Simon Montefiore - Stalin

Polina and Nadya, Stalin in apartment: MR , p. 173, and Polina’s and nurse’s account to Svetlana, Twenty Letters , pp. 116–8; plus family accounts to author: Kira Alliluyeva, Artyom Sergeev, Leonid Redens, Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). Rose dropped: Nadezhda Stalin, granddaughter in Radzinsky, p. 278. The gun: Nadezhda’s request to Pavel, door bolted: interview with Kira Alliluyeva. Artyom Sergeev actually handled the pistol, interview with author. The flat: MR , p. 189; also Artyom Sergeev. Story of Guseva and foolish guard: Khrushchev, Glasnost , pp. 15–17. Time of death: Dr. Kushner’s secret report: GARF 7523c.149a.2–7. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 116–8: she quotes the accounts of her nanny and Polina Molotova from 1955. Anastas Mikoyan, Tak bylo (henceforth Mikoyan), p. 332: even though she was much closer to the gunshot, Zina Ordzhonikidze only heard “a dull sound” when Sergo Ordzhonikidze shot himself. On the Riutin Platform: Vlasik in interview with Dr. N. Antipenko quoted in Radzinsky, p. 286. “Joseph, Nadya’s no longer with us”: Svetlana, Twenty Letters , p. 117. “Josef, Nadya’s dead”: Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives , p. 67. Yenukidze first to arrive, called by nurse: Larina, p. 142.

Yenukidze’s role: GARF 7523c-149a-2.1–6 including report of Prof. Kushner, document 7. The staff gossip and the official version: GARF 3316.2.2016.1–8. Appeal of A. G. Korchagina to Kalinin for pardon. She had been arrested in 1935 for membership of terrorist group. “Oh Nadya, Nadya”: Mgeladze, pp. 117–18. “Overturned my life”: Nadya Vlasik. “She’s crippled me”: Svanidze diary. Kaganovich, pp. 73, 154. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 116–20, “I can’t go on living like this.” Shambles: Svetlana, Richardson, Long Shadow, pp. 130–1. Stalin, “toy” pistol: MR, p. 173.

Real birthday: RGASPI 558.4.2.2. Poetry: RGASPI 558.4.600. The account of Stalin’s youth and rise in this chapter is essentially based on Robert Tucker’s excellent Stalin as Revolutionary , as well as Robert Conquest’s Stalin: Breaker of Nations ; Radzinsky; Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy (henceforth Volkogonov); Edward Ellis Smith, Young Stalin ; the memoirs of Sergei Alliluyev and Anna Alliluyeva, published as The Alliluyev Memoirs , ed. David Tutaev, and in Russian, S. Alliluyev, Proidennyi put; and the unpublished memoirs of Candide Charkviani to whom Stalin spoke about his childhood and youth. On Keke: Sergo B, pp. 20–1. On Beso and the priest, Keke throwing out Beso and Beso’s visit to the seminary and friendship with the Egnatashvili family, including Vaso and Lieut.-Gen. Alexander Egnatashvili, “my five-rouble scholarship” plus five roubles a month for singing,” sent mother money, atheist in first year, death of father, did not like to discuss childhood: Candide Charkviani, pp. 1–7, the seminary, pp. 9–10. On Egnatashvili as godfather, not father, Stalin’s closeness to family: interview with Tina Egnatashvili. Stalin on normal people in history: David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb, p. 264. Stalin was discussing the suicide of U.S. Defence Secretary Forrestal. Greasy shirt: Radzinsky, p. 47. Death of father: Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait , p. 17.

Teeth, exile, 1902–3 spent in Batumi and Kutaisi jails; he sees an amputation: “I can still hear the scream,” Stalin in Charkviani, pp. 20–5. Tucker, Revolution ary, pp. 134, 156–7; number of seven exiles, six escapes, pp. 94–5, based on Stalin’s official biography, though he may have exaggerated the numbers. Roman Brackman, The Secret File of Joseph Stalin , is useful for the atmosphere of the underground.

S. Alliluyev, Proidennyi put, p. 182. “Soft spot for Stalin”; Olga “hurled herself into affairs” and “weakness for southern men,” Poles, Turks etc.: Svetlana, Twenty Letters , pp. 49–58. Stalin on Alliluyev women wanting to sleep with him: see Sergo B, p. 150. Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives , p. 55.

Role in Kartli 1905–7; heists: Stalin’s own memories: Charkviani, pp. 12–14; A. S. Alliluyeva, Vospominaniya, pp. 187–90; Tucker, p. 158; Argumenty i fakty, Sept. 1995; Radzinsky, p. 67; Svetlana OOY , p. 381. Pelageya Onufrieva/Oddball Osip: RGASPI 558.2.75 and 558.4.647. The full story is best told by Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait , pp. 116–8.

Zubok, p. 80. Interview V. Nikonov, May 2001. Interview Natalya Poskrebyshev. Stalin and Stal: MR, p. 164. Kaganovich, p. 160.

Police record, 1913: RGASPI 558.4.214. A. S. Alliluyeva, Vospominaniya, pp. 187–90; Tucker, Revolutionary, pp. 150–8; Argumenty i Fakty, Sept. 1995; Radzinsky, p. 67; Svetlana OOY , p. 381. Stalin on Lenin and nationalities in Cracow, 1912–13: Charkviani, pp. 25–7; hunting and freezing in Arctic, p. 22.

A. S. Alliluyeva, Vospominaniya, pp. 183–90. MR, p. 93. Tucker, Revolutionary, pp. 150–7, 165. Service, Lenin, pp. 253–83. Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, p. 55. Reading to sons: Artyom Sergeev.

MR, pp. 96–7. N. N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917, p. 230. Radzinsky, pp. 115–7.

This account of Tsaritsyn is based on Tucker, Revolutionary, pp. 190–7, and Conquest, Breaker of Nations , including “no man, no problem”/barge, pp. 76–83. On the barge: RGASPI 74.2.38.130, Stalin to Voroshilov n.d. Stalin, Voroshilov and Sergo comment on Trotsky version of Tsaritsyn, “operetta commander” in RGASPI 74.2.37.60, Voroshilov and Stalin to Molotov Kaganovich and Ordzhonikidze 9 June 1933. K. E. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the USSR, pp. 18–19. Stalin, Sochineniya IV, pp. 118–21, 420. Tucker, Revolutionary, 190–7. Roy Medvedev, Let History Judge (henceforth Medvedev), p. 13. Svetlana RR. Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 60–1, 78–9, 90. O. Khlevniuk, In Stalin’s Shadow: The Career of Sergo Ordzhonikidze (henceforth Ordzhonikidze), pp. 7–16.

Mikoyan, ch. 4–7. Tucker, Revolutionary, pp. 202–5.

This brief account of 1920–29 is based on the following outstanding classic works: Robert Conquest’s Harvest of Sorrow , ch. 5; Robert Service, Lenin , pp. 421–94; Service, A History of 20th Century Russia, pp. 170–81; Robert Tucker’s second volume, Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, pp. 91–7, 139–43; Geoffrey Hosking’s History of the Soviet Union 1917–1991, pp. 159–70. Stalin’s account of 1928: Charkviani, p. 30; Gerald Easter, Reconstructing the State, p. 71. My account of the Party and its ideology is based on the best works on this subject: Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism , pp. 14–21; Service, Lenin , pp. 142, 153–5, 377–8; Tucker, Power, p. 120; Zubok, pp. 3–8. J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov, The Road to Terror, Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks 1932–9 (henceforth Getty), pp. 5–29.

RGASPI 74.1.429.65–6, E. D. Voroshilova 21 June 1954. Svetlana, Twenty Letters , p. 35.

RGASPI 74.2.37.46, Voroshilov to Stalin 6 June 1932. Knocking on door: Mikoyan, pp. 53–4; Natalya Andreyeva.

RGASPI 55.11.1550.29, Nadya to Stalin 18 Oct. 1929. On Kirov: 558.11.1550.34, Nadya to Stalin 5 Sept. 1930, and 558.11.1550.53–8, Nadya to Stalin, autumn 1931. On Molotov’s interference: 558.11.1550.36–41, Nadya to Stalin 8, 12, 19 Sept. 1930; 558.11.1550.43–5, Stalin to Nadya 24 Sept. 1930. On Kaganovich: 558.11.1550. 46–9, Nadya to Stalin 30 Sept. 1930. On Zina Ordzhonikidze and Molotov visits: 558.11.1550.52, Stalin to Nadya 9 Sept. 1931.

“My bright love, my heart and happiness…” RGASPI 82.2.1592.1, Molotov to Polina 13 Aug. 1940. “Kiss you everywhere…” RGASPI 82.2.1592.4–6, Molotov to Polina 15 Aug. 1940. “How I would love to hold you in my hands, close to my heart… tied body and soul.” Molotov to Polina: RGASPI 82.2.1592.40–5, probably April 1945, New York. RGASPI 82.2.1592.19–20, Molotov to Polina 8 July 1946. Molotov’s career: Volkogonov, pp. 244–66. Zubok, pp. 80–4. “Once played the violin for money from drunken merchants” but created foreign policy with Stalin/“more than once raised his voice on my behalf or of others suffering from Stalin’s explosive wrath,” Khrushchev, Glas nost, pp. 75–7. Bazhanov, pp. 13–14. Journalist/great precision but a plodder: Oleg Troyanovsky in William Taubman, Sergei Khrushchev and Abbott Gleason, Nikita Khrushchev (henceforth Taubman), p. 211. Also interview Oleg Troyanovsky. Polina’s career: Roy Medvedev, All Stalin’s Men , pp. 97–128; Gennadi Kostyrchenko, Out of the Red Shadows: AntiSemitism in Stalin’s Russia, pp. 119–20; Khlevniuk, Circle , pp. 257–60. Polina’s haughtiness—“First Lady of the State” and she “first violin at home”: Mikoyan, pp. 298–9. Grandness with guards: Natalya Rykova. Tough but not a machine: Artyom Sergeev. Molotov: city dancer, N. S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (henceforth KR), volume I, p. 310. Molotov’s irritation with his subordinates and rages: N. T. Fedorenko, “Zapiski diplomata: rabota s Molotovym,” Novaya Noveishaya Istorya, no. 4, 1991, pp. 81–2; Inez Cope Jeffery, Inside Russia: Life and Times of Zoya Zarubina (henceforth Zarubina), pp. 3–4; Sergo B, p. 48; Zubok, pp. 87–92. Unpleasantness: Oleg Troyanovsky. Fedorenko: Y. Chadaev quoted in Grigory Kumanev (ed.), Ryadom so Stalinym (henceforth Kumanev), p. 420. Stutters to Stalin: Berezhkov, History in the Making, p. 49. Punctilious: Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence, p. 31. Thirteen minutes’ sleep: Andrei Gromyko, Memoirs, p. 314. Partnership with Stalin and contradicts Stalin: Milovan Djilas, Conversations with Stalin (henceforth Djilas), pp. 67–72. Spite: Mikoyan in Kumanev (ed.): Molotov’s slowness, hardness and vanity, p. 67. Early career: Easter, pp. 71–5. Molotov: “I’m a man of the nineteenth century,” ninth out of ten children, played mandolin, MR , pp. viii–xiii. Rows with Stalin: MR , pp. 20, 92.