A Fatal Delay
Under normal circumstances, you would expect the guards to call a doctor immediately. However, the guards didn’t believe they had the authority to do so. Instead, they called the Minister of State Security who told them to phone Beria, the head of the NKVD. Incidentally, Stalin recently imprisoned most of Russia’s best physicians. No doctor arrived until 7 a.m. the following morning. The reason for the delay is unclear; perhaps Beria was scared of appearing to impinge on Stalin’s powers if the dictator recovered, or maybe he hoped the leader died so they could avoid carrying out the latest planned purge.
When the physicians eventually arrived, they found Stalin in terrible shape. He was vomiting blood, partially paralyzed, and he found it hard to breathe. The new doctors sent representatives to prison to consult the old physicians, and they confirmed the gloomy diagnosis. The Soviet leader suffered immense agony for several days before dying at 9:50 p.m. on March 5, 1953. At the funeral in Red Square four days later, the crowd was so large that several people were crushed to death.
Was He Poisoned?
Although a cerebral hemorrhage is still the most likely cause of death, the possibility that he was poisoned cannot be discounted. Warfarin was a relatively new drug in the 1950s, and the symptoms displayed by Stalin could certainly have been caused by a 5-10 day dose. There was no shortage of people with motive. While leading Politburo members openly praised Stalin, they were privately relieved when he died.
Speculation suggests Khrustalev was the culprit and acted under the orders of Beria. Another theory says that one of the four men he dined with on February 28 administered the deadly dose. It is possible they used Stalin’s fearsome temper against him. A poisoner would know that the best doctors were in prison and no one would be in a rush to arrive to help or examine him. His poor health means a murder of this nature could be easily concealed. It is odd that the guards were ordered to bed on the fateful night and, even accounting for their fear, it is surprising that the officials took so long to react.
A more far-fetched theory is that Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito had Stalin murdered. The Russian leader tried to have Tito assassinated on no fewer than 22 occasions. Tito reportedly told Stalin that if he didn’t stop sending killers, he would send one to Moscow and wouldn’t need to send another one. Joze Pirjavec wrote ‘Tito In Tovarisi’ and claims Stalin was murdered by potassium cyanide; he suspects Tito of ordering the murder. However, there isn’t much evidence to back up these claims.
There was also no shortage of reasons for murdering Stalin. The forthcoming purge was unpopular amongst his officers, and they were unquestionably tired of living in fear. Those closest to Stalin were afraid that his increasingly erratic behavior would ultimately result in World War III. Any assassination would need to be kept secret because Stalin’s Cult of Personality meant most Soviets revered him, at least in public.
Ultimately, we will never know the answer for sure, but there is a decent chance that the infamous Soviet dictator died at the hands of his own men. Who knows what would have happened had Stalin lived even five years longer?