Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin
On 5 March 1953, at 21:50 EET, Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union, died at the Kuntsevo Dacha aged 74 after suffering a stroke. After four days of national mourning, Stalin was given a state funeral and then buried in Lenin's Mausoleum on 9 March. Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov and Lavrentiy Beria were in charge of organizing the funeral.
Kato Svanidze
Kato's family heard of her illness and wrote her and Stalin, begging him to bring her back to recuperate in the familiar climate in Georgia. Stalin delayed until October, when it became obvious she was getting worse. On the 13-hour trip back to Tiflis, she apparently drank infected water and contracted typhus. Though some historians have attributed her illness to tuberculosis, her family recalled the symptoms of typhus rash and dysentery. She died in Stalin's arms .