On this day in 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died at the age of 74.

On February 28, Stalin gathered his inner circle for a night of music, food, and drinks. Among those present were Lavrentiy Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, and Vyacheslav Molotov. The gathering ended at 5 a.m. on March 1, a Sunday, with Khrushchev noting in his diary that Stalin had drunk heavily and was in high spirits as he retired to his quarters.

Unusually, Stalin did not have breakfast nor request lunch or dinner, but his staff, who feared him deeply, only dared to enter his room at 11 p.m. that Sunday, finding him unconscious on the floor in a pool of urine.

In a state of panic and unsure of what to do, the household staff took hours to inform Beria of the situation, and doctors only examined Stalin at 7 a.m. on March 2. According to the medical report, Stalin suffered a stroke as a result of his history of high blood pressure. He had previously experienced a minor stroke and a heart attack.

Despite efforts to save him, Stalin died on March 5 at 9:50 p.m., triggering an internal power struggle.

A system of "collective leadership" was established, initially led by Georgy Malenkov, but he was soon forced to cede power, and Nikita Khrushchev rose to the top position in the party a few months later.

Stalin went down in history as one of the most brutal and bloodthirsty dictators, with historians estimating that around 2 million people were executed by direct order of his office. When considering deaths from targeted extermination policies, such as the Ukrainian Holodomor, the penal colony system known as the Gulag, and forced deportations, the number exceeds 10 million victims.