WI: Joseph Stalin commits suicide in 1941

There are many interesting stories OTL about the end of Beria. One is Zhukov led a squad of armed Field Marshals to physically arrest Beria. Another is a tank regiment with its infantry company deployed on the Kremlin grounds minutes before the arrest. That a nation wide communications disruption was imposed to prevent KGB action. ect... ect... All those, true or not indicate the level of fear Beria created.
 
"Everybody was afraid of Beria" is a piece of Soviet propaganda made up after Beria's death. There is no fact-based evidence for that. Beria was to Khrushchev what Trotsky was to Stalin: the ultimate villain to blame for everything.
 
Where is Malenkov? Could he have his religious awakening forty years early and create a Putin style regime of forced national unity?
 
Stalin strikes me as a man who was deep down very lonely and miserable. He was incredibly powerful, but utterly paranoid and it never looked like he overcame his abusive background. So I could buy something like this being the straw breaking the camel's back

I'm not sure there was enough substance or humanity to the man beneath the skin to be lonely.
 
That means that the order Stalin gave when he regain his mind of not a step back is not implemented and the Red army do not stay and fight to the last bullet and make the Germans suffer for every ground taken.

But if Germans do not take massive amount of POWs that mean they race forward without regards to their supply issues. Instead of a massive encirklement of the Kiev forces they are allowed to live to fight another day.
 
You’d never find out he killed himself. Russia and Soviets would never open the archives on the issue and official narrative would be a German assassin striking at the same time as their army is advancing into Soviet Union. We’d be debating how in the world the incompetence and traitor riddled abwehr managed to execute such a coordinated and complex operation and even get their agent out with no trace.

Soviets would almost definitely fare worse than OTL. Rule by commitee rarely works out and especially poorly in military matters where decisions need to be quick and decisive. Stalin held the Soviet Union together trough terror. It is highly doubtful sacrifices could have been sustained to the level they were without cracks showing up.
 
At his first wife’s funeral in 1907 Stalin said “This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity.”
I vaguely remember reading that. However, unless it is in a personal journal nobody else would see, I would hesitate to take Stalin at his word. It sounds like the kind of edgy chest-pounding that a revolutionary might say to his fellow revolutionaries during that time.

It's been a while since I read a biography of the man, but I don't remember bumping into much evidence of normal human connections. About the best I remember I could say for Stalin is that he might have cared marginally more if his daughter died than he'd cared about his son's death.
 
It's been a while since I read a biography of the man, but I don't remember bumping into much evidence of normal human connections. About the best I remember I could say for the man is that he might have cared marginally more if his daughter died than he cared about his son.
They were definitely there, having red Montefiore's de facto two-volume biography of him last year. But at a certain point, the Revolution predominated.

There's also the argument that his wife's suicide pushed him over the edge. YMMV.
 
On a positive note the Tatar Genocide and the Stalingrad Affair may not happen in this TL as the post-Stalin leadership will probably be less willing to commit genocide and purges out of sheer paranoia

Soviets would almost definitely fare worse than OTL.
Maybe, but i don't think it would be that worse. OTL Stalin basically let Zhukov run the show after it became clear how bad the situation was and out of his deep he actually was.

ITTL the leadership may accept this reality sooner allowing Zhukov and the other generals more freedom to operate, especially if Beria ends up being purged
 
It's definitely Molotov who will have the top job. He was Prime Minister for 10 years before, and is First Deputy now. Nobody will question his rising in status. In no time he will be also elected a secretary of the Central Committee.
But will he be called Vozhd, like Stalin? I doubt it.
 
How will old Valtchev, sorry for the spelling do in the big seat? Does he have the stomach for it? I wonder if Beria will leave him alone.
 
The Soviets would never admit to their Glorious leader shooting himself out of cowardice(Thats what It would be seen as by most people if the truth got out) and would probably say he was killed by borgueise western assassins trying to stop the revolution or some other bollocks shortly after sending the few people who knew the truth who weren't part of the clique that took power to a nice warm Gulag in Siberia.
I think Nazi assassins would be better. That will create a "rally around the flag" kind of movement, at least for the short term.
 
Malenkov, Beria and Voznesensky are still only candidates to Politburo, junior members. The have much work to do before being promoted.
 
I think Nazi assassins would be better. That will create a "rally around the flag" kind of movement, at least for the short term.
This. Throw in an operation where some poor schmucks - sorry, crack Abwehr agents - are caught and shot "resisting arrest" near a neutral border to bring the story to a close and that'll be it. It'll probably even be widely believed, at least for a while.
 
Stalin's suicide most probably will not be made public, so as not to undermine morale of the Red Army and Soviet people in general. But for the same reason assassination fairytale is out of the question. It sows fear and doubt, not patriotic feelings.
 
So my guess is that the Soviets will jut say Stalin died of vague natural causes. I still see this having a bad effect on morale. Germany is sweeping through the USSR and their leader dies as it starts. It'll be interesting if a new "troika" styled government emerges, but someone will be on top. Who would it be? Beria? God help us.
 
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