To continuously applaud for eleven minutes may seem absurd. However, when that applause is for Joseph Stalin, it begins to make sense. This ruthless dictator would have nothing but the best appreciation after a speech, and those giving appreciation wanted nothing but to return home safely.
To understand the context of this post is to understand the context of Stalin’s rule.
Joseph Stalin
From 1922 to 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled over the Soviet Union with absolute power. This power gave him the ability to carry out any of his desires, including mass executions, if necessary.
During the late 1930s, Stalin instituted The Great Purge, which saw around one million Soviets executed in large-scale repressions of the peasantry, ethnic cleansing, and purging of certain government officials. In addition, millions of Soviets who were not executed were instead sentenced to long, hard work in the merciless Gulag labor camps. Many more people would die in these camps.
Although estimates vary, it’s believed that Stalin had at least one million political prisoners executed between 1937-38 alone. Through his harsh communist practices, another 6 to 7 million would die in the famines that resulted.
Any person who Stalin believed might turn against him was quickly silenced and never heard from again. Any person who spoke negatively about Stalin received a similar treatment. Stalin ruled with an iron fist and had many people killed with the simple point of his finger.
The Applause
After Joseph Stalin gave his speech at a conference for the Communist Party in 1937, the audience exploded into applause. Everyone in the room leaped to their feet and began to clap wildly. Some seemed to be in a contest of who could stand and clap the fastest.
Yet, the big question soon came: who would have the nerve to stop clapping first? After a few minutes, nobody showed the courage to stop, and so the applause went on. The clapping continued nonstop for eleven minutes.
Finally, one man had enough and stopped clapping. As soon as he sat down, the frenzied audience also quieted down. Soon, the room was completely silent.
Later that night, the man who stopped clapping first was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. Authorities reportedly told him “don’t ever be the first one to stop clapping!“
Solzhenitsyn’s Recall
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist and Soviet dissident, wrote about the event in his book “The Gulag Archipelago“. His recalling of the applause includes:
“The applause went on—six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly…Nine minutes! Ten!…Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers.“
Solzhenitsyn himself became a victim of Stalin’s harsh rule when he was sentenced to eight years in a Gulag labor camp for criticizing Stalin in a letter to a friend.
Conclusion
After the 1930s, most of Russia’s population feared Stalin. Increased police surveillance and the disappearance of many people kept this fear instilled within them. Stalin’s absolute rule over the Soviet Union would continue until his death in 1953 when the Soviet people could finally put that fear behind them.
