Sheila Fitzpatrick (3:05)

Well, he's lying on the floor in his military stuff and he's wet himself.

Sally Helm (3:11)

We heard the story from Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian and author of the Death of Stalin. And since that moment, Stalin has been unconscious, laid out on a couch. Doctors don't know what to do about his sudden, severe illness. Stalin's children and his closest comrades have been standing vigilant Taking shifts at his side day and night. And on March 5, Stalin falls into what witnesses later call his death agony. His face and lips turn blue, then black. He struggles to breathe. Just before 10pm that evening, he lurches into a final bout of consciousness, glares around the room, raises his left hand and points, points ominously toward a portrait on the wall of a girl feeding a lamb. His daughter Svetlana describes the gesture as incomprehensible and full of menace, a curse. Then Stalin takes his final breath. And with that, the fate of Russia, the Cold War and the global order are all thrown into uncertainty. And people start to speculate about the circumstances of his death.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (4:32)

In Russia, whenever there's a prominent death, people always think there's foul play. But in this case, there's every reason to think about that, because so many people close to Stalin had a good reason for wanting him out of the way.

Sally Helm (4:46)

This week, the death of Stalin. What happens when a tyrant falls? And what role did Stalin's closest comrades play at the end of his life? Sheila Fitzpatrick told us, Joseph Stalin at the time of his death is a very different man from Joseph Stalin, the young communist upstart.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (5:14)

Stalin starts off as a revolutionary in the Russian Empire, the Bolshevik Party. He's the sort of can do person, the approachable person. He always went around in this military tunic, not with decorations or anything, just military tunic and boots and that kind of thing.

Sally Helm (5:34)

By all accounts, he seems happy to be a mid level communist revolutionary. He's not overtly seeking power. But then the dynamics in Russia shift.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (5:47)

There's a general sort of meltdown in Russia during the First World War, and in that more or less power vacuum, the Bolshevik party manages to take part.

Sally Helm (6:01)

The Bolsheviks want the workers of Russia to take power, not the tsarist elites. Their leader is Vladimir Lenin. Joseph Stalin is in the party too, but he's not a star.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (6:13)

Stalin had been something of a backroom boy. There was a much more glamorous revolutionary. That was Trotsky. Stalin, by contrast, was not brilliant, not glamorous. He was the one who did the stuff behind the scenes. So it was a little bit surprising to me when he emerges.

Sally Helm (6:30)

Stalin, it turns out, is a master of the backroom deal. And it pays off. Lennon dies in 1924. He's 53 years old and it is not clear who will succeed him.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (6:46)

This is not a party with, so to speak, a Fuhrer. There's no dictator title such as Mussolini or Hitler had, but there is a top body of about 12 people or men, actually. That's the Politburo, and that's the group that runs things. And in that group, Lenin was of course, the first among IPOs when he was alive. So then the competition is who's going to succeed him as the authoritative person.

Sally Helm (7:16)

It takes about five years of wrangling, but Stalin ends up on top almost immediately. His leadership is marked by violence, death, and paranoia. In the early 1930s, his aggressive industrialization policies help lead to catastrophic failures, famines. Millions die. Towards the end of that decade, a high ranking member of the Politburo is assassinated, and Stalin initiates a mass conspiracy investigation known as the Great purge. In just two years, 2 million Communist Party officials, military members and laypeople are rounded up and arrested on charges of espionage and terrorism. Many are sent to the gulag. More than 700,000 are executed. Within the party and among the public, fear is rampant. But things change for Stalin and for Russia with World War II.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (8:20)

Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. The widespread expectation was the regime will collapse. It didn't. And Stalin emerges in 1945 as the leader of a country which has miraculously been victorious. So his stature is enormously increased.

Sally Helm (8:46)

The impact of that victory can't really be understated. This is the moment when Stalin goes from first among equals to God among men.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (8:57)

You kind of lose touch with who Stalin actually is in the post war period. I think perhaps even Stalin lost touch with it because of the cult. He's represented everywhere as a godlike figure. Now, of course, a godlike figure is always alone.

Sally Helm (9:13)

Stalin is alone at the top. He's now approaching his 70s. And Russia, meanwhile, is in a precarious position. Domestically, the country is struggling to recover from World War II. Internationally, the Cold War is escalating. Stalin is under pressure, and his paranoia begins to fester. One foreign diplomat later recounted a meeting where Stalin was doodling on a pad of paper. Stalin was a known doodler. That wasn't anything new. But on this particular occasion, he was drawing one thing only. Wolves. Over and over, wolves everywhere.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (9:55)

He said he didn't trust anybody. And then he said, including myself. So this is old age for a dictator in tough times.

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Sally Helm (11:43)

Late in his life, Joseph Stalin isn't just suspicious, he's also lonely, especially at night. His children have moved away, his second wife is dead. So Stalin takes to inviting his closest comrades over to his dacha for late night Company. On February 28, 1953, four men are in attendance. It turns out to be an important night. Comrade Number one is Lavrency Beria, head of Stalin's secret police. He's clean cut and wears little round glasses. A sharp, shrewd hatchet man.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (12:23)

Beria is younger. He's a clever man. He was brought up to Moscow to cope with the aftermath of the Great Purges, so he was a cleanup man and he remains in charge of security for the rest of the post war period. That of course, gives him a sinister aura.

Sally Helm (12:45)

Next, Nikita Khrushchev. He is a more recent member of the Politburo after spending years as party leader in Ukraine. Stalin brings Khrushchev to Moscow in 1949 to mix up the power balance within his inner circle, and he pretty quickly becomes one of Stalin's most trusted advisors. By the way, his name is more accurately pronounced Nikita Rushov.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (13:11)

He's a bit of a hick. He comes from working class origins in Ukraine. He's a bit older than Birya and made his way up the party when young working class Communists were being sent to higher education on a sort of affirmative action.

Sally Helm (13:29)

Then there's Georgy Malenkov, senior Politburo member and the man responsible for personnel matters, keeping party members in line.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (13:37)

Now Malinkov, another of the young ones, seemingly very Much a yes man. He's worked closely with Stalin on things like moving people who are causing trouble and rallying supporters by giving them good jobs and so on.

Sally Helm (13:52)

Last of the four, Nikolai Bulganin, who oversees the military.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (13:58)

Sometimes I feel you could have a cardboard cutout instead of the actual Bulganin. He's quite good looking. He's had a reasonably good party career. He's nothing much of anything. I can think of no occasion when anybody really bothers what Buganin is going to vote or what he's going to do. Yeah, it's like an empty place.

Sally Helm (14:25)

These are the four who join Stalin at his dacha that night. Beria, the hatchet man, Khrushchev the hick, Malenkov, the paper pusher and Bulganin the ghost. They eat dinner, they watch a movie, they drink for many, many hours, and they stay up well into the next morning.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (14:43)

It's your basic Saturday night out at the dacha, with enforced drinking, dancing, the men dancing with each other, Stalin not, but he playing the music, the records on the turntable, lots of horseplay, you know, tomatoes put on chairs and that kind of thing.

Sally Helm (15:02)

Stalin is very drunk and in unusually high spirits, affectionate even. When the comrades depart around 5am, Stalin walks them to the door and playfully pokes Khrushchev in the belly, calling him a pet name, Mikita. Khrushchev and Bulganin leave in one car, Beria and Milenkov in another. The next morning, Khrushchev wakes up, pleasantly surprised because Stalin hasn't called for him yet. He's had the rare opportunity to sleep in, and he thinks Stalin must be doing the same. That's what the dacha staff thinks too, at first. But as the day wears on, there's still no sound from Stalin's room. It gets dark out. The security team is getting uneasy,

Sheila Fitzpatrick (15:52)

but everyone is afraid to go in and have a look, because if everything is okay, Stalin will be really irritated. Nobody's willing to do it.

Sally Helm (16:01)

Around 10pm they call Milenkov and tell him the news. There hasn't been a word from Stalin in nearly 18 hours. What should we do? Malenkov rallies the other three and they join the staff outside of Stalin's bedroom door.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (16:17)

But they also, for the same reason, they hesitate to go in. So finally, after many hours, the housekeeper is sent in and she finds that Stalin is lying on the floor.

Sally Helm (16:31)

Security rushes in, as do the four comrades. Together they lift Stalin off the floor and onto a nearby sofa. And they just stand over him, watching for signs of life. Everyone is afraid they might appear scared that he won't wake up, but actually they're also scared that he will and that he'll be furious and embarrassed at being found in such an undignified state. According to Khrushchev's account, Malenkov went so far as to remove his squeaky shoes out of fear that they might wake Stalin.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (17:07)

So they then say to each other, well, he seems to be sleeping now. Stalin is of course unconscious. But now they incredibly, they go back to Moscow, hoping that this problem solves itself.

Sally Helm (17:23)

The problem does not solve itself. A few hours later, the comrades return to the dacha, this time with a doctor. A really good doctor is hard to find, given that Stalin recently rounded up all the Kremlin doctors and arrested them on suspicion of espionage. But finally, Stalin does get medical attention

Sheila Fitzpatrick (17:42)

from a mediocre in quirks doctor that nobody knows who is obviously terrified. And he says he's had a stroke and that the prognosis isn't good.

Sally Helm (17:56)

Stalin is dying. The doctor recommends applying eight leeches to Stalin's ears, removing his false teeth and suppository doses of milk, of Magnesia cream and egg yolks. The treatments have little effect. Someone calls for Stalin's children to come. His daughter Svetlana is beside herself with grief. His son Vasily takes a slightly different tackle.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (18:23)

Vasily is a drunk and he is drunk and he's wandering around saying, they've killed my father.

Sally Helm (18:35)

It is unlikely that the comrades actually killed Stalin, but it's definitely not impossible. They certainly had every motive. And as all this unfolds, they're caught between two roles, sometimes grieving with the family and sometimes huddled up in the corner whispering about what comes next. According to Svetlana's and Khrushchev's accounts, one member of the Politburo quickly rises to the occasion.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (19:02)

What they say about Birya is that he alternated sort of kneeling beside the sofa with an anxious and loving gaze kind of thing, to going off and giving orders and seemingly quite indifferent.

Sally Helm (19:15)

To be fair, neither Khrushchev nor Svetlana were fans of Beria, and other accounts don't note this seeming duplicity. But we do know from multiple accounts that Beria takes the lead and he isn't shy about it. For four days, the doctors try to resuscitate Stalin. The comrades visit constantly, as devoted as ever. All four men and Stalin's children are by his side when his heart beats for the last time. At 9:50pm on March 5, a 30 minute silence falls over the room. Maybe no one wanted to be the one to break it. Stalin has been ruling with an iron grip, but now he's just suddenly gone. And despite all the weeping and prayers and silence, the four comrades are ready. As one reporter at the time put it, if Stalin died a natural death in March 1953, it was the luckiest thing that ever happened for every man who was close to him. And probably for Russia as well.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (20:33)

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Sally Helm (21:29)

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Sheila Fitzpatrick (21:44)

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Sheila Fitzpatrick (21:56)

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Sally Helm (21:57)

It's Clin was a 74 year old autocrat. People knew on some level that he wouldn't be around forever. And several months before his collapse, Stalin had called the Communist Party together in Moscow for the first congress in 13 years. October 1952. The party members gather in the capital. A lot of them assume that Stalin has called this Congress to announce his succession plan. But that is wrong.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (22:34)

One of the things that happen when you're an aging autocrat is that people sort of start thinking about what happens when you're gone. And you have to stop them doing that in case basically they decide to hasten your departure.

Sally Helm (22:49)

Stalin spends the Congress making long winded speeches about his sole ability to steer the ussr, his new economic policies, and a new party structure that dilutes the Politburo's power. Two days after the congress, he strikes out at some of his closest comrades in a 90 minute speech at the Kremlin.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (23:10)

What he's doing is making absurd accusations against some of his colleagues, saying that they're American spies, that they're traitors, et cetera, et cetera.

Sally Helm (23:22)

He takes aim at two Politburo members in particular, Molotov and Mikoyan. If that drunken movie night at the Dacha had happened before this speech, Molotov and Mikoyan would definitely have been there. Instead, Stalin demotes them and disgraces them. He even releases transcripts from an interrogation with Molotov's wife.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (23:44)

It's all about sexual affairs, saying she slept with this person, she slept with that person, she made a pass for this person, et cetera. You know, Stalin liked humiliation games.

Sally Helm (23:53)

And every Politburo member knows that he could be next. Stalin is gearing up for a rampage.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (24:01)

He is, I think, planning to purge part of the Politburo and who knows, maybe the whole of the Politburo.

Sally Helm (24:07)

In January, things escalate.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (24:10)

The so called anti cosmopolitan campaign starts off by being against any kind of contact with foreigners or foreign ideas, and morphs into an anti Semitic campaign, which climaxes in the arrest of a group of doctors in the Kremlin. These are Stalin's and the Politburo's own doctors, accused of being terrorists and murderers and agents of the capitalist West. Pravda runs a banner headline saying Arrest of the killer doctors. It does not say the killer Jewish doctors. However, it would be clear, a Soviet reader, that these are Jews, these doctors.

Sally Helm (24:49)

These arrests will ultimately be the reason it takes so long to find a doctor for Stalin after he collapses. And his campaign is expanding quickly. The secret police arrest dozens of Jewish teachers, lawyers, writers, composers and actors, plus many of their associates. And there is not a member of the Politburo who doesn't have a Jewish spouse, family member, friend or known associate. It's clear that this campaign could wind up as a way for Stalin to purge his own inner circle again. But just days after the latest round of arrests, Stalin collapses and the threat of another purge evaporates almost overnight. As Stalin lies dying and the inner circle is spending time at his side, they're also sneaking away to meet in secret. They're putting together a plan.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (25:44)

When they're not at the daci, they're meeting in the Kremlin, in the place they usually meet in, which is Stalin's office. In the chair where Stalin normally is, nobody sits. All the Politburo Are there? Including the disgraced ones.

Sally Helm (26:00)

Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov, Boganin. Even the previously demoted members Molotov and Mikoyan circle up around Stalin's empty seat. Stalin's chair, for the record, is bigger, comfier and more ornate than any of theirs. The group is organized with shocking speed. They hash out the next era of Russian government and they decide there will be no Stalin successor. It will be a true collective.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (26:32)

Peria is going to be in charge of security, Rushov is going to be in charge of the party, Buganin the military. And Malinkov is going to be the head of the government.

Sally Helm (26:44)

The idea that Stalin's inner circle may have murdered him. People do still talk about it, but there's no strong evidence it happened. However, they do bring an end to his legacy. The moment Stalin is declared dead, they put their plan into action immediately.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (27:02)

Mention of Stalin in the press disappears. He'd been obligatory mentioned in all kinds of contexts. That just stops the publication of his collected works stops. They just stop the cult in its tracks.

Sally Helm (27:18)

They also roll back his policies, starting with the most threatening.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (27:23)

The other thing they do absolutely immediately is release the Kremlin doctors. And not just release them, but put it in the paper. We have released the Kremlin doctors because there was no case against them. They were innocent.

Sally Helm (27:37)

They release a million people from the Gulag. They reinstate local leadership in USSR republics like Georgia, Ukraine and Latvia, reining in the Russian imperialism that Stalin had imposed across the Soviet Union.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (27:50)

It's extraordinary how quickly they start rolling things back. Moreover, they do it without announcing that they're doing it. They just do it.

Sally Helm (28:02)

Surprisingly, it doesn't take that long to change the country's direction, to dismantle Stalin's legacy, even while publicly the Politburo members are in full on mourning. That duality is on display at Stalin's funeral on March 9.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (28:20)

Most of the written accounts say I wept when I heard of Stalin died. Everybody says that everyone wept. They say I wept too. In the film footage, that's not so common. They're mainly not weeping as they go past. They look quite concentrated and sort of wary.

Sally Helm (28:40)

There's supposed to be a final public viewing that morning, followed by a procession to Lenin's mausoleum, which has been renamed the Lenin Stalin Mausoleum. But things don't go according to plan.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (28:52)

People are gathering in part to get themselves in the queue for the viewing of the body. And in part, evidently, a large group gets trapped in a lane and there's security vehicles there which are taking up Space as well.

Sally Helm (29:07)

The space gets tighter and tighter. People begin to panic. A stampede breaks out that one witness describes as a monstrous whirlpool. When the dust settles, roughly a hundred people are dead. The true number of casualties is never publicly shared and the bodies are whisked away quickly and quietly.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (29:31)

Still, it adds to the feeling of the whole situation is sort of ominous.

Sally Helm (29:38)

At 10am the procession begins. The sky is low and gray. The streets are lined with banners, portraits and thousands of people. A crackling speaker plays dirges and solemn announcements while artillery salutes fire one after another. Malenkov and Beria lead the pallbearers in their half mile march to Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square. Both men are wearing subdued civilian suits. It's a small break from tradition and a far cry from the generalissimo uniform that Stalin is wearing. Already they're starting to distance themselves from the old guard. That becomes even more evident when the speeches begin.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (30:23)

The only person who talks about Stalin with any warmth is Molotov. He talks about him as a friend. Buria talks about the rule of law, an unusual theme at a funeral. And his wife says to him afterwards, are you sure you know, that was the right note to hit? I mean, there's a funeral after all. Are people going to misunderstand you, in other words, to think you don't really care about Stalin? And Berea said, no, they will be understanding me. In other words, he's sending out a little signal that things are going to be different.

Sally Helm (31:03)

And after the funeral they are. The collective leadership enshrines a form of due process. No more arbitrary arrests. They bring back several previously banned books and movies. It seems like maybe this is the dawn of a new Russia. Then Beria gets restless. He doesn't like that Malenkov has so much power as the head of the government body and he sees an opportunity.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (31:32)

He's fairly confident that he can run Malinkov because Malinkov is used to working with a dominant figure, that is to say Stalin. So Birya is sort of. He's not making an explicit power grab, but he's sort of attempting to establish authority behind the scenes. This leads to some clashes with Molotov.

Sally Helm (31:52)

Malenkov might be easily manipulated, but Molotov puts up a fight. So Beria starts seeking allies and Khrushchev is one of the first people he turns to.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (32:02)

He thinks Khrushchev is a hick and that he can manipulate him.

Sally Helm (32:06)

They go for a walk outside Moscow and according to Khrushchev's account, Beria turns

Sheila Fitzpatrick (32:11)

to him and says, we can live very well now. We can build ourselves palaces or something.

Sally Helm (32:17)

Now Khrushchev is an old guard Communist revolutionary luxury isn't just disinteresting to him, it's offensive.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (32:25)

So Birya is really dealing all wrong with Khrushchev. Khrushchev forms the impression that Birya needs to be got rid of.

Sally Helm (32:36)

Khrushchev gathers his own allies. Molotov, Bulganin, Malenkov. The collective is starting to crack. Toward the end of June, Beria goes to Milenkov's office for a standard meeting. But the agenda quickly shifts. Khrushchev takes the floor and starts hurling accusations at Beria. He's a traitor, a spy. He was working with Hitler during the war.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (33:03)

Then they develop a very unusual theme in Soviet terms, that is a sort of sex offender theme that Birya has habitually had his agents picking up young women from the streets that he can then use for sex. How appalling his behavior was is not altogether clear, but it was a wonderful way of blackening his name.

Sally Helm (33:25)

After two hours of this, Malenkov presses a secret button under his desk in rush the guards to arrest Beria. He's so shocked, he doesn't put up much of a fight. Still, the guards confiscate his belt and cut the buttons off his pants, so he has to hold them up with his hands while he's marched away, ostensibly to make sure he can't run really, probably also to humiliate him. Beria is imprisoned, charged with espionage, terrorism and moral degradation. Then he's tried in a secret underground bunker, along with six of his alleged co conspirators, known as the Beria men. He is quietly executed by firing squad on the final day of his trial. With Beria out of the way, Khrushchev makes his next move. He gives a speech really eviscerating Stalin, even criticizing his military competency during World War II. It's known as the Secret Speech, but it is widely disseminated within Russia. In the eyes of the Russian people, Stalin's legacy is forever altered.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (34:35)

We go from the extraordinary but not overt reform efforts of the collective leadership to another fairly extraordinary but absolutely public effort which Khrushchev is claiming as his own.

Sally Helm (34:56)

Ultimately, Khrushchev rises to power on the back of this overt destalinization campaign at a 1961 party congress. That campaign strikes several new blows to Stalin's legacy. They vote to rename the city of Stalingrad and remove all Stalin statues. And then an old Bolshevik party member addresses the Congress. She claims Lenin appeared to her in

Sheila Fitzpatrick (35:23)

a dream, and he said, I don't want to share the mausoleum with Stalin anymore. It's unpleasant to me. And Rushev calls out, yes, right. And so that very night, Stalin's body is removed from the mausoleum and buried under the Kremlin wall. Initially, there's no real marking of this spot, but after a while, they give him a little marker and he remains to this day.

Sally Helm (35:49)

Khrushchev leads for a decade, and he is in charge not in the tyrannical way that Stalin was, but the dream of. Of true collective leadership. And it doesn't come to fruition. He's part of an old story. One strong leader, often a member of his predecessor's inner circle, rises to power through backroom dealings, double crosses and manipulation. Then he maintains control until he's ousted, often by his allies, or dies. Fitzgerald said, it's a good reminder that when we're thinking about Stalin's death, really, we should remember to turn our attention away from that central leader and towards his inner circle.

Sheila Fitzpatrick (36:32)

There was very strong feeling. Everybody in the Politburo is Stalin's man. They're all yes men. They have no competence. They're party hacks. That's what always said about them. But what is, to me truly remarkable is that these party hacks who had worked for Stalin for many years, who retained some degree of personal attachment to him, they have in their minds already a formulated reform program, things they think should be changed when Stalin isn't around to stop them.

Sally Helm (37:03)

What mattered most in the end wasn't the dictator who fell, but his inner circle waiting in the wings plotting to take his. History this week is a Back Pocket Studios production in partnership with the History Channel. To stay updated on all things history this week, Sign up@historythisweekpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram at historythisweekpodcast. If you have any thoughts or questions, you you can send us an email@historythisweekistory.com Special thanks to our guest, Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian and author of the book the Death of Stalin. This episode was produced by McCamey Lynn and sound designed by Ben Dickstein. It was also produced by me, Sally Helm for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producer is Ben Dickstein for the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Ferrari Fiddler. Don't forget to follow rate and review history this week, wherever you get your podcasts and we'll see you next week.