Plot summary

In the Soviet Union, everyone is used to Jozef Stalin's reign of terror, with daily lists of arrests for torture, banishment, or execution. When Stalin calls a radio producer for the recording of a 1953 concert, he realizes nobody was recording it and hastily arranges for a second turn, keeping even the audience in, despite having to replace the knocked-out director and bribing the soloist, who slips in a note reviling Stalin for having her kin killed. Reading that, Stalin has a fatal cardiac arrest. It takes ours till anyone dares enter his closed office, then ministers argue how to handle his death and struggle to find competent doctors--most having been purged--and are startled: the diagnosis is coma without realistic recovery prospect. Still political alliances are forged for the next Communist reign, including roles for Stalin's arrogant daughter Svetlana and maverick military son Vasily, both overambitious. The formal deputy presides over funeral and formal power transfer preparations but especially security chief Beria and Crutchev plot to become the one purging rather then purged, while inconvenient witnesses are on the next execution lists.—KGF Vissers