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The Other Dead—the Image of the “Immortal” Communist Leaders in Media Propaganda
death of Georgi Dimitrov (July 10, 1949) in Bulgaria and parallels with the funeral
of Joseph Stalin (March 5, 1953) in the Soviet Union. An important part of the
funeral ceremonies of Dimitrov is the funeral procession—the journey of the body
on a funeral train from Moscow to Sofia. The train procession of the remains is
a pivotal element in all films about Georgi Dimitrov that use archival footage from
his funeral.
The proclamation of a famous leader’s death in the press was usually made on
the first page, where a large portrait in a black sable frame was published. Usually
the entire first page of the newspaper was framed in black—and in the “Soviet
case”, in black and red. To emphasize the affiliation of the deceased with com¬
munist ideology, the funeral symbols always combined black and red. Red flags
were bandaged with a strip of black crépe; the drapery of the memorial hall for the
body, as well as the coffin, were also red. The funeral drapery (the weepers) on the
portraits in the hall were black and red and the funeral armbands, which were car¬
ried by “prominent mourners” at the ceremony, were red with a black band around
the edge. In this way the colour red symbolically became a main colour in funeral
decorations, narrowing the amplitude of the customary black colour.
The verbal descriptions of the image of the deceased in newspapers supplement¬
ed the idea of the greatness of the person's deeds. In those images there is a kind of
recognition of the death and its imprint on the face and hands of the deceased. At
the same time, there is a form of denial, reflected in the eternal act of honouring the
dead and the postulation of the person’s bezsmartie (‘immortality’). The denial of
the physical death of the leader manifested itself in the practices of embalming the
body and keeping it “in perpetuity”, and in the construction of mausoleums, where
the bodies of the dead communist leaders could be honoured eternally.
The verbally described image of the deceased in the press contained ideologi¬
cal and emotional suggestions such as regarding the specific style of the building.
‘The images of the communist leader Georgi Dimitrov in Bulgaria at his funeral in
1949 and of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at his funeral in 1953 show a number
of common traits and similarities.
This is the verbal description of G. Dimitrov in the newspaper of the Com¬
munist Party in Bulgaria Rabotnichesko Delo (‘Worker's Work’)—The official news¬
paper of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party for the period
1927-1990):
‘The eyes that saw looking into the future, now quietly closed. The mouth that
uttered fiery words, that made Goering rage, that beckoned years in a row for
the working class to fight against fascism, that proclaimed the creation of the
life-saving Fatherland Front, which charted the path of our country towards so¬
cialism, is now closed. The great Dimitrov as ifasleep. And even in the deathbed,
he radiates grandeur and power (Rabotnichesko Delo, issue 179, July 9, 1949).
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