Were there ever any attempts to assassinate Stalin whilst he was in power?

looney_tunes

"To mobilize the Soviet people for his campaign, Stalin ordered TASS and Pravda to issue stories along with Stalin's alleged uncovering of a "Doctors Plot" to assassinate top Soviet leaders, including Stalin, in order to set the stage for show trials. ... It has been suggested that Stalin was assassinated. The ex-Communist exile Avtorkhanov argued this point as early as 1975. The political memoirs of Vyacheslav Molotov, published in 1993, claimed that Beria had boasted to Molotov that he poisoned Stalin: "I took him out." Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that Beria had, immediately after the stroke, gone about "spewing hatred against [Stalin] and mocking him", and then, when Stalin showed signs of consciousness, dropped to his knees and kissed his hand. When Stalin fell unconscious again, Beria immediately stood and spat. In 2003, a joint group of Russian and American historians announced their view that Stalin ingested warfarin, a powerful rat poison that inhibits coagulation of the blood and so predisposes the victim to hemorrhagic stroke (cerebral hemorrhage). Since it is flavorless, warfarin is a plausible weapon of murder. The facts surrounding Stalin's death will probably never be known with certainty." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin Jan 15 10, 1:50 AM

star_gazer

Operation Zeppelin was the name of an elaborate German plan to assassinate Joseph Stalin in Moscow. It was conceived in July 1944 when Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who succeeded Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA, asked the Luftwaffe's KG 200 unit if they could land a man within 60 miles from Moscow, far in advance of the German front lines at that time. The plan involved a secret flight of a German transport plane to a landing in the countryside near the Soviet capital. An assassin — a former Russian prisoner of war who demonstrated his loyalty — would be provided with a motorcycle and the weapons needed to kill Stalin as he drove through the city. The assassination team members had been thoroughly trained, well-armed and provisions for escape were provided for, as well as a hideout secured for them in Moscow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Zeppelin_(Assassination_Plot) Jan 15 10, 6:24 AM

star_gazer

According to Zarya Vostoka, the largest building at Sukhum on the Black Sea, the State Theatre, is now the scene of a propa ganda trial of 47 accused which is filling columns in all Caucasian newsorgans. According to the State prosecutor, President Nestor Lakoba of the Abkhaz Soviet Republic originated the conspiracy to assassinate Joseph Stalin in 1933 and the would-be assassins were disgruntled agents of the Dictator's own dread secret police, the Gay-pay-oo. They opened fire too soon on a launch carrying Stalin across Pitsunda Bay and it was able to veer away from shore to safety. The other attempt to assassinate Stalin, according to the State, was made near Gagry, in 1935, by a group of prominent local Communist officials who were armed with an automatic rifle, a German carbine and a revolver. They failed because the Dictator chanced to be driven past the point at which these Communists were going to try to kill him ahead of schedule. The assassins had not yet arrived. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758323,00.html Jan 15 10, 6:30 AM