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too, forming coalitions and mapping out strategies. They no longer
feared Stalin; they feared one another. They had been carrying the
Kremlin virus of paranoia for a long time, and Stalin's death would not
rid them of it - they would carry it with them to their graves.
They were too impatient to wait for Stalin's death and seized
power before he let off the ghost. They even found the time, while
Stalin was in the throes of agony, to call a joint Kremlin meeting of the
Central Committee, the Council of Ministers, and the Supreme Soviet,
and declare the redistribution of the positions previously occupied by
Stalin alone. Writer Konstantin Simonov, who was present at the meet–
ing, recalls that Stalin's "comrades" did not even bother to conceal their
relief: "They seemed a bit like babies freed of their diapers."
Having announced their ascent to power, they hurried back to the
tyrant's deathbed. Beria was more restless and nervous than the others.
Svetlana Alliluyeva found his demeanor indecent: he was excited to the
extreme, and his face was from time to time distorted by his passions
seeking an outlet. "What were his passions? Ambition, cruelty, shrewd–
ness, and power, power, power ... At that decisive moment, he was
trying so hard to steer the right course - not too obviously crooked,
but crooked just the same!
It
was in his face, as he approached the bed
and stared at the patient's face. Occasionally, Father would open his eyes,
but he must have been unconsciolls, or barely unconscious. Beria's look
seized these befogged eyes: to the last moment, he sought to be 'the
most loyal, the most dedicated.' "
Khrushchev gives a better-rounded description of Beria 's behavior at
Stalin's deathbed (but then his whole memoir is more intelligent than
Alliluyeva's): "The moment Stalin fell sick, Beria became filled with rage
against him. He cursed and mocked him. I couldn't bear to listen to
him.
"The moment Stalin showed signs of consciousness, making it clear
that he would get up and get better, we started shaking his hand. Beria
rushed to Stalin's side, grabbed his hand, and covered it with kisses.
When Stalin lost consciousness again, Beria got up and spat at him. This
was pure Beria . Treacherous even towards Stalin, whom he seemed
to
worship - and spat at the next moment."
Khrushchev also noticed that when the doctors were taking a urine
sample, Stalin tried to cover himself, showing unease, "He seemed to
show signs of being alert."
There is no sworn testimony; there are only witnesses, whose
recollections of the same event may diverge considerably. Stalin went
through horrible agony, especially in his final hours, when his complex–
ion turned dark, his lips grew black, his features changed beyond recog–
nition. He was suffocating slowly - all the symptoms of Cheyne-Stokes
