Mystery Of How Stalin Died Still Unsolved

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28976, 18 August 1959, Page 9

Mystery Of How Stalin Died Still Unsolved

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 17. The “unsolved mystery” of how and when Stalin died is discussed by the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent on Soviet affairs in the light of a version of the event given recently by Mr Khrushchev to Mr Averell Harriman, the former Governor of New York. The question remains unanswered, says the correspondent, even after this conversation.

‘•The Soviet leader gave quite a detailed story of how Stalin died at his dacha near Moscow,” says the correspondent “He said he and his colleagues in the Politburo received news of Stalin’s final stroke from the dacha and he along with Beria, Bulganin and Malenkov went there to be with Stalin in his last hours. ‘‘But official announcements at the time said that on the night of March 2, Comrade Stalin, who was then in his flat in Moscow, suffered a stroke. Stalin’s dacha was some 20 miles from Moscow so that there could hardly be any confusion. ‘‘Moreover, reports of unusual activity in the Kremlin at the time suggested Stalin was lying there.

‘‘lt is possible that Mr Harriman was mistaken in what Mr Khrushchev said. It is hardly possible that the Soviet leader could have made a mistake on such a matter,” says the correspondent. “There is a further discrepancy between Mr Khrushchev’s version and the official one. The first announcement of Stalin’s illness said he had suffered a stroke and

lost consciousness in the early hours of the morning of March 2, but Mr Khrushchev said it was not until that evening that the head of Stalin’s bodyguard informed other members of the Politburo of the dictator’s illness. “Did Stalin’s personal entourage keep news of this death from the highest in the land for a whole day? If so, what was the purpose? Was the all powerful Poskrebyshev, Stalin’s ’personal secretary, who has never been seen or heard of since his master’s death, busy destroying some of the evidence of his crimes?”

The correspondent says Mr Khrushchev’s was not the first “inside” story of Stalin’s death to be circulated. It surely was time that an official version was established before the tracks were too confused.