So I was browsing a website called reddit, which is famous, among other things, for their strong liberal tendencies. In a topic about Nazism, someone was talking about how during Stalin's speeches, the KGB waited for the first person to stop clapping, and would execute them for disloyalty. Upon some quick research, these claims are made in many anti-communist books, such as Gulag Archipelago. There was another claim that the people were so afraid to stop clapping that they would sometimes go on for 20 minutes or more, and a "clapping bell" was introduced to get the crowd to quiet down after so long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YsL4...=related]%2845 - Here's a video of a seemingly frustrated Stalin during one of these incidents of overwhelming applause.
So is there any substance to these tales? It sounds like total horseshit, but did anything like that happen, even if it wasn't Stalin's command?