Tag #146718 - Interview #78109 (Naum Kravets)

When I found out about Stalin's death in the morning, I flatly refused to get married on that day. At that time Stalin's death was a tribulation for me, and not only for me. Instead of getting married Anna and I decided to go to Stalin's funeral. There was a huge crowd moving towards the column hall, where the coffin with Stalin's corpse was placed. When we were in the throng, I understood that it would be next to impossible to get out of it. The crowd moved slowly, but soon I understood, that Anna was being taken away from me and there was nothing I could do about it. Cars were closely parked along the curb. People were walking on the road and it was impossible to get to the pavement. I managed to reach Anna's hand and pull her to the curb taking advantage of the turns of the crowd. When we came close to the curb on the corner, I pushed her and told her to creep under the car to get to the pavement. I followed her. That way we got out of the crowd. We were lucky, as there were a lot of people who fell victims to the crowd. My cousin Lazar, the son of my father's brother Isaac came to Moscow from Leningrad to attend Stalin's funeral. He came back alive, but he lost his coat, hat and boots in the crowd. There were people who were trampled to death.