Russia’s Communist Party Asks Authorities to Investigate ‘Western Involvement’ in Stalin's Death

The “Communists of Russia” party (CPKR) has urged Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the “possible involvement of Western intelligence services” in the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who died 71 years ago today.

The party involved should not be confused with the official Russian communist party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), whose nominee Nikolay Kharitonov is one of the three approved candidates for this year’s presidential election alongside the incumbent, Vladimir Putin.

In a comment to Russian state media RIA Novosti, CPKR Chairman Sergei Malinkovich said contemporary accounts talked of potential poisoning attempts by Western agents.

“On the 71st anniversary of the death of J.V. Stalin, the CPKR appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the FSB with a request to check the possible involvement of Western intelligence services in the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, since many testimonies from Stalin’s contemporaries speak of the possible poisoning of the leader of the Soviet peoples by agents Western influence,” said Malinkovich.

The official cause of Stalin’s death was a “massive hemorrhagic stroke involving his left cerebral hemisphere,” but some theories remain that a “poison,” such as warfarin (a blood thinner), was administered by his close associates as part of a “palace coup.”

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Stalin, officially the General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, was the leader of the USSR between 1924 and 1953, and he has remained a controversial figure in the post-Soviet states.

While some have described him as a ruthless dictator who was directly responsible for the death of millions during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, as well as the Great Purge, which led to widespread persecution and torture of intellectuals, some in modern-day Russia and former Soviet states continue to regard him as a hero who led the nation to victory in WWII.

CPKR’s claims are nothing new, however, as it is common in both the USSR and modern-day Russia to brandish “foreign influence” as an omnipotent malevolent force.

One notable example would be the execution of Lavrentiy Beria, the chief of Soviet security, and the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) under Stalin – notorious for his own unmatched cruelty – was condemned to death by his associates following the death of Stalin after being accused of being a “foreign agent.”