Video: 'Stalin Dead (1953)'
(Sunday, March 1, 1953, 11:00 p.m. Moscow Standard Time; during the Cold War) — Joseph Stalin, a Georgian-born Soviet revolutionary and political leader who led the Soviet Union since 1924, was found semi-conscious tonight on the bedroom floor of his personal residence near the former town of Kuntsevo (now part of Moscow’s Fili district), having suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage.
Stalin and a small number of his inner circle had gathered together on Feb. 28, 1953, for an evening of entertainment and drinking. The guests dispersed at approximately 4:00 a.m. on Mar. 1 and Stalin retired to his private quarters with strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed until sounds were heard indicating that he had awakened.
Time passed and no sounds were heard throughout the day. At approximately 11:00 p.m. on Mar. 1, his housekeeper cautiously entered his room and found him lying on the floor, wearing his pajama trousers and a shirt. He was unconscious, breathing heavily, incontinent, and unresponsive to attempts to rouse him.
Over the next two days, he received a variety of treatments. However, his condition continued to deteriorate and he died at 9:50 p.m. on Mar. 5, 1953.
Video: 'The PAINFUL Death Of Joseph Stalin - The Dictator Of The Soviet Union'
Under Stalin, socialism in one country became a central tenet of the party’s ideology. As a result of his Five-Year Plans, the country underwent agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization, creating a centralized command economy.
Severe disruptions to food production contributed to the famine of 1930–33 that killed millions. To eradicate accused “enemies of the working class,” Stalin instituted the Great Purge, in which over a million were imprisoned, largely in the Gulag system of forced labor camps, and at least 700,000 were executed between 1934 and 1939.
Stalin promoted Marxism–Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements during the 1930s, particularly in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1939, his regime signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, resulting in the Soviet invasion of Poland. Germany ended the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941.
Despite initial catastrophes, the Soviet Red Army repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. Amid the war, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and Bessarabia and North Bukovina, subsequently establishing Soviet-aligned governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe and in parts of East Asia.
Video: 'Josef Stalin: The Rise Of Russia's Steel Tyrant | Evolution Of Evil | Timeline'
The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers and entered a period of tension, the Cold War. Stalin presided over the Soviet post-war reconstruction and its development of an atomic bomb in 1949. During these years, the country experienced another major famine and an antisemitic campaign that culminated in the doctors’ plot.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, he was eventually succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who subsequently denounced his rule and initiated the de-Stalinisation of Soviet society.
Widely considered to be one of the 20th century’s most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist–Leninist movement, which revered him as a champion of the working class and socialism.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Stalin has retained popularity in Russia and Georgia as a victorious wartime leader who cemented the Soviet Union’s status as a leading world power.
Conversely, his regime has been described as totalitarian and has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repression, ethnic cleansing, wide-scale deportation, hundreds of thousands of executions, colonization of Eastern Europe, and famines that killed millions.
