The Potsdam Conference: July 30th 1945 – The Little Three

President Truman and Prime Minister Attlee received word early this morning that Stalin was still feeling ill and that his doctors had advised him to remain and rest at his villa for another day.

The eleventh plenary session was now suspended once again and it most likely could not have miffed the Anglo-American delegations more. Given all the off-record talks that had been going on over the last forty-eight hours, many were able to sense that agreements could soon be put into writing and everybody would finally be able to start heading home once Stalin had returned to the round table.

For someone to catch a cold toward the end of a warm July is not impossible, but it might seem a bit unusual if that person is healthy and fit; Stalin, however, was not healthy and fit at this time. In fact, his health had already begun to significantly decline toward the end of World War II.

Born in Gori, Georgia in 1878, Stalin had contracted a number of various illnesses during his early years as a child. Before the age of seven, he had suffered from measles, scarlet fever, a severe attack of smallpox – which left his face slightly disfigured – and probable poliomyelitis, which is an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause temporary or permanent paralysis. Early in life he had also suffered from severe pain and stiffness in his elbow, arm, and shoulder which could have been attributed to the poliomyelitis, or to one of three traffic accidents he had been involved in. Some have also claimed that this pain, which would trouble him his whole life, may have come from injuries sustained during his bank robberies as a young revolutionary, physical abuse inflicted by his father, or simply the result of a birth injury. At any rate, Stalin experienced more health problems at an early age than most people experience in a lifetime.