Joseph Stalin

=== 1950–1953: Final years ===
{{see also|Doctors' plot}}
In his later years, Stalin was in poor health.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=571}} He took increasingly long holidays; in 1950 and again in 1951 he spent almost five months on holiday at his Abkhazian dacha.{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=572|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=195}} Stalin nevertheless mistrusted his doctors; in January 1952 he had one imprisoned after they suggested that he should retire to improve his health.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=571}} In September 1952, several Kremlin doctors were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill senior politicians in what came to be known as the [[doctors' plot]]; the majority of the accused were Jewish.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=309|2a1=Etinger|2y=1995|2p=104|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3p=576|4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4p=307}} He instructed the arrested doctors to be tortured to ensure confession.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=309|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2pp=307–308}} In November, the [[Slánský trial]] took place in Czechoslovakia as 13 senior Communist Party figures, 11 of them Jewish, were accused and convicted of being part of a vast Zionist-American conspiracy to subvert Eastern Bloc governments.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=308|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=307}} That same month, a much publicised trial of accused Jewish industrial wreckers took place in Ukraine.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=308}} In 1951, he initiated the [[Mingrelian affair]], a purge of the Georgian branch of the Communist Party which resulted in over 11,000 deportations.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=304–305}}

From 1946 until his death, Stalin only gave three public speeches, two of which lasted only a few minutes.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=560}} The amount of written material that he produced also declined.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=560}} In 1950, Stalin issued the article "[[Marxism and Problems of Linguistics]]", which reflected his interest in questions of Russian nationhood.{{sfn|Service|2004|pp=564–565}}
In 1952, Stalin's last book, ''[[Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR]]'', was published. It sought to provide a guide to leading the country after his death.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=307|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2pp=566–567}} In October 1952, Stalin gave an hour and a half speech at the Central Committee plenum.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=578}} There, he emphasised what he regarded as leadership qualities necessary in the future and highlighted the weaknesses of various potential successors, particularly Molotov and Mikoyan.{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=579|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=306}} In 1952, he also eliminated the Politburo and replaced it with a larger version which he called the Presidium.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=305–306}}

====Death, funeral and aftermath====
{{Main|Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin}}
[[File:Stalin's casket on howitzer carriage draught by horses.jpg|thumb|Stalin's casket on howitzer carriage drawn by horses, caught on camera by U.S. assistant army attaché Major Martin Manhoff from the embassy balcony]]
On 1 March 1953, Stalin's staff found him semi-conscious on the bedroom floor of his [[Kuntsevo Dacha]].{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=311|2a1=Volkogonov|2y=1991|2pp=571–572|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3pp=582–584|4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4pp=142, 191}} He had suffered a [[cerebral haemorrhage]].{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=312}} He was moved onto a couch and remained there for three days.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1pp=311–312|2a1=Volkogonov|2y=1991|2p=572|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=142}} He was hand-fed using a spoon, given various medicines and injections, and [[Leech therapy|leeches were applied to him]].{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=312}} Stalin died on 5 March 1953.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=313|2a1=Volkogonov|2y=1991|2p=574|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3p=586|4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4p=313}} According to Svetlana, it had been "a difficult and terrible death".{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=313|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2pp=313–314}} An autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage and that his cerebral arteries were severely damaged by [[atherosclerosis]].{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=189}} It has been conjectured that Stalin was murdered;{{sfn|Service|2004|p=587}} Beria has been suspected of murdering him, but no firm evidence has appeared.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=312}} According to a report published in ''The New York Times'', Stalin was poisoned with [[warfarin]] by his own Politburo members.<ref name="Wines_2003">{{cite web
| last = Wines
| first = Michael
| title = New Study Supports Idea Stalin Was Poisoned
| website = The New York Times
| date = 5 March 2003
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/world/new-study-supports-idea-stalin-was-poisoned.html
| access-date = 24 September 2022
| archive-date = 10 May 2022
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220510000601/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/world/new-study-supports-idea-stalin-was-poisoned.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

Stalin's death was announced on 6 March.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=588}} His body was embalmed,{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=588|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=314}} and then displayed in Moscow's House of Unions for three days.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=317}} The crowds of people coming to view the body were so large and disorganised that many people were killed in a [[crowd crush]].{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=588|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=317}} At the funeral on 9 March, Stalin's body was laid to rest in [[Lenin's Mausoleum]] in Red Square; hundreds of thousands attended.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1991|1p=576|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=589|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=318}} That month featured a surge in arrests for "anti-Soviet agitation", as those celebrating Stalin's death came to police attention.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=319}} The Chinese government instituted a period of official mourning for Stalin's death.{{sfn|Li|2009|p=75}} A memorial service in his honour was also held at [[St George the Martyr, Holborn]] in London.{{sfn|Evans|1953}}

Stalin left neither a designated successor nor a framework within which a peaceful transfer of power could take place.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=310}} The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as the party's dominant figures.{{sfn|Service|2004|pp=586–587}} The system of [[Collective leadership in the Soviet Union|collective leadership]] was restored, and measures introduced to prevent any one member from attaining autocratic domination.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=312}} The collective leadership included eight senior members of the [[Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], namely [[Georgy Malenkov]], [[Lavrentiy Beria]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], [[Kliment Voroshilov]], [[Nikita Khrushchev]], [[Nikolai Bulganin]], [[Lazar Kaganovich]] and [[Anastas Mikoyan]].{{sfn|Ra'anan|2006|p=20}} Reforms to the Soviet system were immediately implemented.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=591}} Economic reform scaled back the mass construction projects, placed a new emphasis on house building, and eased the levels of taxation on the peasantry to stimulate production.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=315}} The new leaders sought rapprochement with Yugoslavia and a less hostile relationship with the U.S.,{{sfn|Service|2004|p=593}} and they pursued a negotiated end to the Korean War in July 1953.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=316}}<ref name="cohen13">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first= Warren I. |title=The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations |volume=4: Challenges to American Primacy, 1945 to the Present |chapter=The Korean War and Its Consequences |pages=58–78 |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CHO9781139032513.006 |isbn=
9781139032513}}</ref> The doctors who had been imprisoned were released and the anti-Semitic purges ceased.{{sfnm|1a1=Etinger|1y=1995|1pp=120–121|2a1=Conquest|2y=1991|2p=314|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=314}} [[Amnesty of 1953|A mass amnesty]] for certain categories of convicts was issued, halving the country's inmate population, while the state security and Gulag systems were reformed, with torture being banned in April 1953.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=315}}