The official date of death of I. V. Stalin in all sources is called March 5, 1953. 4 days before this event, strange events took place at Blizhnyaya Dacha, which was the residence of the head of state. On March 1, Stalin was found on the dining room floor, near a table with telephones. Someone Lozgachev, who served as a security guard at the dacha, immediately called another service.
They were in no hurry to call doctors
Stalin was transferred to his bedroom, but doctors - eminent Moscow professors - were called only the next day. When asked why with such a hesitation, the staff unequivocally answered, they say, they thought that Joseph Vissarionovich was sleeping. This is the first oddity associated with the death of the leader of the USSR. During the transfer of the body, it was impossible not to distinguish between a sleeping person and an unconscious person who had a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage.
It was this diagnosis that was made on March 2 by the doctors who examined Stalin. The right half of the body was paralyzed as a result of changes in the brain. For another 4 days, Stalin was in this state. Late in the evening of March 5, without regaining consciousness, he died. Many researchers believe that the servants of the Near Dacha were so afraid of their patron that they simply did not dare to call the doctors earlier.
Others see this as malicious intent. The helpless state of a dangerous person, causing the strongest fear, is an ideal chance to deal with him. And Stalin's entourage could not fail to take advantage of it. Surely not only maids knew about his condition, but also people more influential in the state.
Was there a chance for salvation
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According to the same doctors, Stalin had no chance to get out of this grave condition. This was announced on the day of the inspection, March 2. If the cause of Stalin's death was an apoplectic stroke, as indicated in official sources, and he had at least a minimal chance of survival, Joseph Vissarionovich with 100% probability cut off his own path to salvation.
The reason lies in Stalin's paranoid behavior, which became more noticeable every year. Seeing around him some traitors, enemies of the people and agents of enemy intelligence, Stalin almost completely destroyed his closest circle - people who, at least out of a sense of duty, could help him.
The day before they were arrested: Poskrebyshev A. N. (close assistant), Vinogradov V. N. (personal doctor), Vlasik N. S. (head of security), Mekhlis L. Z. (one of Stalin's most loyal associates), Kosynkin P E. (commandant of the Kremlin). Many of the named persons were arrested or even "unexpectedly" died just a few weeks before the death of the dictator himself, in February 1953.
Beria's participation
The people arrested and previously impeccably loyal to Stalin were replaced with new employees. It is interesting that the latter were in one way or another connected with the NKVD, which was completely subordinate to Beria. It is quite natural that the latter was well aware of everything that happened at the residence of the head of state.
The fact that not everything was so smooth and clear in Stalin's death and that Beria could have had a hand in the matter is said in the memoirs of the participants in those events and in many historical studies. Svetlana Alliluyeva, the notorious daughter of Stalin, was indignant at why the doctors were not called immediately, as soon as her father had a stroke, on March 1.
Beria answered Alliluyeva that everything was all right, he was just asleep. In the afternoon she tried to call her father, but could not do it. All 3 (!) Phones were busy, which in itself is nonsense. Stalin loved to control everything and no one except himself used these lines. One person couldn't speak on three phones at the same time.
Stroke or poisoning?
After all that had happened, Alliluyeva realized that long before Stalin's death, Beria completely took control into his own hands. Be it next to Joseph Vissarionovich Poskrebyshev or the same Vlasik, the doctors would be at the dacha on March 1, immediately after the discovery of his body on the carpet in the dining room.
All this did not happen, because getting rid of the people loyal to Stalin for Beria turned out to be too simple a task. Then it just remained to take control of everything. For a figure like Beria, it was elementary. He was at that time the second person in the state and instilled awe in every Soviet person.
There is a version that Stalin was poisoned by Beria or someone else from his entourage. The day before the strike, on February 28, Stalin held a banquet with Khrushchev and some other members of the Central Committee and the NKVD, at which the leader felt great. Probably, it was precisely because of the possible poisoning that the doctors were not called immediately, giving time for the poison to dissolve in the body.
One way or another, but Stalin's death was foreseen and even predicted by too many. She was literally expected from day to day. If Beria had not "removed" the aging leader, others would have done it.