Today in History - March 5: Notorious Soviet dictator purportedly murdered to prevent war with US

Joseph Stalin, the murderous dictator of the Soviet Union, died on March 5, 1953, after suffering a massive stroke.

Stalin had given strict orders not to be woken up after a big night of drinking with his inner circle several days earlier.

A housekeeper did not enter his room until 11pm the following night, to find him unconscious and unresponsive.

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Despite this, he was not examined by doctors until 7am the next morning.

He was treated for two days, including with leeches to decrease his blood pressure.

But he died after never regaining consciousness.

Doctors' notes kept secret for decades showed he had suffered symptoms that indicated possible warfarin poisoning.

A large dose of the tasteless and colourless blood thinner may have been slipped into his drink the night he suffered the stroke.

Suspicions have fallen on the USSR's spymaster Lavrenti Beria, the ruthless right-hand-man of Stalin.

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Beria reportedly told Foreign Secretary Vyacheslav Molotov of the poisoning two months after Stalin's death, in a bid to avert a war with the United States.

Beria was part of the jostle among Stalin's inner circle to rise to the top job.

But other members of the Politburo conspired against him, and he was arrested and executed later that year.

It was later revealed Beria was a serial rapist who had likely murdered a number of his victims.

Beria would pick up women on the streets of Moscow, before taking them to his dacha to rape them.

The next morning they would be handed a bunch of flowers as they left. If they refused the flowers, Beria would have them arrested.

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His sex crimes were suspected to be well-known among senior Soviets. When Stalin himself learned his teenage daughter was at Beria's home, he called and demanded she leave immediately.

The first American to find out of Stalin's death was purportedly country singer Johnny Cash, then a Morse code operator on a West German military base.

Cash would often detail how he received the news, though doubts have been cast as to the veracity of his story.

Nikita Khrushchev would take power after Stalin's death.

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