Didn't know that
Makes sense though.

The Stalinesque cult of personality hoped to gain a great deal of credibility by rewriting history to move Stalin much closener Lenin, politically. A revered dead man cannot set the record straight - much like Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in N Korea today.

NB Stalin's undertakers had arguably the hardest job of all to prepare the body for public mourning, for Stalin had been dead some considerable time before anyone dared check his vital signs for fear of being "purged".
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Thu 28 Feb 2008, 15:44, Reply)