Focus on this artwork and discuss the Between 1951 and November 1961.
Stalin died in 1953. On the day of his interment, March 9, the monument was the destination of a funeral march in East Berlin which lasted over seven hours. The deposition of flowers and wreaths, flags draped with black crepe, and flags flown at half-mast on public buildings were intended to express the regard of the German population for the "Genius of Humanity", the "best friend of the German people" and the "brilliant leader of the world peace camp". On the day after Stalin's death, minutes of silence were organized in his memory in schools.
The popular uprising on 17 June 1953 soon turned into a widespread revolt against the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and encompassed many East German cities. The focus of the demonstrations and confrontations in Berlin was originally the Stalinallee. There was turmoil also at the Stalin monument, which was bombarded with stones but not damaged.Stalin's personality cult, dictatorship and crimes were denounced in a secret speech by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. After it was decided at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961 to remove Stalin's remains from Lenin's Mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square and to rename several cities which had been named after him, the Soviet government reburied the dictator's corpse in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, honoring it with a marble bust.
Berlin East Berlin world peace 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Lenin's Mausoleum Communist Party of the Soviet Union minutes of silence died Soviet Union Stalinallee half-mast funeral march German people secret speech 22nd Congress Kremlin Wall Necropolis Soviet 17 June 1953