victory over fascism, which fundamentally altered the situation in Europe and in Asia.

To be true and worthy followers of Stalin means always to remember and constantly to concern ourselves with strengthening the Soviet Army and Navy, ensuring the proper preparedness of the Soviet armed forces in the event of any move of an aggressor against our country. To be true and worthy of Stalin also means to show the necessary vigilance and firmness in the struggle against any and all intrigues by our enemies, the agents of the imperialist, aggressive states.

Our Soviet state has no aggressive aims and for its own part does not permit intervention in the affairs of other states. Our foreign policy, which is known the world over as Stalin’s peace-loving foreign policy, is a policy of defense of peace among peoples, an unswerving policy of preserving and strengthening peace, of struggle against the preparation and unleashing of a new war, a policy of international cooperation and of development of trade relations with all countries which also seek the same things themselves This foreign policy corresponds to the vital interests of the Soviet people and at the same time to the interests of all other peace-loving peoples.

On the Soviet foundation, a multinational state has been formed in our country which has no parallel in history for its stability, the steady growth of its material might and the advance in the culture of the peoples. In this entire matter and above all in the matter of developing new, friendly relations among the peoples of our country, a particular and exceptionally lofty role was played by Comrade Stalin. In doing so, Stalin not only directed the development of our multinational Soviet state over a great many years, but cast the light of theory on vital contemporary problems of the national and colonial question, and here, too, promoted the development of the scientific principles of Marxism-Leninism.

All this assumes particular significance in present conditions, especially in connection with the formation of the people’s democracies and the growth of the national liberation movement in colonies and dependent countries. True to the principles of proletarian internationalism, the peoples of the U.S.S.R. are developing and steadily strengthening fraternal friendship and cooperation with the great Chinese people, with the working people of all the people’s democracies, and friendly ties with the working people in capitalist and colonial countries fighting for the cause of peace, democracy and socialism.

Dear comrades, friends! During these difficult days, we all see especially well and constantly feel what a mighty, firm and true support for the Soviet people is our Communist Party, its steel unity, its unbreakable ties with the masses of working people. Our party, following the behests of the great Stalin, gives us a clear direction for further struggle for the great cause of building communism in our country. We must rally still closer, still more firmly, around the Central Committee of our party, around the Soviet government.

The immortal name of Stalin will always live in our hearts, in the hearts of the Soviet people and of all progressive mankind. The fame of his great works for the good and happiness of our people and of the working people of the whole world will staffs of live through the ages!

Long live the great, all-conquering teaching of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin! Long live our mighty socialist motherland, our heroic Soviet People! Long live the great Communist Party of the Soviet Union!