Was Stalin Poisoned?

I read that a russian historian (in 2003) was able to get Stalin’s death certificate, and the report by his doctors mentioned syptoms consistent with warfarin poisoning . Now, Stalin a had a LOT of enemies, and Kruschev mentioned (n his memoirs) that Beria was afraid that Stalin was preparing a new terror purge cycle, such as went on in the mid-1930’s (20 million people died or were shipped off to Siberia). Beria himself was overjoyed when Stalin slipped into a coma, only to almost die from fright (when Stalin opened his eyes).
anyway, has any proof ever come to support this claim? has Stalin’s body ever been autopsied.
warfarin is a common rat poison-why wouldn’t the KGB have used something more sophisticated?

One can only hope.

Why? Is there a serious risk of him coming back?

Or is warfarin poisoning simply an excruciatingly agonizing way to die, and you think Stalin deserved someting excruciatingly agonizing?

The short answer is we will never really know.

Beria would later claim he did it.

Warfarin would have been undetectable in Stalin’s mineral water, why get too complicated?

Remember, too, the politbureau waited 24 hours after Stalin was discovered before they ordered something done. Let’s be honest, this guy had major PR problems.

Neither.

He was an incredible human monster, & the fact that somebody found the courage to stop him, by whatever means, re-affirms my faith in human nature.

He was a nightmare, & somebody ended that nightmare.

Whether he suffered or not is irrelevant, because he could never suffer enough to atone for everything he did.

I hate to break it to you, but Beria was certainly no saint either. In fact, he was head of the NKVD and directly responsible for carrying out many of the deeds ordered by Stalin, so most would consider him a willing accomplice rather than a reluctant subordinate. If he indeed did poison Stalin, it is virtually guaranteed to have been for political resons and not moral considerations.

Whenever a huge strongman dies, no matter how old or decrepit he is, there are always rumors of poisoning. There certainly were with Chairman Mao; some people just could not believe a sick 82-year-old could otherwise drop dead.

There’s a great scene in the Robert Duvall movie about the Soviet strongman. Stalin is on his deathbed and closes his eyes, and keeps them shut. Someone whispers (I’m paraphrasing here), “I think he’s dead.” Beria spits and says, “Good riddance, the monster!” Then Stalin opens his eyes and looks at Beria, whose own eyes bug out. He drops to his knees, grabs Stalin’s hand and tearfully - and completely insincerely - says, “Forgive me, comrade!” :stuck_out_tongue:

On his deathbed Stalin muttered, “There are wolves out there howling for my blood.” He paused for a few seconds and added, “Exterminate all the wolves.”

minor hijack/ I read once that most of Moscow thought Stalin was certifiably insane when he died, any truth to that?/hijack

Well, he was none too pleased!

The rumor going around Moscow at the time of Stalin’s death was that he was getting ready to start another major purge. And one of the supposed target was going to be the Soviet medical establishment. So some people have speculated that Stalin’s doctors might have decided to kill him in self-defense.

In one fantasy/scifi book I read - one of Lumley’s series, maybe? - it was strongly implied that Stalin had become a vampire, and was staked through the heart by his Kremlin minions out of self-protection. :eek:

So?

Who said Beria dosed him?

Could be anybody in his bodyguard or personal staff.

Or his doctors.

It is worth noting that the Russian people still worship Stalin. One of the reasons that Putin is so popular is that he steered the country back toward its Stalinist roots. I guess they pine for the good old days.

Some Russians do; not all. I’d agree that Russians overall tend to prefer strong leadership from the Kremlin, but that doesn’t make them all - even today - Stalinists.