Buzz
After Vladimir Lenin’s demise, Joseph Stalin strategically rose to power in the Soviet Union. Officially serving as the nation’s premier from 1941 until his death in 1953 at 74, Stalin was a ruthless leader responsible for the deaths of countless citizens while turning the USSR into a dominant world force. In his later years, he grew increasingly paranoid, fearing assassination.
For more than six decades, Stalin’s sudden death in March 1953 has been shrouded in mystery and speculation. This list explores the bizarre circumstances of his passing, his declining mental state, and the chaotic events that unfolded during his funeral.
10. Deteriorating Health
In the years preceding Joseph Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, the dictator grew increasingly paranoid, convinced that everyone around him was plotting against him. His behavior was as erratic as it was terrifying.
Once, Stalin’s doctor, Vladimir Vinogradov, infuriated him simply by recommending he slow down. By 1952, it was clear that his health was failing. However, Stalin refused to acknowledge it and had his physician arrested.
Stalin also commanded the arrest and torture of nine other doctors in what became known as the Doctors’ Plot. This fueled rumors of a medical conspiracy involving “a criminal group of killer doctors” aiming to assassinate high-ranking Soviet officials.
Since six of the nine detained doctors were Jewish, anti-Semitism surged across the Soviet Union. Just weeks before the accused doctors were set to face trial—and likely execution—they were freed from prison following Stalin’s sudden death.
9. A Regal Goodbye Worthy of a Monarch
Stalin would surely be mortified if he knew the humiliating state in which he was found. On the morning of his discovery, his doctors and fellow Communist leaders stood in awkward silence as their leader lay unconscious, drenched in urine.
The foul odor in the room was as overwhelming as the paralyzing fear gripping everyone present as they debated their next steps. In a later interview with Russian journalist Edvard Radzinsky, Peter Lozgachev, the deputy commandant of Kuntsevo who discovered Stalin, recalled, “The doctors were petrified. They looked at [Stalin] and trembled. They needed to examine him, but their hands were shaking uncontrollably.”
When the doctors finally gathered the courage to act, they found Stalin’s blood pressure at a dangerous 210/120, his right arm and leg paralyzed, and his prized dentures nearly broken. One of the doctors, hands trembling, accidentally dropped the false teeth on the floor.
As history tells us, Stalin did not survive the week. However, the mere possibility of damaging his platinum dentures was enough to terrify those around him, knowing it could lead to their execution. According to Alexei Doinikov, the chief Kremlin dentist, Stalin had only three natural teeth remaining at the time of his death.
8. No Hurry Necessary
Stalin remained unconscious for four days before finally passing away. During this period, he lay on a couch in visible agony, while those around him hesitated to provide timely medical intervention. Historians speculate that the forced industrialization, paranoid purges, and widespread famine orchestrated by Stalin led his inner circle to avoid taking decisive steps to save him.
When his guards sought assistance, they reached out to the state security minister rather than a doctor. Even then, Stalin’s closest allies delayed action, possibly to ensure his death and avoid becoming targets of his next purge. Given Stalin’s recent erratic behavior and growing paranoia, no one felt safe under his rule.
Nearly 12 hours after being alerted, Stalin’s Communist comrades and drinking partners finally summoned doctors. Ironically, the best physicians in the Soviet Union, who had previously treated Stalin, were imprisoned by him and unable to help. Representatives were dispatched to the prisons to consult the very doctors Stalin had distrusted, seeking diagnoses and advice from those he had tortured.
7. Leeches, Injections, and Nutrient Enemas
In the 18th and 19th centuries, leeches were widely used in medicine to allegedly lower blood pressure by drawing blood. This outdated method was employed on Stalin’s head as a last-ditch effort to revive him as he lay dying.
Camphor was also rubbed on Stalin’s back, as if treating bedsores was a priority given his critical condition. When these measures failed to help the paralyzed leader, enemas were administered in a misguided attempt to “nourish” him. Twice daily, Stalin received a glucose enema and a so-called “nutritional enema” made with cream and egg yolk.
When Stalin showed no improvement, doctors turned to cold compresses, artificial respiration, and repeated adrenaline injections. At one point, Stalin’s son, Vasili, angrily protested, shouting, “You bastards, you’re killing my father.”
Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, described her father’s final moments. “He suddenly opened his eyes and looked at everyone in the room,” she recalled. “It was a horrifying gaze, filled with madness, rage, and the fear of death.”
When Stalin finally breathed his last, everyone in the room knelt and kissed his hand, except for Lavrenti Beria, the head of the secret police, who reportedly spat on the body.
6. Trial and Error
After Vladimir Lenin passed away in January 1924, Stalin insisted on embalming the body for public display, despite opposition from most Soviet leaders. While many advocated for a traditional burial in a sealed tomb, they eventually consented to an experimental microinjection embalming technique.
Unsurprisingly, Stalin desired the same treatment and a shrine-like tomb after his death. However, by then, the process had become fraught with challenges.
By the time of Stalin’s death, Professor Vorobyev, who had refined the embalming technique used on Lenin, had already passed away. As a result, the challenging and unpleasant responsibility fell to his assistant, Professor Zharsky. It became clear that Stalin’s embalming was poorly planned, as his body was only prepared for a three-day public viewing, unlike Lenin’s, which was intended for generations to see.
Because of this oversight, Stalin’s corpse had to be hastily returned to the morgue when it began to decompose. His remains underwent experimental embalming methods to ensure they could be preserved for the long term.
Ultimately, it took seven months to achieve Stalin’s radiant, lifelike appearance. His body was placed in a glass tomb next to Lenin’s, though it was later removed in subsequent years.
5. Halloween Eviction
In the power struggle following Stalin’s death, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the leader of the Soviet government. During his first decade in power, Khrushchev pursued a policy of de-Stalinization to separate himself from the atrocities of his predecessor’s rule.
Aware that Stalin’s reign of terror had led to the deaths of an estimated 20 million Soviet citizens, Khrushchev concluded that the dictator did not deserve to rest beside Lenin in the mausoleum. Consequently, eight years after being embalmed and displayed in a grand glass tomb, Stalin’s remains were quietly removed from Red Square and buried near the Kremlin Wall.
In a symbolic twist, Stalin was stripped of the honor and prestige he had always sought. Rather than lying beside his idol Lenin, he was buried alongside lesser-known figures from the Russian Revolution. Ironically, his eviction from the tomb occurred on Halloween in 1961.
4. A Troubled Man
In recent years, Stalin’s mental state and undeniable madness have become a focal point in medical discussions, thanks to diary entries from his personal physician, Alexander Myasnikov. Long believed to be lost, Myasnikov’s notes on Stalin’s health and autopsy were concealed since 1953—until his family retrieved them from state archives.
Notably, Myasnikov is candid in his assertion that Stalin suffered from a mental illness. However, the root cause of this condition was unexpected.
Myasnikov attributed Stalin’s insanity to severe cerebral atherosclerosis, a condition involving the hardening of brain arteries. He argued that this degenerative brain disease impaired Stalin’s judgment, fueling his paranoia and escalating brutality over time.
One of Myasnikov’s diary entries reads:
The significant atherosclerosis discovered during the autopsy raises questions about how this condition—which had clearly progressed over years—impacted Stalin’s health, personality, and decisions. [ . . . ] Stalin may have lost the ability to distinguish between good and evil, safety and danger, right and wrong, friend and foe. Personality traits can become amplified, turning suspicion into paranoia. [ . . . ] I propose that Stalin’s cruelty, mistrust, and fear of enemies were largely driven by cerebral atherosclerosis. Essentially, the nation was governed by a man in poor health.
3. The Duke
Stalin’s death not only saved millions from his tyrannical rule but also spared one of Hollywood’s most legendary actors. Biographers note that Stalin grew increasingly enraged by Hollywood’s anti-communist stance, leading him to order the assassination of John Wayne.
Stalin’s irrational obsession resulted in multiple assassination attempts on Wayne. In one instance, two Soviet assassins disguised as federal agents were apprehended at Wayne’s Warner Brothers Studios office in 1951. The plot to kill Wayne was halted by Nikita Khrushchev after Stalin’s death in 1953.
In 1958, Khrushchev told Wayne, “That was one of Stalin’s decisions during his final five years of madness. After his death, I canceled the order.” Unlike Stalin, Wayne was celebrated after his death from cancer in 1979 at the age of 72.
2. Conspiracies
Despite evidence of Stalin’s declining health, speculation persists about the circumstances of his death. Many historians have debated whether the Soviet leader’s death was hastened by prolonged poisoning.
For instance, on the night of Stalin’s death, he vomited blood due to a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The full extent of his stomach bleeding was only revealed in 2011 when the autopsy reports were declassified. This has led to theories that individuals within Stalin’s inner circle may have secretly given him warfarin, a tasteless and colorless blood thinner.
It is theorized that the rat poison was introduced during a final dinner with four Politburo members, including his successor, Khrushchev, and the head of the secret police, Lavrenti Beria. In fact, Beria allegedly boasted about killing Stalin two months after his death, claiming, “I took him out! I saved all of you.”
It is theorized that those present at Stalin’s last dinner were growing increasingly anxious about an impending nuclear war with the United States. As a result, they allegedly conspired to poison Stalin slowly over 5–10 days to avoid raising suspicions.
1. Terror Even in Death
For decades, Soviet citizens believed Stalin protected and provided for them, leading to genuine grief and tears upon his death. Many questioned the future of their nation without their leader. The overwhelming public mourning was evident as tens of thousands gathered in Trubnaia Square for his funeral.
Desperate to view the dictator’s body, the crowd surged forward, creating a chaotic whirlpool. In a tragic irony, Stalin’s death brought terror to the streets as mourning turned into a deadly stampede. Despairing cries faded into groans as hundreds were crushed to death in the chaos.
Those of shorter stature in the crowd were suffocated, while others were pressed against walls and traffic lights, turning the streets red with blood. Among the thousands who braved the snow to witness their leader’s body in the Hall of Columns, around 500 perished.
