A Brief History
On October 30, 1961, former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin suffered the indignity of having his body removed from a place of honor in Lenin’s Tomb and parked in a regular grave with a plain granite marker. Stalin’s body suffered only a minor indignity compared to some other former national leaders, and here we discuss a few of those.
Digging Deeper
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of Britain, was dug up in 1661, three years after his death to be tried and “executed,” including beheading.
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, died in exile in 1821, and someone removed his penis from his corpse, the stolen member then making a convoluted passage from owner to owner.
Benito Mussolini, Dictator of Italy, was caught and executed by partisans in 1945, and his body strung up upside down to be spit on, kicked, punched, shot, and mocked by onlookers.
Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator, was burned in a “rubbish fire” after his 1998 death.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Markham, J David and Matthew Zarzeczny. Simply Napoleon. Simply Charly, 2017.
Radzinsky, Edvard. Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia’s Secret Archives. Anchor, 1997.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Chief of Protocol Yuriy Filatov, with U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul behind, walk past Joseph Stalin’s tomb on Red Square in Moscow, May 7, 2013, is a work of a United States Department of State employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain per 17 U.S.C. § 101 and § 105 and the Department Copyright Information.
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