Editing Joseph Stalin (section)

=== 1950–1953: Final years ===
[[File:Vrachi-timashuk.png|thumb|upright|Decree dated 20 January 1953 awarding Lydia Timashuk the [[Order of Lenin]] for "unmasking doctors-killers". Revoked after Stalin's death later that year.]]

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}} Stalin ordered that the doctors be tortured to ensure confessions.{{Sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=309|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2pp=307–308}} In November, the [[Slánský trial]] took place in Czechoslovakia, in which 13 senior Communist Party figures, 11 of them Jewish, were accused and convicted of being part of a vast Zionist-American conspiracy to subvert the Eastern Bloc.{{Sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=308|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=307}} The same month, a much publicised trial of accused Jewish industrial wreckers took place in Ukraine.{{Sfn|Conquest|1991|p=308}} In 1951, Stalin initiated the [[Mingrelian affair]], a purge of the Georgian 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, he gave an hour and a half speech at the Central Committee plenum.{{Sfn|Service|2004|p=578}} There, he emphasised what he regarded as necessary leadership qualities, and highlighted the weaknesses of potential successors, notably Molotov and Mikoyan.{{Sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=579|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=306}} In 1952, he eliminated the Politburo and replaced it with a larger version he named the Presidium.{{Sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=305–306}}

====Death, funeral and aftermath====
{{Main|Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin}}
[[File:Stalin's funeral procession entering Manezhnaya Square from Okhotny Ryad.jpg|thumb|Stalin's funeral procession on [[Okhotny Ryad (street)|Okhotny Ryad]]]]
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 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}} during which he was hand-fed using a spoon and given various medicines and injections.{{Sfn|Conquest|1991|p=312}} Stalin's condition continued to deteriorate, and he died on 5 March.{{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}} An autopsy revealed that he had died of a [[Intracerebral hemorrhage|cerebral haemorrhage]], and that his cerebral arteries had been severely damaged by [[atherosclerosis]].{{Sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=189}} 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 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, attended by hundreds of thousands, Stalin was laid to rest in [[Lenin's Mausoleum]] in Red Square.{{Sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1991|1p=576|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=589|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=318}}

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 [[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 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 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-1390-3251-3 |volume=4: Challenges to American Primacy, 1945 to the Present |pages=58–78 |chapter=The Korean War and Its Consequences |doi=10.1017/CHO9781139032513.006}}</ref> The imprisoned doctors were released and the antisemitic 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 convicts was issued, halving the country's inmate population, and the state security and Gulag systems were reformed.{{Sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=315}}