Calculating Russian ruler Joseph Stalin’s victim count is tough. Official records suggest at least 3 million people died from execution and in prison camps during his reign, but those numbers are likely incomplete, and millions more certainly died in famines caused by his policies. Modern historians peg the number of deaths at between 15 million and 20 million.
Stalin himself lived to the ripe old age of 73. After a late-night dinner and movie with some of his political colleagues, he went to bed in the wee hours of March 1, 1953, and never came out of his room in the morning. His guards, under orders not to disturb their leader, were worried, but too afraid to disturb him. It wasn’t until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. that night that Stalin’s underlings gathered the courage to check on him. He was found on the floor, soaked in urine, having suffered a major stroke, but still alive.
A stopped watch on the floor suggested that Stalin had fallen at 6:30 in the morning. He lingered until March 5. Of his last moments, his daughter Svetlana wrote, “At the last moment he suddenly opened his eyes. It was a horrible look — either mad, or angry and full of fear of death. … Suddenly he raised his left hand and sort of either pointed up somewhere, or shook his finger at us all. … The next moment his soul, after one last effort, broke away from his body.”