On March 1, 1953, Josep Stalin he did not ask for breakfast. And the maids and guards were disturbed by this, but no one dared to enter their room. It was recently around 10 pm, when a package arrived from the Moscow Central Committee, that his butler decided to force the door of the room. He found him lying on the floor, with the clothes he had worn from the previous night’s meeting, and almost unable to speak. He died four days later. He was 75 years old.
This Friday marks the 68th anniversary of the death of one of the bloodiest dictators who knew Humanity. Knowing the character, his eccentricities and his actions still arouse curiosity today.
Stalin was general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1952 and chairman of the Council of Ministers between 1941 and 1953, but mainly he was a dictator who centralized power in his figure and managed to turn semi-feudal Russia in the early twentieth century into an economic and military power that played a decisive role in Allied victory during World War II.
Historical photo. Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference. Photo: Clarín archive
His real name was Joseph Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili, but adopted the pseudonym of Stalin (made of steel, In Russian). He was born in what is now Georgia territory on December 18, 1878. He died at the age of 74.
His first links with power came after being associated with the Bolsheviks who revolutionized October 1917. At first he was in the shadow of Lenin and after his death in 1924, Stalin seized more power through the post of general secretary of the Communist Party.
Lenin did not trust Stalin, but he took care to silence him, hiding reports that Lenin had written to alert politicians about him. Already ill, Lenin could not defend his position.
With a bold strategy, when Lenin died, Stalin did not hide praise from him, as he was one of the most important leaders of the revolution. This same positioned Stalin positively.
All the power. Stalin killed millions of people from starvation or forced labor in Siberia.
The post of general secretary served him to identify his most immediate enemies and begin with his own systematic purge plans, As was the case with Leon Trotsky, who was very critical of Stalin. The dictator first ordered his exile from the Soviet Union in 1929, and then determined his assassination in Mexico in 1940.
A damaged health
After agonizing for several days, Stalin died of a stroke on March 5, 1953, according to the official version.
The life of the dictator was marked by countless health problems. At the age of seven he suffered from smallpox, a disease that left marks and scars all over his face. At the age of 12 he had an accident with a horse-drawn carriage and had his arm broken. This also left him with sequels. And as an adult he suffered from psoriasis. But it was from 1950 onwards that his health began to decline. And since the age of 70 his memory it began to fail and his general physical condition was quite impoverished.
Josef Stalin (left) and Nikolai Bukharin in 1930. Photo: AP
His personal physician, Vladimir Vinogradov, diagnosed him acute hypertension and began treatment with pills and injections and also suggested that he reduce his duties in government, which Stalin did. took very badly, and has considered that it was a conspiracy in the medical council. He threw Vinogradov and decided not to continue his treatment. He was ordered to stand trial for conspiracy alongside several professionals from his medical corps, but Stalin’s death saved Vinogradov of an almost inevitable murder.
Eccentricities and power
Such dictators who concentrate so much power have a lot of eccentricities Joseph Stalin really enjoyed meeting for lunch. Their meals could last up to six hours, With games and drinks. And at these lunches he offered the best of Georgian food, based on garlic, walnuts, plums and granadilla.
Among his personal chefs was Spiridon Putin, the grandfather of current Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Photograph provided by Penguin Random House, in which Stalin and his daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva appear. Photo: EFE
What Stalin was most interested in about his lunches were these huge tablecloths that they were accompanied with liters and liters of vodka. While his circles close to the Power drank, Stalin disguised and changed the brandy for water, which made it easier for him to extract important information from his guests who were reaching states close to unconsciousness.
His strategic abilities, his imposing personality, and fundamentally the fear he generated with purges, made Stalin this true man “made of steel,” feared by close circles and enemies. celebrities were the exiles in Siberia of their political opponents, where sub-zero temperatures reached unbearable numbers to tolerate. Or the ideas, and on many concrete occasions, of creating concentration camps to kill their enemies.
For some years now, the old city of Stalingrad has been renamed Volgograd, with the intention of wanting to detach Russia from its Stalinist past. And it became the venue for several matches of the 2018 World Cup.
Clarín writing
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