Waiving soviet flags, holding portraits of Stalin and flowers, people of every age created a long queue in order to pay tribute to the late leader's grave at the Kremlin Necropolis.
Despite the massive anti-communist, anti-soviet propaganda of the last decades, Joseph Stalin continues to be a popular and revered figure among the Russian people and especially for the working class. Numerous surveys conducted during the last years confirm the popularity of Stalin among Russians and the recognition of his crucial role in Soviet Union's triumph over Nazis in the Second World War.
"People would be happy if we had a leader like him again," said Yuri, a Russian pensioner.
"Without Stalin's return to Russia, we Russians and other indigenous peoples of Russia won't survive," 74-year-old former Russian colonel and military intelligence officer Vladimir Kvachkov told AFP.
