Was Joseph Stalin assassinated?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Based on a thread on AAD asking if you believe in any conspiracies.

[NeverAgain]

No, he faked his own death to go on to blow up the twin towers.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

He certainly had a lot of enemies, and very few allies at the end. So he might have been. At any rate, he didn't die a day too early, and if he was assassinated the culprit did the peoples of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, who suffered under his brutal cruelty, a huge favour.


   

[Beet]

He certainly had a lot of enemies, and very few allies at the end. So he might have been. At any rate, he didn't die a day too early, and if he was assassinated the culprit did the peoples of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, who suffered under his brutal cruelty, a huge favour.    

He was certainly a madman, but when he took power in the late 1920s, the Soviet Union was a backwards agrarian nation, torn by war, in a world of modern industrial states. When he died, it was a mighty imperial superpower controlling half of Europe, with ideological influence over nearly 1/3 of the world population, possessing atomic and hydrogen bombs, the best airfighters in the world (MiG-15 and MiG-17), the largest land army, and within 4 years of overtaking the U.S. to launch the space race. Yes, he was terrible, but from a realpolitik perspective he was quite successful. This is his biggest difference from Hitler, who left his country amputated and partitioned.

Edit: And the amazing part of it is that all of this he achieved despite having virtually the entire class of talented party members shot, as well as half his country scorched during WWII.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I'm sure the millions of people who were exterminated due to his actions were delighted by the industrial development.

Considering even Lenin, and his successors as Soviet leaders denounced him as a mad man who was too cruel to lead Russia and the communist party, it's amazing that supposedly sane people will defend his "accomplishments" today.

If economic progress and development requires the mass murder and suffering of millions of people, it isn't worth it. Hitler also improved the economic and industrial standing of his nation at the start of his reign, yet I also think his death was a great service to the world.     

[The Dowager Mod]

No, but Lenin was.

[MATTROSE94]

He certainly had a lot of enemies, and very few allies at the end. So he might have been. At any rate, he didn't die a day too early, and if he was assassinated the culprit did the peoples of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, who suffered under his brutal cruelty, a huge favour.


   

Imagine if Joseph Stalin managed to live another 9 years and was still the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[Baltimoreian]

Honestly, if anybody thought that Joesph Stalin was assassinated by anybody, then that wouldn't happen since he has special guards. Not to mention that the whole Soviet Union was brainwashed by his propaganda and sh**t. So, there could be a 99% chance that he wouldn't be assassinated at all.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Here's the answer.

[Cory]

Isn't it speculated that Beria was behind it somehow?

[twistory123]

yes

[MisSkeptic]

I doubt he was killed by anyone or a group of conspirators. However, it's not impossible because a lot of different people hated him and could have killed him. Also, the Soviet reports could have left out valuable information about his death that could explain him not dying of natural causes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

That seems plausible.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I've done a lot of reading on this and I don't think there's a conclusive proof. He might very well been a victim of his own paranoia (guards afraid to piss him off by entering his room, while he laid without any help after suffering a stroke. That would be quite an ironic death).

[Lincoln Republican]

Stalin often used doubles during public appearances in order to avoid assassination, however, during the period you are referring to, near the end of life, I do not believe he was assassinated.

I doubt it could have been covered up so well all these years.

[Cory]

Stalin often used doubles during public appearances in order to avoid assassination, however, during the period you are referring to, near the end of life, I do not believe he was assassinated.

I doubt it could have been covered up so well all these years.

Yeah. I could see that if there was even vague prof that Stalin was assassinated it could be used as cover to purge the hardliners and the NKVD faction from the party.

[The Mikado]

With a sick old man, a subtle poisoning and death by natural causes can be effectively indistinguishable, especially if people have a vested interest in a certain narrative in the autopsy.

Put me down as "impossible to know." If it was an assassination, it was the perfect assassination. I do tend to suspect that there's an element of wishful thinking at play, some people just can't accept that such a heinous man died of natural causes at the end of his natural lifespan.