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
Svanidze and Stalin were married for just 18 months before she died of an illness, probably typhus in 1907. Her death sent Stalin into a deep grief. Years later, several of her family members were executed during Stalin's purges.