he who rules alone dies alone - joseph stalin
His entire life Josef Stalin looked for power. He wanted to be admired, omnipotent, unbeatable. He died at his bedroom in his summer house, in February 1953, after he was found lying on the floor, in his own urine. His right hand spread forward. It was an early afternoon hour, but his watch showed 6:30. Around him stood and stared his loyal aides, who arrived only four hours after being called.
And they stared.
And stared.
Stared for 48 hours, at Stalin vomiting, squirming and mumbling, before they called for help.
But wait a second with the mercy and shock, because Stalin also stared, at people before their death, stared and ordered. Stalin was responsible for the death of around 20 million people. He led a totalitarian regime, one that gets into each aspect of the citizen’s lives, and blind admiration to the leader.
That’s what Stalin wanted. To be a sole, adored ruler. But it’s hard to be a sole person, when there are other people in the world. So Stalin decided to solve this problem. In a place where most people don’t have a solution, murderous dictators do. And so he decided to decrease the population around him. A system of purges, that makes the environment clean of everyone the leader doesn’t want around.
He started with the army. Then the party. Every person who wanted power, whose opinion was opposed to that of Stalin, was assassinated or imprisoned. It was planned and systematic, done with show trials, with false accusations, mostly treason. Sometimes they admitted to things they never did. This way, Stalin managed to replace all of the state’s leadership, and instead put in place his own people. It was a regime of terror, that prevented people from opposing to Stalin because of fear. The arrests, convictions and killings all were officially justified, and kept the just, powerful image of the dictator leader. There are quite a few pictures that were taken, and after the purge of the characters in them, were also deleted and republished, as if these people never existed.
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| That's how people were erased from history: on the top left you can Nikolai Antipov, Joseph Stalin, Sergey Kirov and Nikolai Shvernik. You can see how people were deleted from the picture, until Stalin is left alone |
Stalin controlled all areas of communist Soviet Union. His party, of course, was the only allowed one. He represented the state, everything that is good and right. He meddled in the way scientific research should be conducted. In official parades, of the Soviet youth movement for instance, his picture was carried by the marchers. Posters that elevate him in front of the people were hanged. The most common newspaper was Pravda, who served the regime. It published articles and news items glorifying him, attributing divine characters to him. Literature and journalism, art and science, were all recruited in the service of the regime and the leader. In fact, the term cult of personality was made about Stalin, by Khrushchev. The entire communist world was swept away by this cult.
Stalin had so much power, but it wasn’t enough for him. When someone didn’t look in his eyes while talking, he’d ask him why. He trusted no one, not even people he’s worked with for years. He always suspected others for being two-faced, not loyal. He’s quoted as saying to Khrushchev - I trust no one. Sometimes I don’t even trust myself. And so, even when the Bolshevik revolution was completed, even when he accomplished his economic and social plans, it wasn’t enough for him. He tailored the state with a system of informings, with the state being above everything, the people, the family. Every neighbour, every co worker, your children, could inform on you, if you were suspected with a deed or a saying against the government. The state was above everything, and Stalin was admired as the representation of the state and the greater good. This is why people justified his deeds: if their relative was arrested or executed, it has to be justified, Stalin is the greater good, and wouldn’t do anything so horrible like arresting someone for no reason.
Accordingly, he didn’t only suspect the party members. He kept suspecting long after he “cleansed” his party, and didn’t hesitate to arrest his family: he imposed a system of surveillance after his daughter Svetlana; arrested Maria and Alexander Svanidze, his first wife’s brother and his wife, their son Jonik, and Anna, his second wife’s sister. Even from prison, Maria asked to let Stalin know about the situation, because if he knew what was going on, he’d stop it. Even Molotov’s wife, his foreign minister, was sent to the Gulag, the infamous soviet work camp.
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| One example of many of a propaganda poster, from soviet Azerbaijan. The writing: Long Live the Great Stalin! |
In 1951, at age 72, his personal doctor, Vladimir Vinogradov, advised him to slow down his intense working pace, due to his medical condition. In reaction, Stalin sent him to the gulag with the accusation of spying for the British.
He arrested his new doctor, Miron Vovsi, in January 1952, with eight other doctors. Six of them were Jewish, which led to a wave of anti semitism in the Soviet Union. They were accused of cooperating with an organization in the United States against USSR, trying to kill the Soviet leaders.
Being close to Stalin was the most prestigious place, where you could get better living conditiond, money and power. It was also the most dangerous place.
Stalin died of a brain stroke, and even now it’s not fully clear what happened at the last day of his life, and whether he died naturally or was murdered. He was widowed twice at that point, and lived alone with no family. On the night before the stroke, on February 28, he invited his usual gang for an evening of hanging out at his summer house: Georgy Malenkov, his deputy; Nikolai Bulganin, the Minister of Defense; Nikita Khrushchev, who was close to him and called to Moscow to balance powers between Malenkov and Beria; and Lavrenty Beria, the commander of the secret police. He drank and talked until dawn, and it seemed that he focused that night on the different traitors, and his friends started to feel threatened. In the official report, it was written that he went to bed and told the secret police officers who were there to secure him, to go as well. It is known now, that it was Beria who gave the order to the officers in Stalin’s name, and they never spoke to him. The officers were so thrilled with the rare opportunity to sleep, that they didn’t ask questions and went right away.
The next morning, Stalin didn’t wake up. The officers, who were already awake, suspected that something was wrong, but were ordered to not interrupt him when he’s asleep or in his room. And everyone knew what happens to those who break the orders, or just land on Stalin’s wrong side. Only at around 11:00 pm he received mail, and that was their excuse to get in. Stalin lied on the floor, his clothes soaked in urine. On the table there was an empty glass of water, which suggested that Stalin probably got up to get water, and then had a stroke. The officer asked Stalin if he was OK, and Stalin answered with an enclear grunt. What to do? they called Melankov and Beria, who arrived only four hours later, and did nothing. Beria insisted that Stalin was only sleeping. It was the time of the jewish doctors trials. His personal doctor was in prison. Everyone knew what happened to Stalin’s last doctors, when he wasn't pleased with his treatment. Only at 7:00 am the next day, they made a call to the Health Minister, who sent doctors to the summer house. The doctors were frightened, were too scared to touch him, their hands were shaking. Only after it was clear there was no way of saving him, his daughter Svetlana was called, and was the only relative by his side at his death. Stalin started to vomit blood, squirm, unresponsive. On the 5th of March stalin had his last breath.
Testimonies say that Beria, who was the closest to Stalin at the time, displayed happiness inappropriate to the situation. The formal report claimed that Stalin died of a hemorrhage in his brain, and that’s true. But other symptoms don’t comply with the natural death claim, and another one says that it was Beria who poisoned Stalin the night before his death. But I don’t know if that matters; if he was deliberately poisoned by those close to him, or they just didn’t want to save him. Either way, there was no doctor around to save him, or that wanted to. Stalin lived his entire life trying to gain total power, and he died surrounded by people who were scared of him and wished for his death.
Stalin didn’t see his subordinates as human beings, used them for his own good, assassinated them if he felt like it, called them when he wanted to and got rid of them when he had enough. He was responsible for the death of millions of his own people, and history judges him as one of the greatest villains we’ve ever known. He got what he wanted - ultimate power. But he didn’t predict the moment he'd be lying on the floor unable to move, subjected to the mercy of others. They obeyed him because of fear, but didn’t try to save him when he needed them the most. And so, he brought the same fate on himself, as he brought on the people he arrested and killed. A lonely death, around people who want you dead. That can save you, but are not interested in doing so. Strong, omnipotent, but alone, so alone.
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