After the grandiose international celebration of his seventieth birthday, in 1949-1950, Stalin’s health was now deteriorating rapidly, but he was not ready yet to relinquish his official duties.
When, in October 1952, Stalin suddenly convened the Nineteenth Party Congress, after an unprecedented hiatus of thirteen and a half years, he intended it to be his retirement swan song. He was old and very sick, and had less than five months to live.
Thirty years! Yes, his reign was shorter than the reigns of his two illustrious precursors Ivan IV and Peter I, but, looking at it from a different angle, Comrade Stalin, nearing the age of seventy-three, had outlived each of those two by a good two decades.
At the Congress, he had some important personal business to attend to. Back in 1922, he started his tenure by renaming the suddenly all-important title of Executive Secretary into General Secretary, emphasizing his unquestionable uniqueness. But now, in 1952, he was closing his thirty-year page of Russian History by retiring that title. If you want something to be done right, do it yourself! To make certain that there would be no more “General Secretaries” after him, Stalin not only abolished the title, introducing the brand new title of First Secretary, but he also became the first “First Secretary” himself, cementing the deal for posterity. (But then came one of those subtle historical ironies, which tend to elude the attention of historians. Comrade Khrushchev, the Stalin-basher, implicitly followed his Master’s wish, and dutifully kept the new title of First Secretary for himself. Then, after him, came Brezhnev, ostensibly attempting to patch up Stalin’s tattered reputation, and mindlessly destroyed Stalin’s historical uniqueness by reinstating the title of General Secretary for himself.
And finally, as to the circumstances of Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, my father ruled out poisoning, or any other act of violence. It was a "natural death" all right, but with a passive conspiracy on the part of his three disloyal lieutenants: Beria, Khrushchev and Malenkov. Stalin was having a serious medical paroxysm, collapsing on the floor of his office; he was in urgent need of medical help. These three denied him doctors’ attention, just leaving him there, on the floor, to die.
(Postscript: Soon thereafter, one of the three, the "dark horse", was to kill the strongest of the three and demote the third one, and later take on the whole Presidium of the CPSU, on his way to a decade-long absolute rule. You can mock him and despise him all you like, but one thing you cannot take away from Nikita Sergeyevich.--- He was a consummate political animal, and what he accomplished in the 1950’s in Soviet domestic politics, could not be done by any other player of the time.)
When, in October 1952, Stalin suddenly convened the Nineteenth Party Congress, after an unprecedented hiatus of thirteen and a half years, he intended it to be his retirement swan song. He was old and very sick, and had less than five months to live.
Thirty years! Yes, his reign was shorter than the reigns of his two illustrious precursors Ivan IV and Peter I, but, looking at it from a different angle, Comrade Stalin, nearing the age of seventy-three, had outlived each of those two by a good two decades.
At the Congress, he had some important personal business to attend to. Back in 1922, he started his tenure by renaming the suddenly all-important title of Executive Secretary into General Secretary, emphasizing his unquestionable uniqueness. But now, in 1952, he was closing his thirty-year page of Russian History by retiring that title. If you want something to be done right, do it yourself! To make certain that there would be no more “General Secretaries” after him, Stalin not only abolished the title, introducing the brand new title of First Secretary, but he also became the first “First Secretary” himself, cementing the deal for posterity. (But then came one of those subtle historical ironies, which tend to elude the attention of historians. Comrade Khrushchev, the Stalin-basher, implicitly followed his Master’s wish, and dutifully kept the new title of First Secretary for himself. Then, after him, came Brezhnev, ostensibly attempting to patch up Stalin’s tattered reputation, and mindlessly destroyed Stalin’s historical uniqueness by reinstating the title of General Secretary for himself.
And finally, as to the circumstances of Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, my father ruled out poisoning, or any other act of violence. It was a "natural death" all right, but with a passive conspiracy on the part of his three disloyal lieutenants: Beria, Khrushchev and Malenkov. Stalin was having a serious medical paroxysm, collapsing on the floor of his office; he was in urgent need of medical help. These three denied him doctors’ attention, just leaving him there, on the floor, to die.
(Postscript: Soon thereafter, one of the three, the "dark horse", was to kill the strongest of the three and demote the third one, and later take on the whole Presidium of the CPSU, on his way to a decade-long absolute rule. You can mock him and despise him all you like, but one thing you cannot take away from Nikita Sergeyevich.--- He was a consummate political animal, and what he accomplished in the 1950’s in Soviet domestic politics, could not be done by any other player of the time.)
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