Edvard Radzinsky, Soviet, Russian writer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and historian
After 60 years, he remains not "very much alive", but more alive than many politicians of today's Russia. 
Why? Probably I should repeat: who is he for young people? He is a myth, akin to the heroes of Homer. 
He lived long ago. What is clear to them? Something like Karamzin's notes about Ivan the Terrible: 
for those generations who lived after Ivan the Terrible, when the groans of victims were not heard anymore, 
when the papers about his atrocities became useless, there were only visible monuments of state power and great victories. 
Therefore, for some young people, this is the pathos, for others -- this is a teaser,
and when their father says that he is good, the young man will explain to him with joy that he was in fact a killer and killed many people.
And vice versa - when he hears that Stalin is bad, he will tell you about the great empire founded by this man. 
Here is the third volume - the book about probably the most mysterious of the years of his reign.
The mystery is not his death, this is a secondary issue. 
The mystery is who he was and why was there a period when all of these campaigns were held,
when the terror began, when two of his successors in the party - Kuznetsov and Voznesenski - were killed? 
Kuznetsov could not stand up - his spine was broken. He was carried out of the hall. 
Why did he do it? Why were Molotov, Mikoyan, all his supporters, Kaganovich, virtually disbanded and waiting? 
There is an explanation for those who like Joseph Stalin - 
he was quite old, and his colleagues, sworn friends of each other, enjoyed this old age, infirmity, his suspicion. 
It was not him leading the country - they led the country, being engaged in their eternal squabble. 
This is one view. And there is an explanation for those who do not love him - 
he again attacked a country that had just survived a terrible war with unprecedented casualties. 
The people who came from the German camps - some of them, and the best part, went to our camps. This could not be explained. 
Well, he was crazy. 
And Khrushchev, continuing this theme in his memoirs, 
wrote that during the last Congress, he spoke for 5-7 minutes, and then came out and said, "I still have power! .." 
And he spoke for 5-7 minutes. 
In fact, Nikita did not tell the whole truth, because immediately after the congress a plenum of the Central Committee was held, 
and governing bodies were elected. 
According to Simonov, who was a member of the Central Committee, our famous novelist, who described everything, 
the plenum lasted 2 hours, during 1.5 hours of which this "physically weak" man, as he was called by Khrushchev, Stalin, spoke. 
He went out, and the audience, as always, burst into applause, 
but he sat the audience down with his hand and began to speak. 
He spoke without notes and without his usual humor, and his speech was terrible. 
He first attacked Molotov, and then turned to Mikoyan, and his speech became even more inexcusable. 
He spoke about the fact that Lenin in "terrible years" - 
they did not understand what kind of "terrible years" he meant after the Great Victory - 
in the "terrible years" was active, unlike those "defeatists." 
The Bureau, as it was described, was pale, they were all waiting for the next prey of this "physically weak" person. 
Further, he did what he often did during his life. He said he wanted to resign, that he had become too old,
and as he used to do his job well, he could not serve as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. 
And Simonov stunningly describes how Malenkov began to rise in terror and whispered so that the whole room could hear: "Please stay!" 
And the whole room unanimously shouted, "Please stay!". 
This was "physically weak" Stalin. 
However, in this book there was an amazing description of this "Autumn of the Patriarch" when in the morning, looking at the clock - it was eight -
he asked his guards, "Eight in the evening or in the morning?" - because he went to bed in the morning. 
After all these feasts, described not only by his daughter but also in those memoirs that I have read, 
after these feasts he inexorably continued to work, because in fact this "physically weak" man was involved in everything. 
These were his secret notebooks - it's a miracle, there was everything there!
He was engaged in the length of recreation at school, 
in the opinions on his beloved protagonist Ivan the Terrible during the discussion of the play of Alexei Tolstoy at the Maly Theater, 
in the opinions of foreigners, who were led to a high building, and it was explained to them that workers would live there - 
their words were also in those notebooks. The entire industry, any movement... 
In addition, he was engaged in the award of the prize named after him, 
and it was not just a presentation of awards. 
Simonov, a participant, describes how it was held. 
Zlobin was awarded the Stalin Prize, and Malenkov rose and said, "You know, we cannot do this. Comrade Zlobin behaved badly during the war." 
Horror appeared on people's faces. 
Everyone understood, they knew for sure that this was a test - how would they vote? 
And Stalin in his soft boots walked out of their sight, and he asked, "So what - will we forgive Comrade Zlobin or not?" 
They did not know. They were silent, because the wrong word in this time of terror meant... 
you know, people lived not by what they got, how much money they had. 
They lived and guessed if they would live tomorrow or not.
They were silent. He asked again: "Will we forgive him or not?" And then there was his voice: "Let us forgive him". 
And Zlobin, instead of going to labour camps, got a high position, because he was a god, you know? 
And so, when he was described - read Slutsky's poem:
"We all walked under a God,
The God was too close to us.
I was walking along Arbat
And there I saw his five cars.
His guards were cringing with fear
Wearing mouse grey coats.
They had a bone in their throats,
And everything was far and near.
The God was wise and severe,
We saw his all-seeing eyes.
We all walked under God.
The God was too close to us".
That's for sure. That's him at this time. 
After his death his famous "black book" of which much has been written was in his dacha. 
There were the results of the election of the XVIII Congress of the governing bodies of the party. 
And all of them were marked with crosses and questions because it was the start of the future repressions, 
because this man, who was confused about the time, who told the guards some ridiculous stories that he invented, how he rode on horses, all these heroic stories - 
in fact he was a wise old bird of revolution who sat out in his dacha, having made a decision on the apocalypse. 
And this book is about why he did it.
