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Dear comrade Giovanni,
from comrade Vijay in India I got this article published some time ago
in Revolutionary Democracy.
He also published very good article about Vlora committee and fight
against Berisha. 
As concerns 50th death day of comrade J.W. Stalin one has to remember
what were the victorious principles
he fought for. Those were the base of victory of war against
imperialism. Not the ridiculous "help" of western allies nor his
"genius" of warfare as some revisionists tell the world today, but the
iron unity of workers, peasants and soldiers. He was the great Marxist -
Leninist to draw the consequences of defeats of proletarian revolution
such as Paris Commune, defeat of workers and soldiers councils 1918 in
Germany and bloody defeats in Russia. For the first time in history
proletarian revolution succeeded with a gigantic victory. The one to
continue this was comrade Enver Hoxha in Albania! Both Russia and
Albania could self-reliantly stand against Imperialism for years. This
in contrast to those social fascist countries calling themselves
socialist today and sucking $$ and Euros from capitalists and oppressing
their proletariat.
Rot Front!
L


Verehrte Redaktion,
Ihr Historiker Kopp präsentiert in der Sendung im 1. zum 50. Todestag
von J.W. Stalin Dinge, die diametral zu Befunden vom Historiker
Radzinsky stehen.
Was ist der Zweck solcher Konstruktion?
Doch machen Sie sich selber ein Bild, was Sputnik zum 45. Todestag von
J.W. Stalin schrieb:
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
R. Stranz

On the 45th Death Anniversary of Stalin

 The Last Mystery of Stalin


Edward Radzinsky

The first accounts by actual witnesses of Stalin's death were published
in the book about Stalin written by Dmitri Volkogonov. Based on what he
had been told by
Stalin's security guard, A. Rybin, Volkogonov wrote: 'Stalin died at the
Nearer Dacha. One of his guards, Starostin, found Stalin lying on the
floor after a stroke...'

But by that time, I already knew that Volkogonov was wrong about
Starostin. I was lucky to have found and read some unpublished memoirs
called An Iron Soldier
by the same A. Rybin in the Museum of the Revolution. In the manuscript
there were some quite mind-shattering pages.

 The Master's Incredible
Order

Rybin himself had long since -- in 1935 -- (in fact 1955, ed. R.D.)
stopped being one of Stalin's security guards. But on March 5, 1977 (yet
another anniversary of
Stalin's death) he managed to get together with a few of the guards who
had been there at the Nearer Dacha when Stalin died. Based on the
stories of those guards
(officially they were referred to as 'Stalin factotums'), Rybin wrote
his account. First the general thing:

'On the night of February 28/March 1, Politburo members (Central
Committee Presidium Bureau members, to be more precise.--Ed.) watched a
film in the Kremlin.
After the film they went to the dacha. Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov and
Bulganin arrived at the dacha and stayed there till four in the morning.
Chief factotum M.
Starostin and his assistant, V. Tukov, were with Stalin that day. The
dacha commandant, Orlov, had a day off, leaving his assistant, Pavel
Lozgachev, in charge.'

Matrena Butusova, the maid, was also at the dacha.

After the guests had left, Stalin went to bed. And he never came out of
his rooms again.

Apart from the general account, Rybin took the statements of each of the
guards -- Starostin, Tukov and Lozgachev -- individually. M. Starostin's
was the shortest:
'Starting the hour 19:00, we were concerned about the quiet in Stalin's
rooms... The two of us (Starostin and Tukov) were afraid to enter the
rooms.' And so they sent
Pavel Lozgachev in. It was he who discovered Stalin lying on the floor.

But what really struck me, were the words of V. Tukov and P. Lozgachev.
It appeared that Starostin had omitted a remarkable detail from his
story: before going to
bed. Stalin gave an unprecedented order to his guards.

Tukov: 'After the guests had left, Stalin said to the staff and security
guards: "I am going to bed, I will not be calling you any more, you can
go to bed, too".'
'STALIN HAD NEVER BEFORE,' writes Tukov, 'GIVEN SUCH AN ORDER.'

So, the Master who had always been obsessed with security, suddenly and
FOR THE FIRST TIME tells his own guards to go to bed, leaving the rooms
practically
unguarded. And that was the very night he had a stroke!

Moreover, the next account by THE CHIEF WITNESS, Lozgachev, who was the
first to see him on the floor after the stroke, gave the very same
words: 'I', SAID
STALIN, 'AM GOING TO BED AND YOU SHOULD GO TO BED, TOO...' 'I CANNOT
RECALL ANY PREVIOUS OCCASION', said Lozgachev further on,
'WHEN STALIN GAVE SUCH AN ORDER: "EVERYBODY OFF TO BED."

So I decided to meet Lozgachev.

I rang him many times -- no, actually -- many dozens of times. He was
not sure, and put it off again and again. Their fear would stay with
them till their graves. 'The
secret facility', to which they were assigned - that is how come they
called each other 'the assignees', - still ruled their lives. But my
persistence won out. Lozgachev
gave in.

 Who Gave the Order?

In his small flat in Krylatskoe (now a desirable residential area in
Moscow,--Ed.) I put down his statements sitting in the tiny kitchen.

Lozgachev: 'On the night of March 1, I was on duty at the
dacha....Stalin had the Assignee-in-Chief, Starostin, his assistant,
Tukov, myself and Matrena Butusova
with him that day. That night some guests were to arrive at the dacha.
'Guests' was what Stalin called the Politburo members who came to see
him. As usual, when
there were people coming, we discussed the menu with him. So on the
night of February 28/March 1, our menu included the grape juice Majari
-- I think, three
bottles...Majari was a young grape wine, but the Master called it
'juice' because of the low alcohol content. So that night, the Master
called me and said 'Give us the
juice, a couple of bottles each'...Who was there that night? His usual
guests were Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and a man with a beard --
Bulganin. A while later he
called me again: 'Bring some more juice.' Well, we did. All was quiet.
We drew no criticism. Then it was four in the morning...Shortly after
four we ordered the cars to
drive up to the door. When the Master was seeing guests off, the
Assignee had to be with him -- it was his job to close the doors behind
them. And so the Assignee,
Ivan Vassilievich Khrustalev, closed the doors and turned to face the
Master. STALIN SAID TO HIM: "WHY DON'T YOU ALL GO TO BED. I won't be
needing
anything else. I am also going to bed."

'And so Khrustalev came back and said happily: "Well, fellows, this is
the first time ever... and he repeated the Master's words to us"...'

Here Lozgachev added: 'And indeed, IN ALL THE YEARS THAT I HAD WORKED
THERE, THAT WAS THE ONLY TIME WHEN THE MASTER SAID: "GO
TO BED"... NORMALLY HE WOULD ASK "ARE YOU TIRED?", HIS EYES BORING RIGHT
THROUGH YOU. So that you instantly forgot about sleep. But
that time, why, we were so happy to hear that order that we went to bed
right off.'

'Wait a second,' I asked him, 'but what has Khrustalev got to do with
it? You never mentioned him being at the dacha...'

Lozgachev: 'The Assignee Khrustalev was at the dacha till 10 in the
morning, then left to rest, Mikhail Grigorievich Starostin replaced
him.' (this is why Starostin never
told Rybin about that strange order of Stalin's -- he simply never heard
it.--E.R.).

So, that night at the dacha they only drank light wine -- no brandies or
liquors that might have provoked an illness. The Master, according to
Lozgachev, 'was
well-disposed'. While, when he was ill, also according to Lozgachev,
'his moods varied -- you had better stay away'.

But that was not the main thing. The main thing was the phrase 'Why
don't you go to bed'. It was 'the first time' Lozgachev had heard the
Master say that. TO BE
MORE PRECISE, NOT THE MASTER, BUT KHRUSTALEV. IT WAS KHRUSTALEV WHO
RELAYED THE MASTER'S ORDER and left in the morning.
That phrase violated the time-honoured rite: it sent everybody off to
bed, that is, left Stalin's rooms unguarded. And it told them not to
watch one another. And that
was precisely what happened.

 'No Movement'

Lozgachev: 'The next day was Sunday. At ten, as usual, we were gathered
in the kitchen, just about to plan things for the day.'

So, complying with the order Lozgachev had slept till 10 a.m. And
naturally, he did not know what his colleagues had been doing during the
night. For example, what
had Khrustalev himself, the man who had related that order so incredibly
untypical of the Master, done? And who, the following morning, went,
home.

Lozgachev: 'At ten there was no movement' (the phrase we used for when
he was asleep) in his rooms. And then it struck eleven -- and still no
movement. At twelve --
still none. That was already strange: usually he got up between 11 and
12, but sometimes he was awake as early as 10. Soon it was one -- still
no movement. His
telephones may have rung, but when he was asleep they were normally
switched through to other rooms.

'Starostin and I were sitting together and Starostin said: 'There's
something wrong. What shall we do?'

'And indeed, what were we to do -- go in to him? But he had always told
us categorically: if there was 'no movement', we were not to go in. Or
else we'd be severely
punished. So there we were, sitting in our lodge (connected with his
rooms by a 25-metre corridor), it was already six in the evening, and we
had no clue what to do.
Suddenly the guard outside rang us: 'I can see the light in the small
dining room.' Well, we thought, thank God, everything was OK. We were
all at our posts, on full
alert, ready to go, and then, again... nothing. At eight -- nothing. We
did not know what to do. At nine -- 'no movement'. At ten -- none. I
said to Starostin: 'Go on, you
go, you are the chief guard, it's your responsibility.' He said: 'I am
afraid.' I said: 'Fine, you're afraid, but I'm not about to play the
hero.'

'At that moment some mail was delivered -- a package from the Central
Committee. And it was usually our duty to hand over the mail. Mine, to
be more exact. 'All
right, then,' I said. 'Wish me luck, boys'. We normally went in making
some noise -- sometimes even banged the door on purpose -- to let him
know we were coming.
He did not like it if you came in quietly. You had to walk in with
confidence, sure of yourself, but not stand too much at attention. Or
else he would tell you off:
'What's all this good soldier Schweik stuff?'

'Well, I opened the door, walked loudly down the corridor. The room
where we put documents was right next to the small dining room. I went
into that room and
looked through the open door into the small dining room and saw the
Master lay on the floor, his right hand out-stretched...like this
(Lozgachev stretched out his
half-bent arm--E.R.). I froze. My arms and legs refused to obey me. He
had not yet lost consciousness, but he could not talk. His hearing was
fine, he'd obviously
heard my footsteps and seemed to be trying to summon me to help him.

'I ran to him and asked: "Comrade Stalin, what's wrong?" He'd wet
himself and he wanted to pull something up with his left hand. I said to
him: "Should I call a
doctor?" and in reply he just mumbled: "Dz...Dz...", incoherently.

'On the floor there was a pocket-watch and a copy of Pravda. And the
watch showed, when I looked at it, half past six. So this had happened
to him at half past six.
On the table, I remember, there was a bottle of Narzan mineral water. He
must have been going to get it when the light went on. While I was
talking to him, which must
have been for two or three minutes, suddenly he snored quietly... I
heard this quiet snoring, as if he was sleeping.

'I picked up the receiver of the intercom, my hands shaking and sweat
beading on my forehead, and phoned Starostin: "Come to the house,
quick." Starostin came in,
and stood petrified. The Master had lost consciousness. I said: "Let's
lay him on the sofa, he's not comfortable on the floor." Tukov and Motia
Butusova came in
behind Starostin. Together, we put him on the sofa. I said to Starostin:
"Go and phone everybody, and I mean everybody." He went off to phone,
but I did not leave
the Master. He lay motionless, except for snoring. Starostin phoned
Ignatiev at the KGB, but he panicked and told Starostin to try Beria and
Malenkov. While he was
phoning, we got an idea -- to move him to the big sofa in the large
dining room. There was more air there. Together, we lifted him and laid
him down on the sofa, then
covered him with a blanket -- he was shivering from the cold. Butusova
unrolled his sleeves.

'At that point Starostin got through to Malenkov. About half an hour had
gone by when Malenkov phoned us back and said: "I can't find Beria."
Another half hour
passed, Beria phoned: "Don't say anything to anybody about Comrade
Stalin's illness".'

 The Lie

So, an hour passed, and no one came to the dying man, the former Master.
Only the assignees sat by him and waited.

Nikita Khrushchev was the only one of his comrades-in-arms to describe
the night of the tragedy in detail in his Memoirs. And he described it
very strangely:
'Suddenly Malenkov phoned: "Look, the security boys have phoned from
Stalin's place (he gave their names). They are very worried, something's
happened to Stalin.
We've got to go there. I've already phoned Beria and Bulganin. You go
straight there. I'm coming, and they'll be along shortly."

'I immediately ordered my car... We agreed not to go straight to Stalin,
but first stop by the security lodge.'

And so, according to Khrushchev, all four of the previous night's guests
left AT ONCE.'

Khrushchev continues: 'We dropped in at the guard house and asked:
"What's happening?" They explained: "Usually, by this time, 11 in the
evening, Stalin has
always phoned, summoned us, ordered tea... But not this time. The guards
said that they'd already sent Matrena Petrovna Butusova in to find out
what was the
problem (the maid was not at all intelligent, but honest, and devoted to
Stalin). She came back and said: "Comrade Stalin was lying on the floor,
asleep, and there was
a puddle under him, he'd wet himself. The guards had lifted Stalin and
laid him on the sofa in the small dining room. When they told us that
something untoward had
happened and that he was asleep now, we decided it would be a mistake to
go in... while he was in such an unseemly state. So we all went back
home."

So, according to Khrushchev, they arrived RIGHT AWAY. But, finding out
about the master's unseemly state, the four tactfully left again. But in
fact, what happened
was entirely different.

Lozgachev: 'At 3 o'clock in the morning, I heard a car approaching.
(This was about four hours after our first phone call. Stalin had lain
without help for about four
hours -- and only now a car was coming.--E.R.). Malenkov and Beria
arrived. (Khrushchev was not there.--E.R.) Malenkov had squeaky boots. I
remember how he
took them off and stuck them under his arm. He came in: "What's up with
the Master?" He was lying there, snoring gently... Beria swore at me:
"What are you
panicking for? The Master is sound asleep. Let's go, Malenkov!"

'I explained everything to him - how he'd been lying on the floor and
how he'd just gone 'dz'. Beria said to me: "Don't panic, and don't
bother us. And don't disturb
Comrade Stalin." And they left.'

And so, having resolved that the seventy-four-year-old man, who had been
lying for four hours in his own urine, was "sleeping peacefully", his
comrades-in-arms left,
leaving the Master once again without help.

Lozgachev: 'And again, I was left alone. I thought I should call
Starostin again and have him alert everybody again. I said: "If you
don't, he'll die, and our heads will
roll. Phone them and tell them to come".'

>From the Memoirs of N. Khrushchev: 'AFTER A SHORT TIME there was another
phone call. Malenkov phoned and said: "Comrade Stalin's guards have
called
again. They say that there really is something wrong with Comrade
Stalin. Though Matrena Petrovna said that he was sleeping peacefully,
when we sent her in, I don't
think it's normal. We need to go out again." We decided, the doctors
should be summoned.'

Lozgachev: 'Sometime after seven in the morning Khrushchev turned up.
(That was when he first made an appearance - E.R.). Khrushchev: "How's
the Master?" I
said: "He's very poorly, there's something wrong." And I told him the
whole story. Khrushchev said: "The doctors are on their way." Well, I
thought, thank God.
Between half past nine and nine (after he had lain for 13 hours without
help!--E.R.) the doctors arrived.'

We would never know what really happened that night in the Master's
locked rooms. But there are only two possible scenarios:

either the Master had lost his mind and did give the order sending
everybody to bed, and then had a stroke in the night, or...

or Khrustalev had been ordered by somebody to send his staff off to bed.
So that he -- or that somebody else, a stranger -- could be alone with
the Master.

After the arrest of Vlasik (who for years had been Stalin's Chief
Guard--Ed.) Beria, naturally, recruited his people in the guard that was
left without any supervision. He
had to make the most of any chance to survive.

Did Khrustalev go inside his room? Or was it somebody else? Did they
give Stalin, who was sleeping off the Majari, some injection? Did the
injection provoke the
stroke? And, feeling bad, did the Master wake up and try to save
himself? But the injection was effective -- and he could only make it to
the table?

If that was how it was, then we can understand the astounding daring of
the comrades-in-arms: on hearing what had happened they did not hurry to
help. As if they
knew for certain WHAT HAD HAPPENED and that the Master was already
harmless.

But even in the first scenario, too, the four calmly and CONSCIOUSLY
left Stalin to die without any help.

So they KILLED him in both the scenarios. Killed him cowardly, just as
they lived. And Beria had perfect right to say to Molotov the words,
which the latter used to
repeat later: 'I've taken care of him.'

 Chronicle of the Last
Hours

Lozgachev: 'The doctors were all scared stiff... They stared at him and
shook. They had to examine him, but their hands were too shaky. To make
it worse, the
dentist took out his plates, and dropped them by accident. He was
afraid. Professor Lukomsky said: 'We must get his shirt off and take his
pressure.' I tore his shirt
off and they started taking his blood pressure. Then everybody examined
him and asked us when he had collapsed. We thought: that was it, the
end. They'll just put us
in the car and there you are. But no, thank God, the doctors came to the
conclusion that he'd had a haemorrhage. Then there were lots of people,
and, actually, from
that moment we did not have anything to do with it. I stood in the door.
People -- the newly arrived -- crowded around behind me. I remembered
Minister Ignatiev was
too scared to come in. I said to him -- go on, come in. That day, the
second of March, they brought Svetlana.'

Svetlana writes in her book: 'They also called Vassily, but he was drunk
and soon left and joined the guards. He screamed in their office that
his father had been killed
-- till he went back home. They put on leeches and ex-rayed his lungs.
Then there was a special session of the Academy of Medical Sciences to
decide what to do.
They brought an iron lung machine. The huge contraption just stood
there, idle, while the young specialists stared wildly.'

Leaving Bulganin with Stalin, the comrades-in-arms went back to Moscow
-- to his office.

While the Master was dying, his office continued functioning. According
to the "Stalin's Visitors Register', on March 2, at 10:40, the three --
Beria, Malenkov, and
Khrushchev -- arrived back from the dacha and got together in his
office. They were joined by the disgraced Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshilov,
Kaganovich and the other
members of the Central Committee Presidium -- second-rank functionaries.
And, evidently, started to divide the power. After that, Beria, Malenkov
and the
emboldened Voroshilov and Mikoyan went off to the dacha to watch over
the dying man.

At half past eight in the evening, according to the Register, they all
gathered again in Stalin's office and continued to divide the power. In
the morning out to the dacha
again. And that went on every day.

But they did want the helpless, still breathing dead man.

Professor Myasnikov: 'Malenkov let us know that he hoped the doctors
could prolong the life of the patient long enough. We all understood
that some time was
needed to get the new government together and prepare public opinion.

'Stalin sometimes groaned. At one point, only for a brief moment, his
conscious gaze seemed to go round the faces by the bed. Then Voroshilov
said: "Comrade
Stalin, we, all your true friends and colleagues, are here. How are you
feeling, dear friend?" But his eyes were devoid of all expression
already. We spent all day March
5 injecting things, and writing press releases. Politburo members walked
up to the dying man. The lower ranks just looked through the door. I
remember that
Khrushchev was also by the doors. In any case, the hierarchy was well
observed -- Malenkov and Beria came first. Then Voroshilov, Kaganovich,
Bulganin and
Mikoyan. Molotov was not well, but came over two or three times, for a
short time.'

ÁMolotov: 'They told me to come out to the dacha... His eyes were
closed, and, when he opened them and tried to speak, Beria would come
running and kiss his
hand. After the funeral Beria laughed: "The light of science,
ha-ha-ha".'

The fifth of March came.

Svetlana: 'Father was dying horribly and hard.. His face went dark and
changed... his features were becoming unrecognisable.. The agony was
terrible. We could see
how it was stifling him.. At the last moment he suddenly opened his
eyes. It was a horrid look -- either mad, or angry and full of the
horror and sort of either pointed
up somewhere, or shook his finger at us all... The next moment his soul,
having made its last effort, broke away from his body.'

He died at 21:50.

 'Khrustalev, the car!'

Svetlana: 'Beria was the first to run out into the corridor, and in the
silence of the hall, where everybody was standing around quietly, came
his loud voice ringing with
open triumph: "Khrustalev, the car"!'

In this account by Svetlana, the memorable thing is the triumphant voice
of Beria: Beria addressing Khrustalev! From all the assignees he was
choosing Khrustalev!

Beria was in a hurry. The rest of the comrades-in-arms stayed behind.
But then, after standing around for a while, they also rushed back to
the Kremlin. To take over
the power. A joint session of the Central Committee, the Council of
Ministers and the Supreme Soviet Presidium was in progress in the
Kremlin at the time. The
session was to legalise all the arrangements that had been already made.

The writer Konstantin Simonov, a member of the Supreme Soviet, like all
the country, believed that he was still alive. '...I went into the room
40 minutes early, but
everybody was already there. We all believed that somewhere nearby in
the Kremlin, Stalin was lying unable to regain consciousness...
Everybody sat in total silence.. I
would never have believed that three hundred people could have sat elbow
to elbow in such silence for a whole 40 minutes. Never in my life will I
forget that silence.
Those, who were on the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee,
as well as Molotov and Mikoyan came in through the back door. Malenkov
gave an
introductory address. The message was this: Comrade Stalin continued to
struggle with death, but, even if he won, his condition was so
critical... It was impossible to
leave the country without leadership. Therefore it was necessary to form
a new government.'

So they did. There was no point in pretending. And when, after the
session. Simonov came to the Pravda office, the Editor-in-Chief's
telephone was ringing. When the
man put down the receiver, he said to Simonov: 'Stalin is dead.'

Lozgachev: 'We were told they were taking him to the hospital for
embalming. Nobody summoned us to say good-bye to the dead man, we went
ourselves. Svetlana
did not stay long. Vassily was also there. I would not say he was drunk,
but clearly agitated. Then the car with the stretcher came, they put him
on it and carried him
away -- I saw it myself. And that was it... There we were, standing and
looking on.'

I asked Lozgachev: 'They say the Master had a bruise on his body, like
somebody had pushed him?' 'There wasn't any bruise, and couldn't be any,
nobody had
pushed him,' he said. 'KHRUSTALEV WAS THERE WHEN HE WAS BEING EMBALMED
and told us that they'd found something in his lungs, some burnt bit.
May have got in with the oxygen, when it was pumped in. Otherwise, there
was nothing.'

I inquired what became of the 'assignees'.

Lozgachev: 'They got rid of everybody. They'd summon you and send you
away from Moscow, 'immediate departure, with the family'. Starostin,
Orlov and Tukov
decided to go and see Beria. To ask him not to send them away. So they
went into his office and he said: 'If you don't want to be out there,
you'll be down there.' And
he pointed down to the ground. So away they went.'

'And what became of Khrustalev?' I asked.

Lozgachev: 'Khrustalev fell ill and died soon (!!!--E.R.)... Orlov and
Starostin were given jobs in Vladimir, and I stayed at 'the facility' --
the facility was empty, with
me as superintendent.'

Courtesy: 'Sputnik', Moscow, June 1997.

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