Simon Montefiore - Stalin

Keke Djugashvili, Stalin’s mother

Kato Svanidze, Stalin’s first wife

Yakov Djugashvili, son of Stalin’s first marriage to Kato Svanidze. Captured by Germans

Nadya Alliluyeva, Stalin’s second wife

Vasily Stalin, Stalin’s son by Nadya Alliluyeva, pilot, General

Svetlana Stalin, now known as Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter

Artyom Sergeev, Stalin and Nadya’s adopted son

Sergei Alliluyev, Nadya’s father

Olga Alliluyeva, Nadya’s mother

Pavel Alliluyev, Nadya’s brother, Red Army Commissar married to

Zhenya Alliluyeva, Nadya’s sister-in-law, actress, mother of Kira

Alyosha Svanidze, brother of Kato, Georgian, Stalin’s brother-in-law, banking official married to

Maria Svanidze, diarist, Jewish Georgian opera singer

Stanislas Redens, Nadya’s brother-in-law, secret policeman, married to

Anna Redens, Nadya’s elder sister

Victor Abakumov, secret policeman, head of Smersh, MGB Minister

Andrei Andreyev, Politburo member, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, married to

Dora Khazan, Nadya’s best friend, Deputy Textiles Minister, mother of Natasha Andreyeva

Lavrenti Beria, “Uncle Lara,” secret policeman, NKVD boss, Politburo member in charge of nuclear bomb, married to

Nina Beria, scientist, Stalin treated her “like a daughter”; mother of

Sergo Beria, scientist, married to

Martha Peshkova Beria, granddaughter of Gorky, daughter-in-law of Beria

Semyon Budyonny, cavalryman, Marshal, one of the Tsaritsyn Group

Nikolai Bulganin, “the Plumber,” Chekist, Mayor of Moscow, Politburo member, Defence Minister, heir apparent

Candide Charkviani, Georgian Party chief and Stalin’s confidant

Semyon Ignatiev, MGB Minister, master of the Doctors’ Plot

Lazar Kaganovich, “Iron Lazar” and “the Locomotive,” Jewish Old Bolshevik, Stalin’s deputy early 1930s, Railways chief, Politburo member

Mikhail Kalinin, “Papa,” the “Village Elder,” Soviet President, peasant/ worker

Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, then Ukrainian First Secretary, Politburo member

Sergei Kirov, Leningrad chief, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, Politburo member and Stalin’s close friend

Valerian Kuibyshev, economic chief and poet, Politburo member

Alexei (A. A.) Kuznetsov, Zhdanov’s deputy in Leningrad; post–World War II, CC (Central Committee) Secretary and curator of MGB, Stalin’s heir apparent as Secretary

Nestor Lakoba, Abkhazian boss

Georgi Malenkov, nicknamed “Melanie” or “Malanya,” CC (Central Committee) Secretary, allied to Beria

Lev Mekhlis, “the Gloomy Demon” and “Shark,” Jewish, Stalin’s secretary, then Pravda editor, political chief of Red Army

Akaki Mgeladze, Abkhazian, then Georgian boss; Stalin called him “Wolf”

Anastas Mikoyan, Armenian Old Bolshevik, Politburo member, Trade and Supply Minister

Vyacheslav Molotov, known as “Iron-Arse” and “our Vecha,” Politburo member, Premier, Foreign Minister, married to

Polina Molotova née Karpovskaya, known as Comrade Zhemchuzhina, “the Pearl,” Jewish, Fishery Commissar, perfume boss

Grigory Ordzhonikidze, known as Comrade Sergo and as “Stalin’s Arse,” Politburo member, Heavy Industry chief

Karl Pauker, ex-barber of Budapest Opera, Stalin’s bodyguard and head of Security

Alexander Poskrebyshev, ex-medical orderly, Stalin’s chef de cabinet , married to

Bronka Metalikova Poskrebysheva, doctor, Jewish

Mikhail Riumin, “Little Misha,” “the Midget,” MGB Deputy Minister and manager of the Doctors’ Plot

Nikolai Vlasik, Stalin’s bodyguard and head of Guards Directorate

Klim Voroshilov, First Marshal, Politburo member, Defence Commissar, veteran of Tsaritsyn, married to

Ekaterina Voroshilova, diarist

Nikolai Voznesensky, Leningrad economist, Politburo member, Deputy Premier, Stalin’s anointed heir as Premier

Genrikh Yagoda, NKVD chief, Jewish, in love with Timosha Gorky

Abel Yenukidze, “Uncle Abel,” Secretary of Central Executive Committee, Georgian, bon viveur, Nadya’s godfather

Nikolai Yezhov, “Blackberry” or “Kolya,” NKVD boss, married to

Yevgenia Yezhova, editor, socialite, Jewess

Andrei Zhdanov, “the Pianist,” Politburo member, Leningrad boss, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, Naval chief, Stalin’s friend and heir apparent, father of

Yury Zhdanov, CC (Central Committee) Science Department chief, married Svetlana Stalin

Grigory Kulik, Marshal, Artillery chief, womaniser and bungler, veteran of Tsaritsyn

Boris Shaposhnikov, Marshal, Chief of Staff, Stalin’s favourite staff officer

Semyon Timoshenko, Marshal, victor of Finland, Defence Commissar, veteran of Tsaritsyn; his daughter married Vasily Stalin

Alexander Vasilevsky, Marshal, Chief of Staff, priest’s son

Georgi Zhukov, Marshal, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Stalin’s best general

Nikolai Bukharin, “darling of the Party,” “Bukharchik,” theorist, Politburo member, Stalin’s co-ruler 1925–29, friend of Nadya, Rightist, chief defendant in last show trial

Lev Kamenev, Leftist Politburo member, defeated Trotsky with Stalin, with whom ruled 1924–25, Jewish. Defendant in first show trial

Alexei Rykov, “Rykvodka.” Rightist Politburo member, Premier and co-ruler with Stalin and Bukharin 1925–28. Defendant in last show trial

Leon Trotsky, genius of the Revolution, Jewish, War Commissar and creator of Red Army, “operetta commander” in Stalin’s words

Grigory Zinoviev, Leftist Politburo member, Leningrad boss, Jewish. Triumvirate with Stalin and Kamenev 1924–25. Defendant in first show trial

Anna Akhmatova, poet; “harlot-nun,” said Zhdanov

Isaac Babel, author of Red Cavalry and friend of Eisenstein, Mandelstam

Demian Bedny, “the proletarian poet,” boon companion of Stalin

Mikhail Bulgakov, novelist and playwright, Stalin saw his Days of the Turbins fifteen times

Ilya Ehrenburg, Jewish writer and European literary figure

Sergei Eisenstein, Russia’s greatest film director

Maxim Gorky, Russia’s most famous novelist, close to Stalin

Ivan Kozlovsky, Stalin’s court tenor

Osip Mandelstam, poet; “Isolate but preserve,” said Stalin

Boris Pasternak, poet; “cloud dweller,” said Stalin

Mikhail Sholokhov, novelist of Cossacks and collectivization

Konstantin Simonov, poet and editor, friend of Vasily Stalin, favourite of Stalin

At around 7 p.m. on 8 November 1932, Nadya Alliluyeva Stalin, aged thirty-one, the oval-faced and brown-eyed wife of the Bolshevik General Secretary, was dressing for the raucous annual party to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the Revolution. Puritanical, earnest but fragile, Nadya prided herself on her “Bolshevik modesty,” wearing the dullest and most shapeless dresses, draped in plain shawls, with square-necked blouses and no makeup. But tonight, she was making a special effort. In the Stalins’ gloomy apartment in the two-storey seventeenth-century Poteshny Palace, she twirled for her sister, Anna, in a long, unusually fashionable black dress with red roses embroidered around it, imported from Berlin. For once, she had indulged in a “stylish hairdo” instead of her usual severe bun. She playfully placed a scarlet tea rose in her black hair.

The party, attended by all the Bolshevik magnates, such as Premier Molotov and his slim, clever and flirtatious wife, Polina, Nadya’s best friend, was held annually by the Defence Commissar, Voroshilov: he lived in the long, thin Horse Guards building just five steps across a little lane from the Poteshny. In the tiny, intimate world of the Bolshevik élite, those simple, cheerful soirées usually ended with the potentates and their women dancing Cossack jigs and singing Georgian laments. But that night, the party did not end as usual.