The Last Days of Stalin

A  gripping account of the months before and after Stalin’s death and how  his demise reshaped the course of twentieth-century history  Joshua Rubenstein’s riveting account takes us back to the second half of  1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin’s murderous  regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected U.S. President  Dwight Eisenhower with armed force, and was also broadening a vicious  campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin’s sudden collapse and death in  March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no  overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in  the twentieth century. The Last Days of Stalin is an  engaging, briskly told account of the dictator’s final active months,  the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international  events in the months after his death. Rubenstein throws fresh light on the  devious plotting of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and other “comrades in  arms” who well understood the significance of the dictator’s impending  death; the witness-documented events of his death as compared to official published versions; Stalin’s rumored plans to forcibly exile Soviet Jews; the responses of Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles to the Kremlin’s conciliatory gestures after Stalin’s death; and the momentous repercussions when Stalin’s regime of terror was cut short.