Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

  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.

  21: THE BLACKBERRY AT WORK AND PLAY

  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.

  22: BLOODY SHIRTSLEEVES

  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.

  RGASPI 558.11.756.109–6, Krilov to Stalin 26 May 1937. Another the same month denounces spies and Enemies in the Foreign Commissariat. RGASPI 558.11.727.86, Dmitrov to Stalin 15 May 1937. “Group faithful to himself”: Stalin to Liushkov on Vareikis’s clique in Far East: Alvin D. Coox, “The Lesser of Two Hells: NKVD General GS Lyushkov’s Defection to Japan 1938–45,” Slavic Military Studies; vol. 11, no. 3, Sept. 1998, pp. 145–86.

  RGASPI 558.11.806.122, Semyushkin to Stalin 28 May 1937. Stalin usually ordered Yezhov “Check” or “Look into it.” Denunciations: Voroshilov at RGVA 4.19.14.1–74. Meeting of Supreme Military Council, 16 May 1939. Yakovlev in Bialer (ed.), pp. 88, 102.

  Gramophone scandal: RGASPI 558.11.1082.1–18.

  RGASPI 558.11.756.109–16, Krilov to Stalin 26 May 1937. Another the same month denounces spies and Enemies in the Foreign Commissariat. RGASPI 558.11.727.86, Dmitrov to Stalin 15 May 1937.

  RGASPI 558.11.818.35–43, P. V. Tiulenev to Stalin 30 Mar. 1938.

  RGASPI 558.11.132.137–40, P. T. Nikolaenko to Stalin 17 Sept. 1937. RGASPI 558.11.132.36, Stalin to Comrade Kudriavtsev 27 Sept. 1937. Tucker, Power, pp. 459–61. KR I, pp. 114–5; Khrushchev, Glasnost, p. 32.

  Khrushchev terror: KR I, pp. 113, 129–36. MR, pp. 295–7. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 2, 1989. Istochnik, 1, 1995. Vladimir Naumov in Taubman, pp. 88–90; Yury Shapoval
in Taubman, pp. 19–25.

  Zhdanov on Enemies: A. S. Yakovlev, Tsel zhizni, p. 17. On Komsomol Case: Mgeladze, pp. 170–3. Kuznetsov in Bialer (ed.), p. 96. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 210–11; Tucker, Power, pp. 470–9. Beria, pp. 80–5. Lakoba family tortured: see S. Lakoba, Ocherki po politicheskoy istorii Abkhazii. Beria’s personal use of torture: GARF 8131.32.3289.117–8. The investigations by Rudenko into methods of interrogators Vlodzirmirsky, Rodos, Shvartsman, Goglidze, Tsanava etc., 22 March 1955. Djafar Bagirov in Azerbaijan also did not require replacement. Arresting the wrong people: see Andreyev: RGASPI 73.2.19.27, Andreyev to Stalin 18 Aug. 1937. Plus Malenkov denounced: Khrushchev defends Malenkov: Elena Zubkova in Taubman, p. 75.

  Yakovlev, Tsel zhizni, p. 18: letter to Yezhov, 15 June 1937, on arrests of members of All-Union Scientific Research Institute and officials in Vneshtorg (Foreign Trade Commissariat). Arrests in Vneshtorg: Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, p. 45. See Katyn later. Mikoyan on purges: p. 583. Stepan M. p. 197. Mikoyan to Kaganovich letter: 17 Sept. 1936, quoted in Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, pp. 295–6. Mikoyan in Armenia: Tucker, Power, p. 488. Beria, p. 84. Mikoyan was accompanied by Malenkov. “My father saved people”: Natalya Andreyeva. Natasha Lopatina: story of her grandfather, Ivan Konstantinovich Mikhailov and K. E. Voroshilov. Kaganovich, p. 89.

  On tour: Medvedev, p. 248. More examples of Kaganovich: RGASPI 17.21.3966–4092. Easter, p. 157. Yakovlev, Century, p. 18, Mikoyan to Yezhov 15 June on pp. 15–19.

  Andreyev’s epic slaughter: RGASPI 73.3.45, 138, notes Oct. 1937. 73.2.19, Andreyev to Zhdanov 6 Jan. 1937. 73.2.19.2, Andreyev to Stalin 12 Apr. 1937, Voronezh. 73.2.19, Andreyev to Stalin 20 July 1937, Saratov. 73.2.19.3, Andreyev to Stalin 4 June 1937, Cheliabinsk. 73.2.19.12, Andreyev to Stalin 21 July 1937, Saratov. 73.2.19.16, Andreyev to Stalin and Stalin orders shooting of MTS workers, 28 July 1937. 73.2.19.19, Andreyev to Stalin 1 Aug. 1937. 73.2.19.22, Andreyev to Stalin 1 Aug. 1937, Saratov. 73.2.19.27, Andreyev to Stalin 18 Aug. 1937, Kuibyshev. 73.2.19.34–36, Andreyev to Stalin 17–18 Sept. 1937, Tashkent. 73.2.19.44, Stalin, Molotov to Andreyev 20 Sept. 1937: “You can arrest him.” 73.2.45.54, Andreyev to Stalin: “Ikramov arrested,” 21–22 Sept. 1937, Tashkent, 73.2.45.58, Stalin and Molotov to Andreyev 22 Sept. 1937. 73.2.45.72 and 73, Stalin to Andreyev: “Act according to your consideration and situation,” 26 Sept. 1937 and (74) Andreyev’s reply to Stalin 27 Sept. 1937; Bokhara (79–84). 73.2.45.86, Stalin to Andreyev in Stalinabad, 29 Sept. 1937. 73.2.45.101, Stalin to Andreyev on NKVD officer, 4 Oct. 1937. 73.3.45.87–101, Andreyev to Stalin and Stalin orders: “Remove Ashurov,” 2–4 Oct. 1937, Stalinabad. 73.2.45.105, Andreyev to Stalin, 5 Nov. 1937, Archangel and Voronezh: “Going to Rostov.” 73.2.45.113, Andreyev to Stalin 15 Nov. 1937, Rostov. 73.2.45.119–26, Andreyev to Stalin and Malenkov 18 Nov. 1937, Krasnodar, Kuban. “I’m heading to Ordzhonikidze Region.”

  Malenkov: Chadaev in Kumanev (ed.), p. 429. Interviews Igor Malenkov and Volya Malenkova. Zubok, pp. 141–3. Svetlana OOY, p. 358. Mikoyan, pp. 566, 586. Sergo B, p. 161. Malenkov-type: Kaganovich Perepiska, p. 609. RGASPI 558.11.762, 1a, Stalin to Malenkov 22 Nov. 1938: arrest. His role as a secret persecutor emerges in the appeal to Stalin of Lenin’s old secretary, Stasova, who told how Malenkov had accused her of giving money to Trotskyites but ignored evidence of her innocence. Stalin protected her. RGASPI 558.11.805.11, Stasova to Stalin 17 May 1938. On Malenkov in the Purge: Parrish, “Yezhov,” p. 90. Beria, p. 85. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 264–6. Mikoyan, p. 320. Leonid Redens tells of Vasily Stalin’s testimony of Malenkov’s role. D. N. Sukhanov, Memoirs. Inseparables: Sergo B, p. 36. Khrushchev defends Malenkov: Zubkova in Taubman, p. 75. Humour: Sergo B, p. 162, and see also Parrott, Serpent and Nightingale, p. 65. Djilas, p. 108: “under rolls . . . moved another man, lively and adept.”

  Yuri Shapoval in Taubman, pp. 12–13. Kaganovich advised him to keep quiet, then told Stalin.

  MR, p. 254; Russian version, pp. 393, 413–4. Mikoyan, p. 556. Sergo Mikoyan: father fanatic. Kaganovich: “Did we permit distortions, outrages, crimes? We did . . . I am responsible politically”: Kaganovich at June 1957 Plenum: RGASPI 17.3.153; see Kaganovich, pp. 35–7.

  Sergo B, p. 157.

  RGASPI 558.11.737.86, I. Ivanov, ex-Secretary Kursk Obkom to Stalin 21 Feb. 1937. On CC arrests, 70 arrested 15: Molotov in Getty, p. 467.

  23: SOCIAL LIFE IN THE TERROR

  Martha Peshkova. “Svetlana khozyaika but I calmed her”: Stalin in Charkviani, pp. 55–7.

  Natalya Andreyeva. Martha Peshkova. Voroshilov knight—Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, pp. 71–3. Stepan and Sergo Mikoyan. Artyom Sergeev. Davies, pp. 119, 193, 26 Mar. 1938. Kaganovich and the jazz: Starr, Red and Hot, pp. 126–9, 178. Thanks to Mariana Haseldine for this. Rustaveli: Beria, p. 84. Pushkin cult: Figes, Natasha, p. 482. Spanish blouses: A. Adzhubei— Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, p. 69. Song words: Fitzpatrick, p. 71. Cheka anniversary: G. D. Raanan, International Policy Formation, p. 171. Pravda, 21 Dec. 1937. Parrish, “Yezhov,” p. 159. My Uncle Stalin: Artyom Sergeev.

  Zarubina, pp. 29–31. Natalya Andreyeva. Sergo and Stepan Mikoyan. Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Sakharov, p. 93. The most sensitive work on the presence and effects of death is Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone, Death and Memory in Russia, pp. 253–63.

  Mikoyan’s pistol: Stepan Mikoyan. Zarubina, p. 32. Yury Trifinov, House on the Embankment.

  Dachas of dead men: Vaksberg, Vyshinsky, pp. 87–93. Svetlana, OOY, p 355. Sudoplatov, p. 103. S. Khrushchev, Superpower, p. 16. Gamarnik’s Zubalovo dacha passed to Stalin’s favourite officer Shaposhnikov after the former’s suicide, while another favourite, Kulik, got his apartment.

  Expunging: Stepan M., p. 25. Leonid Redens.

  School in Terror: Stepan M., p. 37. Richardson, Long Shadow , p. 207. At the NKVD School, No. 50, the arrests were even more intense: Zarubina, p. 32. Svetlana’s desk: Julia Gorshkova. Children and families: PB, 5 July 1937. Jansen-Petrov, p. 100. Trud, 17 Oct. 1997. Memorial-Aspekt, 1993, nos. 2–3. Okhotin and Roginskii, Iz Istorii, pp. 56–7. Young witnesses to arrests: Stepan M., p. 47: the boy in question was Oleg Frinovsky, the tall, handsome son of Yezhov’s deputy at the NKVD. This took place in 1939. Parents vetting friends: Stepan M., p. 47. Igor Boytsov telephoned Voroshilov’s adopted son Timur Frunze. Mikoyan cut relations with the Alliluyevs: Kira Alliluyeva. Yury Zhdanov.

  Leonid Redens. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 56–7. Martha Peshkova.

  24: STALIN’S JEWESSES AND THE FAMILY IN DANGER

  Bronka: based on the author’s interviews with Natalya Poskrebysheva and stories told to her by her aunt Faina, her half-sister Galina and her nanny. Kira Alliluyeva. Also Brackman’s interviews with Bronislava’s first husband, I. P. Itskov, Secret File, p. 329. Itskov claims Bronka only married Poskrebyshev to save her brother from arrest but this seems premature. Also Volkogonov, p. 155.

  Yezhova: Yezhov’s and Yevgenia’s lovers: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 123–4. Simon Uritsky’s interrogation quoted in KGB Lit. Archive, p. 56. Polianski, pp. 190–7. Pirozhkova, p. 105. V. F. Nekrasov, Zelezhnyi Narkom, p. 211. S. Povartzov, Prichina smerti-rastrel, pp. 151. Yezhova was from Gomel but grew up in Odessa.

  Rosa Kaganovich: Kaganovich, pp. 48–50. Jewish women: Sergo B, p. 211. For the myth: see Kahan, Wolf of the Kremlin.

  Svanidze diary, 5 Mar. 1937. Djugashvili, Ded, Otets, Mat i Drugie, pp. 18–24. Julia adventuress: Svanidze diary, 5 Mar. 1937. RGASPI 44.1.1.340–3, Maria Svanidze to Alyosha Svanidze, n.d. Leonid Redens. Kira Alliluyeva.

  Svanidze: MR, p. 174. RGASPI 558.11.27.129, Stalin notes to Yezhov. Maria Svanidze papers, RGASPI 44.1.1.33b. Brackman, p. 287. Mikoyan, p. 359. Kira Alliluyeva. Leonid Redens. Svetlana in Richardson, Long Shadow , p. 143.

  Postyshev: Getty, pp. 503–11. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 231–40. RGASPI 558.11.787.45–6, P. Postyshev to Stalin 16 Mar. 1938. He was arrested 12 Feb. Jansen-Petrov, p. 125. Shitters: RGASPI 558.11.787.6, Stalin to Postyshev on Orders of Lenin, Yezhov holiday 9 Sept. 1931, and Postyshev answers cheekily.


  Jansen-Petrov, p. 124, quoted Suvenirov, Tragediya RKKA, p. 23. On drunkenness: FSB 3-os. 6.1.265–70. Frinovsky and Efimov interrogations, N-15301.7. 193–4, in Jansen-Petrov, p. 124. New quotas: 48,000 in Getty, pp. 518–9, and fall of Yegorov, pp. 521–2.

  Shapoval in Taubman, pp. 19–25; KR I, pp. 129–36. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 2, 1989. Istochnik, 1, 1995. Naumov in Taubman, pp. 88–90, 91–2, 167, 565: people were arrested in the year and a half to 1940.

  Jansen-Petrov, p. 134: case of A. I. Uspensky FSB 3.6.1 and 3.6.3. Extra quota: Moskovskie Novosti, 1992, no. 25.

  Bukharin trial: Conquest, Terror, pp. 367–425.

  25: BERIA AND THE WEARINESS OF HANGMEN

  Kosior and Chubar: RGASPI 558.11.754.122–7, Kosior to Stalin 30 Apr. 1938. KR I, p. 106. Dreams: see Tukhachevsky’s trial. Medvedev, p. 295. Kaganovich, p. 89.

  Stalin to aircraft designer Yakovlev, quoted in MR, p. 262.

  RGASPI 558.11.698.33, Aronstam to Stalin and Stalin’s reply 7 May 1937. RGASPI 558.11.773.94, Mekhlis to Stalin 13 Jan. 1936 or possibly 1937. RGASPI 588.2.156.43, warning to Vyshinsky. Jansen-Petrov, p. 124, quoted Suvenirov, Tragedia RKKA, p. 23. On drunkenness: FSB 3-os.6.1.265–70. Frinovsky and Efimov interrogations, N-15301.7.193–4, in Jansen-Petrov, p. 124. Drunken executioners: Peter Deriabin, Inside Stalin’s Kremlin, p. 42. Parrish, “Yezhov,” pp. 71–7. Yezhov feels Stalin’s dissatisfaction: Jansen-Petrov, p. 143, quoting APRF 7458.3.158–62, Yezhov to Stalin. Even the brutal Beria had at times suffered from the nervous stress of a life in permanent paranoia: “I can’t argue with everyone throughout my lifetime . . . it will ruin my nerves . . . I feel I cannot go on much longer,” he had written earlier in the thirties, Beria, p. 40, L. P. Beria to Ordzhonikidze.

  “Stalinodar”: Jansen-Petrov, p. 117. Parrish, “Yezhov,” pp. 78–88. Slutsky: Jansen-Petrov, p. 230, quotes FSB case of Frinovsky N-15301.3.117–23. Orlov’s account of this is essentially accurate.