From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

The other day, I made the declaration that I had never come across any authentic plots to get rid of Stalin. I'm embarrassed to admit that I
need to walk that back, at least a little.

The late Robert Conquest was one of the most highly-esteemed historians
of the Soviet Union. He was both British and American and worked at the
Hoover Institution for many years. He published many books on the
subject and one of the most important was The Great Terror, where he
talked about the purges Stalin implemented in the Soviet Union. First published in 1968, major revisions were published in 1990 and 2000. I am re-reading the 1990 edition at this moment, having first read it when it
came out.

Conquest mentions three distinct plots against Stalin, which Stalin used
to persuade the rest of the Politburo and Central Committee that the
previous policy of just booting dissidents out of the Party (and into
exile and prison in some cases) was no longer sufficient and needed to
be supplemented by executions.

Now, it is important to mention that none of the three plots actually
amounted to much; none of them actually involved any attempt to either
fire or assassinate Stalin BUT, in two of the three plots, there was
written recognition that Stalin needed to be removed from office. As far
as I can determine, none of them specifically called for his execution
but at least one of them, the so-called Ryutin Platform, said Stalin
would need to be removed by force so that at least means it's possible
the plotters would be willing to kill him if he didn't go quietly.

However, Stalin chose to insist that the plotters had planned to kill
him - the one indispensable man in the country - and leveraged that to persuade senior Party members to allow for executions in those cases.
And sure enough, executions soon followed and swept away staggering
numbers of Party members as each plotter was tortured and forced to
implicate others. (A great many torture victims implicated others
falsely just to get the torture to stop.) A few of those implicated
managed to commit suicide and a few or the more minor figures got off
with terms in the Gulag, at least initially. But many of the people who
had been sent to the Gulag were shot in 1937 or 1938 as the purges
ramped up to involve staggering numbers.

In the 30+ years since I first read the book, I'd forgotten the details
of the Ryutin Plot (and the other two plots, both of which were very
small groups who had apparently done nothing beyond talking) so I
apologize for omitting those the other day when I said that none of the
plots had any substance to them.
--
Rhino

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