Josef Stalin’s death in 1953 set off a major struggle for control of the Soviet Union. Stalin died on March 5, 1953, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving no designated successor and no orderly mechanism for transferring his immense personal authority.
The immediate contest involved Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria, and Nikita Khrushchev, alongside other senior figures such as Vyacheslav Molotov and Nikolai Bulganin. Rather than allowing another single dictator to dominate immediately, the leadership initially restored a form of collective rule. Malenkov became premier, Beria controlled the security apparatus, and Khrushchev gradually strengthened his position inside the Communist Party.
The struggle was not merely ceremonial. Beria was arrested in June 1953 and executed later that year, removing the most feared rival. Khrushchev eventually emerged as the leading figure and, in 1956, denounced Stalin’s rule in his “Secret Speech,” beginning the period known as de-Stalinization.
The question’s wording points to Stalin, not Lenin: Lenin’s death in 1924 also produced a succession struggle, but the 1953 crisis followed Stalin’s death.