VLADIMIR. SOLOVYOV
477
syndrome, caused by a massive brain hemorrhage. And then, according to
his daughter, at one point, almost at the last moment, he suddenly
opened his eyes and slowly looked over the crowd at his deathbed, one
by one.
"It was a horrifYing look, " Alliluyeva writes, "whether it was filled
with madness or with horror at death and the strange faces of the
doctors who leancd over him. And then - it was both inexplicable and
horrifYing, I still don't know which, but
I'll
never forget it - then he
raiscd his left hand, which he could still move, and either pointed vaguely
upwards, or threatened all of us. The gesture was incomprehensible but
menacing, and I don't know whom or what it was in reference to. The
next moment, his soul, with a final effort, broke free of his body."
Here is how Khrushchev describes the same scene: "Once during the
day, I don't remember exactly when, Stalin seemed to regain conscious–
ness. I could tell from his expression, although he could not talk. He
raised his left hand and pointed either to the wall or to the ceiling. A
sort of smile showed on his lips ... you know what he was pointing at?
There was a picture on the wall, a reproduction of a painting clipped
out of the
Ogonyok
magazine.
In
the picture, a little girl was feeding a
lamb out of a horn. At that time Stalin was being spoon-fed, and he
must have been pointing at the picture and trying to smile: Look,
I'm
just like that little lamb.... "
Khrushchev's description is probably more trustworthy. Alliluyeva
chose the standard way of describing a tyrant's death, used in literature
since time immemorial, from Russian medieval chronicles to Shakespeare's
historical dramas. Stalin's future denouncer treated the dying tyrant as a
human being and explained his last gesture in human terms.
Not one of Stalin's allies came to his help or called for a doctor.
And when the doctors came, it was too late.
Translated from the Russian
by
David Gurevich
