On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, the embalmed body of Joseph Stalin was removed from the mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow. Eight years after his death, it was buried in a separate grave near the Kremlin Wall, behind the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin.
The decision was made at the end of the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which was held in Moscow from October 17 to 31. The adopted resolution stated that “the presence of the sarcophagus with the coffin of J. V. Stalin in the Mausoleum“ was inappropriate due to abuse of power, mass repressions, and violations of Leninist principles.
Eight Years to Lenin
Stalin died on March 5, 1953. After a state funeral, his body was placed next to Lenin's on March 9. Thus, the mausoleum began to be associated with both leaders and in the period 1953–1961 it was known as the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum.
The move came after a change in the official attitude towards Stalin's rule. In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the personality cult and repression of the Stalin era in a speech to the 20th Party Congress. At the XXII Congress, criticism continued, and the removal of the body from the mausoleum became one of the clearest symbols of de-Stalinization.
The Secret Burial
The operation was carried out after nightfall. Red Square was restricted to access, and the official explanation was related to preparations for the upcoming celebrations of the anniversary of the October Revolution. According to historical accounts, the body was carried out through the side of the mausoleum, from the Kremlin wall, and buried in the immediate vicinity.
The Soviet newspaper “Pravda“ reported on the removal after the operation had already been carried out. Stalin's name was removed from the facade, and the mausoleum was again called the Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin.
Stalin's grave remains in the necropolis near the Kremlin wall. A bust of the dictator was placed above it in 1970, but his body was never returned to the mausoleum. The 1961 move remains one of the most visible moves by the Soviet leadership to distance the state from the legacy of Stalinism.
Sources: history.com, themoscowtimes.com, time.com