Stalin's Regime Ends

On February 28th of the next year, 1953, Stalin was having dinner with Beria, Molotov, Khrushchev and Bulganin. Stalin discussed the status of the war in Korea and talked more about starting another purge of medical doctors he suspected of conspiracy. At 4 am he dismissed the other men and retired to his bedroom. Before he could reach the bed he collapsed on the floor.

He was discovered the next day, but he never completely recovered consciousness and died a few days later.

Beria immediately worked to bolster his strength and added military and police to his security forces. He also took the hydrogen bomb project under his own control and crossed off Malenkov's name from a document authorizing building the hydrogen bomb.