On March 1, 1953 Joseph Stalin he did not order breakfast. And the maids and guards who made them uncomfortable, but no one dared to enter his room. It was not until around 10 a.m., when a package arrived from the Moscow Central Committee, that his butler decided to force the door of the room. She found him sprawled on the floor, dressed from last night’s meeting and barely able to speak. He died four days later. He was 75 years old.
This Friday it will be 68 years ago one of the bloodiest dictators humanity knew that. Knowing its character, its eccentricities and its actions still arouses 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 which centralized power in its figure and managed to transform semi-feudal Russia at the beginning of the 20th century into an economic and military power that played a decisive role in the 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 he took the pseudonym of Stalin made of steel, in Russian). He was born on December 18, 1878 in what is now Georgia territory. He died at the age of 74.
His first ties to power came after he had ties to the Bolsheviks who promoted the October Revolution of 1917. At first he found himself in the shadow of Lenin, and after his death in 1924, Stalin gained more power through the post of general secretary of the Communist Party. .
Lenin did not trust Stalin, but he took it upon himself to silence him and hide the reports Lenin had written to warn politicians against him. Lenin was already sick and could not defend his position.
With a bold strategy, when Lenin died, Stalin did not hide his praise from him, as he was one of the main leaders of the revolution. This very positively positioned Stalin.
All power. Stalin led millions to death from starvation or forced labor in Siberia.
The position of general secretary helped him identify his most immediate enemies and start his own systematic treatment 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, then ordered his murder in Mexico in 1940.
A battered health
After dying for several days, Stalin died of a stroke on March 5, 1953, it said the official version.
The dictator’s life was marked by numerous 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 cart and broke his arm. This also left prosecutions to him. And as an adult he suffered from psoriasis. But it was after 1950 that his health deteriorated. And his memory since he was 70 it started to fail him and his general physical condition was quite impoverished.
Josef Stalin (left) and Nikolai Bukharin in 1930. Photo: AP
His personal doctor, Vladimir Vinogradov, diagnosed him acute hypertension and started a treatment based on pills and injections and also suggested that he reduce his positions with the government, something that Stalin took very bad, and found it to be a conspiracy on the medical board. He dismissed Vinogradov and decided not to continue his treatment. He ordered him to be tried for conspiracy along with several professionals of his medical corps, but Stalin’s death Vinogradov saved of an almost inevitable murder.
Eccentricities and strength
These kinds of dictators who concentrate so much power have many eccentricities. Joseph Stalin really enjoyed meeting for lunch. Their meals could last up to six o’clock, with games and drinks. And during those lunches, he offered the best of Georgian food, based on garlic, walnuts, plums and passion fruit.
One of his personal chefs was Spiridon Putin, the grandfather of current Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Photo provided by Penguin Random House, featuring Stalin and his daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. Photo: EFE
What Stalin was most interested in about his lunches were the huge meals that went with it liters and liters of vodka. While those close to power drank, Stalin hid brandy and traded it for water, making it easier for him to extract important information from his guests reaching states that were nearly unconscious.
His strategic skills, his imposing personality and, fundamentally, the fear he aroused with the purges made Stalin that real man “made of steel”, feared by friends and enemies. Were famous the exiles to Siberia of his political opponents, where sub-zero temperatures reached excruciating numbers to tolerate. Or the ideas, and in many concrete opportunities, to create concentration camps to kill their enemies.
In recent years, the ancient city of Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd, with the aim of disengaging Russia from its Stalinist past. And it became the venue for several matches of the 2018 World Cup.
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