The Last Days of Stalin

Joshua Rubenstein’s work, a distinguished American specialist in Russian and Eurasian studies, is a gripping account of the months before and after Stalin’s death—and how it changed the course of twentieth-century history. Stalin’s sudden illness and death in March 1953 came as a complete surprise to many. The tyrant was full of grand plans: he was preparing to issue an armed challenge to the newly elected U.S. president, Dwight Eisenhower, and, within his own country, he initiated a brutal campaign against Soviet Jews—after which he intended to carry out a purge within the ranks of the Communist Party’s top leadership. Now Stalin’s long-time “comrades” faced a host of difficult dilemmas—also in the countries of the socialist bloc, where protest sentiments were beginning to make themselves felt.