The Deadliest Drink in History

Love melted a heart, death turned it to stone

February 21, 2025

“This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity” -Joseph Stalin

If history balances on a knife’s edge, then the fate of millions turned on a drink of contaminated water.

During a journey to Georgia, Kato Svanidze contracted typhoid after drinking polluted water that led to her death in late 1907. Her husband Joseph Stalin, known as Ioseb Jughashvili at the time, could not be comforted at the funeral where he uttered today’s quote.

A glass of water metastasized a heart into stone. Millions felt the chill.

Stalin pictured on the far right during his first wife’s funeral. Her funeral was in the same church where they had wed.

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