Why would no one dare stop clapping after Stalin's Speeches?
Stalin was a paranoid man, seeing enemies wherever he went. His reign saw the deaths of over a million political prisoners as well as millions more sent to gulags. In his book the Gulag Archipelago, one spectator who would one day be sent to a gulag himself shared the bizarre and terrifying events at one of Stalin's speeches. People were so terrified of being the first one to stop clapping that the applause went on for over 11 minutes. Eventually the director of a paper factory dared to sit down. That night he was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was told during his interrogation “don t ever be the first to stop applauding!”
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