Simon Montefiore - Stalin

MR , p. 254. Kaganovich agreed with this analysis, Kaganovich , pp. 35, 37. Tucker, Power , p. 445. Also G. A. Kumanev, “Dve besedy s LM Kaganovichem,” Novaya i Noveishaya Istoriia , no. 2, 1999, pp. 101–16. Molotov received lists of executions sentenced by tribunals of the Military Collegium almost every day: a typical sample during early 1937 showed that 32 were shot on the Amur railway, 36 on another for being Trotskyite wreckers while a further 20 were shot for “planning terroristic acts against Comrade Kaganovich on his journey to the East.” Molotov underlined the numbers of the executed with his red pen, but never the names. They simply did not matter. IA 1998 p. 17. Death lists: RGASPI 82.2.887.66–9, 70, 133, 163, samples of lists of executions, 26–27 Mar., 3 June, 16 Aug. All Vyshinsky to Molotov, Volkogonov, p. 339.

Children and families: PR 5 July 1937. Jansen-Petrov, p. 100. Trud , 17 Oct. 1997. Memorial-Aspekt nos. 2–3, 1993. Okhotin and Roginskii, Iz Istorii, pp. 56–7. Yakovlev, Century, pp. 39–45. MR, p. 415. Yezhov order Aug. 1937 from Sbornik zakonodatelnykh i normativnykh actov o repressiyakh i reabilitatsii, pp. 8–93. In 1954, there were still 884,057 “specially resettled” children. Clan: Jansen-Petrov quotes Dmitrov, p. 111.

RGASPI 558.11.698.33, Aronstam to Stalin and Stalin’s reply, 7 May 1937.

Father appeals to Stalin and son is spared: RGASPI 558.11.712.11–13, Polish rosegrower: Oni, Roman Werfel, p. 104, and Berman, pp. 235–7. Sergo Kavtaradze. Oleg Troyanovsky. Pasternak and Ehrenburg were protected despite appearing in the confessions of many arrested writers. The Egnatashvili brothers were also protected.

RGASPI 558.11.805.75, Stalin to Stetsky 17 Jan. 1937, and reply.

Budyonny Notes , pp. 28–32.

Tucker, Power , p. 446. The Spanish connection: Vladimir Antonov Ovseenko, Medvedev, pp. 188, 291. See Radosh et al. (eds.), Spain Betrayed , pp. 150–3; Koltsov, p. 267, and denunciation to Stalin and Voroshilov, p. 521, no. 60.

RGASPI 82.2.896.71–5.

RGASPI 558.11.712.65, V. Bonch-Bruevich to Stalin 15 June 1937.

On Kanner. RGASPI 558.11.775.100, E. Makarova to Stalin 2 June 1937. RGASPI 558.11.55.822, Stalin to Khitarov 11 May 1937. RGASPI 558.11.726.22, Varo Djaparidze to Stalin 11 Mar. 1937.

RGASPI 558.11.756.118, N. Krylenko to Stalin 4 Nov. 1937.

Khrushchev to Stefan Staszewski, Oni , p. 158.

RGASPI 558.11.27.129.

FSB Frinovsky interrogation N-15301.2.32–5, quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 110.

Jansen-Petrov, pp. 200–1. Razgon, p. 104. Medvedev, p. 241.

Kostyrchenko, p. 269.

Jansen-Petrov, pp. 117–9. Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism , p. 24. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 114–5. Larina, p. 151. Davies, pp. 138, 155.

Jansen-Petrov, pp. 121–3, 199. G. Zhavoronkov, “I suitsa nochiu den,” Sintaksis , no. 32, 192, pp. 46–65; B. B. Briukhanov and E. N. Shoshkov, Opravdaniiu ne podlezhit: Ezhov i ezhovschina, p. 124; B. Starkov, “Narkom Yezhov” in J. A. Getty and R. T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives, pp. 34–5. B. Kamov, “Smert Nikolaia Yezhova,” in Iunost, no. 8, 1993, pp. 41–3. Vasily Grossman, “Mama,” in Znamya, no. 5, 1989, pp. 8–15. Vera Trail, pp. 4–11.

Jansen-Petrov, pp. 123–4. Execution lists: Memorial Archives No. 32D-1355. V. Shentalinsky, “Okhota v revzapovednike” in Novy Mir, no. 12, 1998, pp. 170–96. FSB 3-0s.6.4.238–41.

RGASPI 82.2.904.60, Yezhov to Molotov 12 Mar. 1938.

MR, pp. 277–8. Kaganovich, p. 75. Nina Khrushchev quoted in Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, p. 18. Yakovlev, Century, pp. 15–7. Tucker, Power, p. 448. Medvedev, p. 346. Molotov’s mask: Mikoyan, pp. 321–7.

RGASPI 82.2.897.12–13, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov and Molotov to Yezhov. When Molotov’s bust was smashed, Andrei Sakharov, the physicist, recalled how it became a dangerous political incident, p. 35, while a boy who knocked over a portrait of Stalin and blundered onto his face was arrested. Volkogonov, p. 269.

Rees, p. 153. Volkogonov, p. 306. RGASPI 588.2.155.111–3, Molotov to NKVD 7 Apr. 1938. Stalin personally kept up the pressure on the Premier: “To comrade Molotov,” he wrote on 28 Jan. 1938, “Why was it impossible to predict this business by studying the financial situation? That escaped you? It is necessary to discuss at the Politburo.” Khlevniuk, Circle , p. 258. Execution lists: Memorial Archives no. 32D-1355.

Tucker, Power , p. 447. Kaganovich , p. 46. Medvedev, p. 312. Budyonny Notes , p. 47. Testimony of Galina Yegorova in FSB archives quoted in full in Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives , pp. 105–11. RGASPI 558.11.749.15/15 and 23, A. Kollontai to Stalin. Stasova: Dmitrov diary, 11 Nov. 1937.

Thanks to Dr. Dan Healey for his advice on age of consent and morals. Bolshevik modesty: MR , pp. 273–4; Kaganovich , pp. 88–9. Primness: MR , pp. 111, 145, 149. Divorces: Khrushchev, Superpower , p. 29. Kaganovich does not write the word “slut,” just “s…t”: Tucker, Power , p 437. Absurd comment on naked girls in Paris by Zhdanov’s wife: Svetlana, OOY , p. 360. Tukhachevsky’s filthy morals: RGVA 4.18.61.7–77, Voroshilov, NKO, 9–10 June 1937. Kira Alliluyeva: Svetlana’s knees and Stalin’s note, OOY , p. 318. Volga kiss: Kenez, p. 166. “Stalin Molotov i Zhdanov o vtoroy serii filma Ivan Grozny,” Moskovskie Novosti , vol. 37, 7 Aug. 1988, p. 8. Galina , p. 96. Georgian cigarettes: Charkviani, pp. 45–9. Kisses at Kulik’s birthday party, Karpov, Rastrelyanniye Marshaly , p. 343. Zhdanov marriage: Sergo B, p. 139. Kuibyshev: Troyanovsky, p. 162. During the war, when Stalin learned that the publisher Tikhonov was having an affair, he had his wife flown out of the Siege of Leningrad to put a stop to it. Lesser Terror , p. 113. RGASPI 558.11.818.23–27, A. A. Troyanovsky to Stalin 24 July 1934, and Stalin to Yagoda, n.d. Troyanovsky to Stalin 11 Sept. 1938. Beria and sex: GARF 8131sj.32.3289.41, Rudenko to Khrushchev on Sarkisov’s denunciation to Abakumov. Dekanozov was also said to have a sexual addiction to young girls, though he too was happily married: Vaksberg, Vyshinsky , pp. 290, 353. Rape: Djilas, pp. 93, 108–9; Djilas, Wartime , pp. 428–9. Maxim and Ivy Litvinov: see John Carswell, The Exile: The Life of Ivy Litvinov, pp. 130–7.

Khrushchev, Glasnost , p. 28. Mikoyan, p. 318.

RGASPI 558.11.769.173, Stalin to Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan 31 Mar. 1937. Tucker, Power , p. 416. Stepan Mikoyan.

MR, p. 254. Mikoyan, pp. 318, 552. Kaganovich, pp. 27, 28, 30, 45–7. Yury Zhdanov. Maya Kavtaradze. Medvedev, p. 325.

Faith and thought: Vyshinsky and “You lost faith”: RGASPI 558.2.155.104–7. “Holy fear” death for thoughts and the clans: Getty, pp. 486–7. Holy Fear: Tucker, Power , pp. 482–4. Toasts/kin/Mikoyan wit: Dmitrov diary, 7 Nov. 1937. Beria to A. A. Yepishev, quoted in Volkogonov, p. 279. RGASPI 558.11.725.1–2, K. Gai to Stalin and reply 25 Mar. 1937. Colonel Starinov learned during an NKVD interrogation that many of the arrested soldiers were accused of “lack of faith in the power of the socialist state.” Starinov in Bialer (ed.), p. 71. Killing sect: Jansen-Petrov, p. 65. “Brilliant politician of Italian…”: Ehrenburg, Eve of War , p. 306. Bukharin to Stalin, 10 Dec. 1937, Getty, p. 557.

Torture: Jansen-Petrov, p. 111, citing APRF 3.24.413.5.122, “Beat, beat,” M. I. Baranov. “Prison or hotel,” Jansen-Petrov, p. 111, citing Reabilitatsiya, p. 258. Blood specks: Shepilov, “Vospominaniia,” Voprosy Istorii, no. 4, 1998, p. 6. Order to torture: Petrov-Jansen, pp. 10–11. Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 19 Apr. 1996. IA, 1998. Order on torture: 20 Jan. 1939, Conquest, Terror, p. 206. Tucker, Power, p. 467. Kaganovich told Khrushchev “we signed everything.” Khrushchev, Glasnost , p. 136. GARF 8131.32.3289.117–8, the investigations by Rudenko into methods of interrogators Vlodzirmirsky, Rodos, Shvartsman, Goglidze etc., 22 Mar. 1955. Since the Yezhov generation did not describe their tortures, this account is based on Beria’s men. Execution place and burial: Nikita Petrov. Jansen-Petrov, p. 188. Account of Yezhov’s execution by N. P. Afanesev in Ushakov and Stukalov, pp. 74–5. On torture of Old Bolsheviks: Kaganovich, pp. 138–9. Molotov on Rudzutak’s torture, MR, pp. 274–5, and “Politburo gangsters,” MR, p. 240. Stalin told many jokes about torture and interrogations: this is from Sergo Kavtaradze’s unpublished memoirs, p. 74. Another version, Svetlana, OOY, p. 333. Molotov’s mask: Mikoyan, pp. 321–7.