Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for nearly a quarter of a century and caused over 20 million deaths.
But on March 5, 1953, his reign came to an end, coinciding with his death at the age of 74.
For a quarter of a century, Stalin, nicknamed the Iron Man and the Little Father of the Peoples, ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist and did not hesitate to get rid of his potential political enemies and opponents of his policy either by executing them or sending them to forced labor centers in remote areas of the country.
During his reign, the republics that made up the Soviet Union went through one of the bloodiest periods in their history, when the Iron Man policy resulted in the deaths of at least 20 million people.
Portrait of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Smoking..and stroke
But his health began to deteriorate since the end of World War II when he suffered from atherosclerosis, classified as a type of atherosclerosis, due to smoking.
His suffering a mild stroke during the Victory Day parade in Moscow in 1945 worried his comrades present.
Also, by October of the same year, he suffered from heart attacks that forced him for a while to get away from his office and take a break.
On February 28, 1953, Stalin was at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow to watch the Swan Lake ballet. And shortly before the end of the show, he preferred to leave the theater to meet a number of his companions. According to Nikita Khrushchev’s account, Stalin summoned Malenkov, Beria, Bulganin, and Khrushchev to discuss a number of issues and drink alcohol.
But at the end of his meeting with his companions, he went to his room at about four o’clock in the morning and ordered his guards not to disturb him and knock on the door of his room until he heard his voice as he woke up from sleep.
However, Stalin spent the entire day of March 1 in his room without making any sound, thus alarming his guards and aides, who were afraid of his reaction if they opened the door.
So, at about eleven o’clock on the same day, one of the maids entered Stalin’s room to find that he was lying on the floor, dressed in his pajamas, and unconscious.
A picture of Lavrentine Beria
Stalin’s death
For hours, those present were afraid to approach Stalin and seek medical help. But at about seven in the morning of the next day, Lavrentiy Beria came to the scene with a number of doctors who examined Stalin and reported that he had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke coinciding with his suffering from severe high blood pressure and hemiparesis.
Over the next two days, the doctors gave the Iron Man several medications, who remained unconscious before he died at around 9:50 pm on March 5, 1953.
But in the years since his death, many stories have emerged that he might have been poisoned by fellow politicians such as Molotov and Beria.
On the morning of March 6, 1953, Soviet officials announced to the world the death of Joseph Stalin, and this news provoked conflicting reactions.
While some expressed their happiness at his departure, stressing the beginning of a new era less bloody than the previous one, and optimizing the possibility of the end of the Cold War, others expressed their deep sadness and described Stalin as the savior of Europe and the world from Nazism.
After an autopsy, his body was taken for embalming and presented to the general public, who gathered to give him a last look, for 3 days in the columns hall of the Council of Trade Unions.
On March 9, the body was taken to Red Square before burial at Lenin’s Mausoleum. In addition, the funeral witnessed a stampede among the attendees that killed more than 100 people. As his body was buried, the Soviet Union witnessed a moment of silence as the Kremlin’s bells rang out and the country’s sirens sounded.