Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  Nadya to Stalin on politics: for example, RGASPI 558.11.1550.10–12, Nadya to Stalin 2 Sept. 1929. She reports how Ordzhonikidze and Rudzutak had met with Voroshilov; and Ordzhonikidze’s view on the economy of Little Kabardia.

  Nadya, Stalin and books. On White literature on Stalin: RGASPI 558.11.1550.65–6, Nadya to Stalin 26 Sept. 1931. RGASPI 558.11.1550.35–6, Stalin to Nadya and Nadya to Stalin 5 and 8 Sept. 1930. RGASPI 558.11.786.123–4, Nadya to A. N. Poskrebyshev 10 July 1932.

  Photographs: RGASPI 558.11.1550.43–5, Stalin to Nadya 24 Sept. 1930. How funny Molotov looks: RGASPI 558.11.21550.65–6, Nadya to Stalin 29 Sept. 1931.

  RGASPI 535.1.53.18, N. Alliluyeva, IKKI, 12 May 1927. On babas: RGASPI 44.1.1.417, Nadya Alliluyeva to Maria Svanidze 11 Jan. 1926. On chickens: RGASPI 78.1.46.

  RGASPI 558.11.1550.9, Stalin to Nadya 1 Sept. 1929.

  Gulia Djugashvili, Ded, Otets, Mat i Drugie, pp. 18–19. Kirov brought Yakov to Moscow in 1921 and looked after him in Petersburg. RGASPI 558.11.1550.10–12, Nadya to Stalin 2 Sept. 1929. On Yasha’s and Nadya’s suicides: RGASPI 558.11.1.213–95, Maria Svanidze diary, 9 May 1935. On Stalin’s joke about Yasha’s suicide: Svetlana Alliluyeva RR. Life in Kremlin, memories of Voroshilov and apartment: Artyom Sergeev. Natalya Andreyeva. Stepan Mikoyan. MR, p. 210. Here Ivan walked: Zubok, p. 16.

  Nadezhda’s looks/mentality: self-indulgence: Vladimir Redens [Alliluyev]. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 90–111. Bazhanov, p 110. Testimony of Nadezhda Stalin quoted in Radzinsky, pp. 278–9. MR p. 164. Artyom Sergeev. Mentally unbalanced: Z. A. Zhdanova quoted in Svetlana, Twenty Letters, p. 112. Smacking Vasily: Rosamond Richardson, The Long Shadow: Inside Stalin’s Family, pp. 130–1. Nadya’s medical records: RGASPI 558.11.1551.

  On presence at the dinner: Andreyevs: Natalya Andreyeva. Mikoyans: Stepan Mikoyan. Ordzhonikidze: Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Bukharin, Molotov, Kalinin: Stalin to Bukharin in Anna Larina, This I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Niko lai Bukharin’s Widow, pp. 142, 291. Pavel and Zhenya Alliluyev: Kira Alliluyeva. Budyonny: Nina Budyonny. White teeth: Isaac Babel, 1920 Diary, p. 89. Story of Nadya dancing with someone else: “Somebody was paying too much attention to her at the party . . .” Nadezhda Stalin (granddaughter who heard the story from Anna Alliluyeva) quoted in Radzinsky, p. 278. Dancing with Yenukidze: interview Natalya Rykov. On Stalin and women: Stalin “quite handsome” etc.: MR, p. 174. “Pretty” Yegorova: A. T. Rybin, Stalin v Oktyabre 1941, p. 20. On Yegorova “dancing and fun”: interrogation record quoted in full by Larissa Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 103–11. “Yegorov’s beautiful wife who used to be a cinema star”: Joseph E. Davies, Mission to Moscow, p. 95; Svetlana Alliluyeva, Only One Year (henceforth Svetlana OOY ), pp. 131, 317; interview Nadezhda Vlasik. Fanmail: RGASPI 558.11.726.61, Rachel Dizik to Stalin and Stalin’s reply 3 April 1931. On Mikulina: IA; E. N. Mikulina’s visit to Stalin: Zhores Medvedev, Politicheskiy Dnevnik, 1975, pp. 364, 428–34, Stalin’s Sochineniya, vol. 12 (1949), pp. 108–15. Story of Rusudana Zhordaniya: A. T. Rybin, Stalin v Oktyabre 1941, p. 18. In author’s interview with A. Mirtskhulava who knew Rusudana well, he ridiculed the idea of an affair: “She was so much younger than him”; Interview Natalya A. Poskrebysheva. On Vlasik: Interview with Nadezhda Vlasik. On success with Party women, Stal and Slavotinskaya: Kaganovich, p. 160. Stalin letter to Tatiana Slavotinskaya quoted in Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 41. On Dora Khazan: Bazhanov, p. 36. On jealousy (ballerina) and “self-indulgent”: interview with Vladimir F. Alliluyev (Redens). On jealousy (lady barber) and madness: MR, p. 173; Natalya Rykova; Davies, p. 95. On Nadezhda’s jealous letters to Stalin: RGASPI 558.11.1550.148, 30 June 1930. Dancing: Kozlovsky in Vladimir Karpov, Rastrelyanniye Marshaly, p. 342. Rosa Kaganovich: Kaganovich, pp. 48–50. On women in the Great Terror: Robert Conquest, Stalin: Breaker of Nations, p. 216. On Politburo (PB) wives 5 July 1937: AP RF 3.58.174.107, quoted in Alexander Yakovlev, A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia, p. 42. Michael Parrish, The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security 1939–1953 (henceforth Lesser Terror): p. 33. All Alliluyevs want to sleep with Stalin: Sergo Beria, Beria My Father: Inside Stalin’s Kremlin (henceforth Sergo B), p. 150: story told to Nina Beria by Svetlana.

  On Stalin and Nadezhda’s marriage: interview Kira Alliluyeva. A “peppery woman”: Pauker quoted by Alexander Orlov, Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes, p. 315. Instability of Nadya: Eteri Ordzhonikidze. “Depression—a form of incipient schizophrenia that plagued” her mother’s family—Svetlana RR. On her self-indulgence, her illness, “even nanny complained she was not interested in the children”—Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). On her rudeness to Stalin: “Shut up”: interview Nina S. Budyonny; and Maria Budyonny (third wife) in Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, p. 72. On “someone paying her attention”: Nadezhda Stalin in Radzinsky, p. 278. On Yenukidze: Natalya Rykova. On the political toast: Rybin, Oktyabre 1941, p. 10. On their rows: beating on the bathroom door, N. S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Papers (henceforth Glasnost), p. 16. Chicken out of the window and Nadezhda “a fool” according to her mother: Svetlana OOY, p. 317. On Polina Molotova’s conversation with Nadezhda on the night of 8–9 November: MR, p. 173, and Svetlana, Twenty Letters , pp. 117–18.

  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.

  1: THE GEORGIAN AND THE SCHOOLGIRL

  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, St
alin 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, Revolutionary, 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.

  2: THE KREMLIN FAMILY

  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, Glasnost, 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.

  On the dinners: Mikoyan—“Political club.” Interview Yury A. Zhdanov: his father, Zhdanov and Stalin compared the dinners to “Symposia.” KR, pp. 70–1. Dinners: Mikoyan, pp. 352–7. Kaganovich, pp. 58, 81. Chess: Maya Kaganovich to Galina Udenkova, author interview. Polina, TeZhe perfume trust: Mikoyan, pp. 298–9. Kira Alliluyeva. Artyom Sergeev. Natalya Andreyeva.

  Stalin runs out of money: RGASPI 558.11.822, Stalin to A. B. Khalatov, Chairman of GIZ, 3 Jan. 1928. Nadya asks for money: RGASPI 558.11.1550.16–24; Nadya to Stalin 26 Sept. 1929. RGASPI 558.11.1550, Stalin to Nadya 25 Sept. 1929. Stalin checks she got it: RGASPI 558.11.1550.28. She did: RGASPI 558.11.1550.29, Nadya to Stalin 1 Oct. 1929.

  Money: RGASPI 558.11.822, Stalin to Khalatov 3 Jan. 1928. KR I, p. 81. Always short of food. On Mikoyan/Polina: interviews with Stepan and Sergo Mikoyan. On Nadya and Dora Khazan on the trams: Natalya Andreyeva. On furniture: RGASPI 558.11.753.3, Stalin to Yaroslavsky and Kalinin 25 June 1925.

  3: THE CHARMER

  RGASPI 558.11.27.16–18, Stalin on what is a kulak, a slave? 1928–9. RGASPI 558.11.765.48–58, Mikoyan to Stalin 23 Aug. 1929 on exhaustion and resistance. Lenin and kulaks: Lenin, Polnoye sobraniye sochinenii, vol. 37, p. 41, and vol. 50, pp. 137, 142–5. Molotov Commission 30 Jan. 1930: “On Measures to Liquidate Kulak Households in Regions of Total Collectivization,” RGAE 7486.37.78.4– 44 and 95–7, on statistics, all quoted in Yakovlev, pp. 91–8. Stalin on embracing Molotov: MR, p. 242. The account of collectivization is based on Tucker and Conquest. Tucker, Power, pp. 94–5, 129, 138–47, 172–6. Tucker quotes statistics on camps: 2 million prisoners, p. 173, those de-kulakized, p. 181; cattle slaughter
ed, p. 182, 5–7 million treated as kulaks in 1930 decree: Service, 20th Century Russia, p. 180. Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow, chs. 6 and 7. On Party culture: Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, pp. 14–21. Service, Lenin, pp. 142, 153–5, 377–8, 458. Tucker, Power, p. 120. Zubok, pp. 3–8; Getty, pp. 5–30. N. K. Baibakov, Delo zhizni: zapiski neftyanika , p. 163. Beria quoted in Andrei Sakharov, Memoirs, p. 159. Plant trembles: Moisei Kaganovich in Service, 20th Century Russia, p. 243. Lev Kopelev, No Jail for Thought, p. 32. Sacredness of “comrade”—Julia Minc in Teresa Toranska, Oni (henceforth Oni), p. 16, total faith, Stefan Staszewski, pp. 128–37, inner need, Jakub Berman, p. 207. Molotov’s contempt for the Nazis and Western leaders; MR, p. 20, and quoted in Zubok, p. 26. Kirov—no theoretical works: MR, p. 221. Stalin on Mao: Zubok, p. 62. Stalin and Krupskaya: MR, p. 133. Stalin and A. S. Yakovlev quoted in Seweryn Bialer (ed.), Stalin and His Generals, p. 99. Lenin and the Terror: quote from Service, Lenin, p. 421. Praise for Stalin as Communist fighter: Rudzutak, 7–12 Jan. 1933, quoted in Getty, p. 93. Stalin and pity for friendships: Stalin to Molotov, 24 Aug. 1930, L. T. Lih, O. V. Naumov and O. V. Khlevniuk, Stalin’s Letters to Molotov (henceforth Molotov Letters), p. 206. Punching: Molotov Letters, Stalin to Molotov, 2 Sept. 1930, p. 210.

  RGASPI 73.2.44.14, Molotov to Andreyev 18 June 1929.

  RGASPI 73.2.44.9, Stalin to Andreyev, “Don’t be angry,” n.d., and RGASPI 73.2.44.13 Stalin to Andreyev, “I don’t think you do nothing,” 11 Mar. 1929. RGASPI 73.2.44.14, Stalin to Andreyev, “Break his back,” 18 May n.d. See also Easter, pp. 112–25.

  Mikoyan, p. 52. Soso: RGASPI 558.11.765.48–9, Mikoyan to Stalin on health of PB, 23 Aug. 1928. Mikoyan’s contempt for Molotov: Stepan Mikoyan, Memoirs of Military Test-flying and Life with the Kremlin’s Elite (henceforth Stepan M), p. 329. Molotov’s contempt for Kaganovich: MR, p. 228–79. Kaganovich rows with Molotov: Kaganovich, p. 61. Sergo and Kaganovich real friends: Kaganovich, p. 162, and in interview with Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Kaganovich excuses himself to Sergo: Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, p. 94.