ABSTRACT
On March 6th, Lenin cabled the Georgian Bolsheviks, saying that he was outraged and that he supported them with all his heart. Kamenev surely knew of Lenin's rupture with Stalin for, according to Trotsky, he offered to mediate. Trotsky reported that by the end of February 1923, Stalin informed him, Zinovyev, and Kamenev that Lenin had expressed concern about his health. Lenin asked Stalin for poison. On December 18, 1922, the Plenum of the Central Committee, as related before, had instructed Stalin to supervise Lenin's compliance with doctors' orders. Stalin was a most calculating individual. If he had wished to placate Lenin, he could have been most solicitous. Undoubtedly, his rude behaviour was designed to upset Lenin and subject him to enormous strain from which he would collapse or die. Years later Stalin was to prove his mastery of 'Imperceptible murder'. Perhaps, Lenin was the first victim of this black art.
