One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic

So said the Soviet leader Josef Stalin, in an oft-misunderstood quotation. His own death came in March 1953 and here his acolytes carry his coffin. The two front figures are (left) Malenkov, and (right) Beria, the notorious head of the secret police, who only a few months later was despatched by his colleagues. Other figures in the picture are the veteran foreign minister Molotov (black hat, behind soldier), and the Jewish Lazar Kaganovich (with moustache, two behind Molotov). Both, like Malenkov, managed to die in their beds. A few year's before Stalin died, his own suspicious nature and the rivalry between his associates had led to the murder of two promising younger men, Kuznetsov and Voznesensky, in the 'Leningrad Case'. Only three years after this photograph was taken, Stalin was denounced by Khruschev, who was himself implicated in many of the regime's less savoury activities in the 1930s. Being a comrade is hard, tovarisch!