HAPPY DEATH OF STALIN DAY FOR ALL WHO CELEBRATE! On this date in 1953, Joseph Stalin died, and the following day, the New York Times published this creepy bit of necrophilia for his obituary: Stalin Rose From Czarist Oppression to Transform Russia Into Mighty Socialist State.

In 2017, Armando Iannucci captured a far more subtle and nuanced take on the last days of the Soviet tyrant and the resulting scramble for control by his apparatchiks: The Red Reign of Error: The Death of Stalin Arrives on Netflix.