Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  Serious disease: Chinsky, pp. 99–100. “That creature”: KGB Lit. Archive, p. 273. Tension: Yezhov and Vyshinsky vs. Yagoda. Vyshinsky frequently complained about Yagoda, obviously with Stalin’s backing. GARF 8431.37.70.134, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov 16 Feb. 1935.

  RGASPI 74.2.37.104, Voroshilov to Stalin 25 June 1936. RGASPI 74.2.38.82, Stalin to Voroshilov 3 July 1936. Kaganovich also called them “scum” in his letter of 6 July when he was on holiday in Kislovodsk: RGASPI 558.11.743.53, Kaganovich to Stalin. On Molotov: Conquest, Terror, p. 103. Orlov, pp. 130–40. Tucker, Power, p. 368.

  RGASPI 558.2.155.104–7, Vyshinsky’s notes form the summing-up for the 1937 trial. Examples of Stalin’s insertions: Tucker, Power, p. 318.

  RGASPI 82.2.8971.8,9,10, Yezhov to Molotov 3 Nov. 1936. Orlov, pp. 162–6. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 183–4. MR, pp. 255–60. Stalin–Molotov disagreement: D. H. Watson, Molotov and Soviet Government: Sovnarkom 1930–41, pp. 160–2.

  “You work poorly”: Larina, p. 94. RGASPI 558.11.27.97, Stalin notes, 13 Aug. 1936. RGASPI 558.11.27.106, Stalin notes, 13 Aug. 1936. Yagoda’s last meeting: IA, 1994: 4.

  RGASPI 558.11.93.20, RGASPI 558.11.93.2, Yezhov and Kaganovich to Stalin 17 and 18 Aug. 1936. Mekhlis, Vyshinsky and Agranov were involved in checking the newspaper articles. Chinsky, p. 102. Kaganovich and Yezhov’s telegrams appear in Kaganovich Perepiska, pp. 629–40, and Chinsky, pp. 102–22. Orlov, p. 169. Tucker, Power, pp. 367–73. Radzinsky, pp. 332–5. Conquest, Terror, pp. 113–17. Stalin’s world of “terrorists” is brilliantly described in Tucker, Power , pp. 399–403.

  Vyshinsky: his description is based on A. Vaksberg, Stalin’s Prosecutor, The Life of Andrei Vyshinsky (henceforth Vaksberg), and quoting Fitzroy Maclean p. 115. Princess Margaret: Sir Frank Roberts quoted in Vaksberg, pp. 253–5. Career: pp. 172–5. Same cell as Stalin and Ordzhonikidze in Bailovka prison, Feb. 1908, pp. 19–21. “People on edge”/sinister, Gromyko, Memoirs, pp. 318–20. Joke on Romanians: Djilas, p. 140. Horn-rimmed specs and bright eyes: Enver Hoxha: Jon Halliday (ed.), Artful Albanian: The Memoirs of Enver Hoxha, p. 119. Temper: Dobrynin, p. 20. Western admiration: Davies, p. 54. W. Bedell Smith, My Three Years in Moscow: charm, pp. 4–5. C. C. Bohlen, Witness to History, pp. 48–9, 285. Recommends shooting: GARF 8431.37.70.7–14. Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov 7 or 8 Jan. 1936. Illustrious Molotov: GARF 8431.37.70.103, Vyshinsky to Molotov: 1 Oct. 1935. Illustrious Poskrebyshev: GARF 8431.37.70.78, Vyshinsky to Poskrebyshev 31 Jan. 1936.

  RGASPI 558.11.93.32–3 and 42–6, Yezhov and Kaganovich to Stalin 19–20 Aug. 1936. RGASPI 558.11.93.35, Stalin to Kaganovich 20 Aug. 1936. Kaganovich Perepiska, pp. 629–40. Chinsky, pp. 102–22. Orlov, pp. 9–71, 169. Tucker, Power, pp. 367–73. Radzinsky, pp. 332–5. Conquest, Terror, pp. 113–7.

  RGASPI 558.11.93.35, Stalin to Kaganovich and Yezhov on Radek 19 July 1936. Tomsky: RGASPI 558.11.93.55, Kaganovich, Yezhov and Ordzhonikidze to Stalin 22 Aug. 1936. Mise-en-scène : RGASPI 558.11.93.65, Kaganovich and PB plus Yezhov to Stalin 22 Aug. 1936, and RGASPI 558.11.93.62–3 and 77–80, Stalin to Kaganovich 23 Aug. 1936.

  Bedny: KR I, p. 101. Tucker, Power, pp. 370–1. Conquest, Terror, pp. 116–7. Radzinsky, p. 334.

  See note 1, chapter 17.

  17: THE EXECUTIONER

  RGASPI 558.11.93.89, Stalin to Kaganovich and PB 24 Aug. 1936. Mikoyan in America: Mikoyan, pp. 300–315. Mikoyan to Kaganovich, letter 17 Sept. 1936, quoted in Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait , pp. 295–6.

  Sudoplatov, p. 165. Michael Parrish, “Downfall of the Iron Commissar NI Yezhov 1938–1940,” Slavic Military Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, June 2001, p. 87. Blokhin, “black work”: Petrov and Scorkin.

  Tucker, Power, p. 373. Vaksberg, Stalin Against the Jews, p. 42. Conquest, Terror, p. 117. Victor Serge, From Lenin to Stalin, p. 146. Orlov, pp. 350–1. Vaksberg, p.

  Political coward: W. Taubman, Khrushchev, Man and Era, p. 266.

  Larina, pp. 47–8, 294–5. Stephen Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, A Political Biography 1888–1938, pp. 368–72. Kaganovich, p. 74. Kaganovich Perepiska, p. 678. Medvedev, p. 333.

  Jansen-Petrov pp. 49–50. Days later, Yezhov was informing Stalin that Yagoda had known of a Trotskyite Centre in 1933 and done nothing about it (p. 53). Yagoda later admitted in his own interrogations that he had bugged Stalin’s calls with Yezhov (p. 226) using the Frinovsky interrogations (Frinovsky N-15301). Spain: this account is completely based on the new archival research in R. Radosh, MR Habeck and G. Sevostianov (eds.), Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War. Stalin barrow boy, NKVD takeover of Republic and aim not to win but to keep Hitler bogged down: see Introduction, pp. xv–xxv and quotations from Paul Preston, Walter Krivitsky and Gerald Howson. For reports on Soviet personnel sent to Voroshilov, see pp. 58–70. Kaganovich and Sergo were involved in economic planning there, see pp. 89–91. For security matters, see Yezhov to Voroshilov, pp. 100–1. Voroshilov sends reports to Stalin: “Read it, it’s worth it,” pp. 145–7. Denunciations to Stalin and Voroshilov by journalist M. Koltsov, pp. 267, 521. Stalin seeks discounts on warships: RGASPI 74.2.38.55, Stalin to Voroshilov 10 Jan. 1932. Jansen-Petrov, p. 54, and F. S. B. Pauker testimony. Kaganovich Perepiska, p. 678.

  Kaganovich Perepiska, pp. 682–3 and pp. 701–2. Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 104–5. Khlevniuk, Stalinskoe Politburo, pp. 148, 152. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 53–5.

  Lakoba, pp. 120–3: Stalin offered the job in December 1935. CC banned use of Abkhazian names, 17 Aug. 1936. Beria, pp. 70–5. Grand Dukes/appanage princes, Stalin at Seventeenth Congress: Getty, pp. 205, 265. Molotov: Tucker, Power, p. 389.

  Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 103–5, 158–9, 178, 190–4. Rees, pp. 118. Friendship of Kaganovich and Sergo, Kaganovich, pp. 62–3. Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, no. 9, 1989, pp. 36–7. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 45–51.

  Mikoyan, p. 328.

  MR, pp. 114–5. Mikoyan, p. 328.

  Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 105–10.

  Natalya Rykova. Larina, pp. 293–5, 139–42. Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 113–4, 139–40.

  “Crank”: RGASPI 558.11.710.48–76, Bukharin to Stalin and Stalin’s note 2 July 1935. “Big child”: RGASPI 558.11.710.91, Bukharin to Stalin and reply. When Bukharin complained of dismissals among his staff at Izvestiya, Stalin sent the appeal to Yezhov who scrawled in favourite red pencil back to Stalin: “All is done—Bukharin doesn’t complain anymore.” RGASPI 558.11.710.78, Bukharin to Stalin to Yezhov to Stalin 13 Jan. 1936 (cc Yezhov section). Radek: RGASPI 558.11.710.163 Bukharin to Stalin 17 Sept. 1936. Bukharin in dreams: RGASPI 558.11.710.164–6, Bukharin to Stalin 24 Sept. 1936. RGASPI 558.11.710.172–8, Bukharin to Stalin and poem.

  “Honey seagull” and pistol: Larina, p. 310. RGASPI 74.2.40.138.1, Bukharin to Voroshilov: “Why hurt me so?” RGASPI 74.2.40.137, Bukharin to Voroshilov 3 Jan. 1935. Bukharin to Voroshilov 1 Sept. 1936. Volkogonov, pp. 295–6.

  My narrative here uses closely the accounts of Getty and Khlevniuk. Plenum: Getty, pp. 304–8, 311–12, 315–29. Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 100, 140.

  Khrushchev, Glasnost, pp. 36–8. Poland: William J. Chase, Enemies Within the Gates?, pp. 234–5, 239, 265. Stalin and Glinka opera, Ivan Susanin, see Svetlana OOY, p. 337. Getty, pp. 333–59.

  Svanidze diary, 5 Mar. 1937. I. Valedinsky, “Vospominaniya,” p. 124.

  Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, p. 101. Rodina, 1995, no. 10, pp. 63–4. Istochnik, no. 1, 2001, pp. 63–77. Sergo believed Pyatakov’s confession: Zinaida Ordzhonikidze in Mikoyan, p. 331.

  RGASPI 588.2.155.104–7, Vyshinsky’s notes of meeting with Stalin. Vyshinsky’s words on 28 Jan. from Conquest, Terror, p. 179.

  Valedinsky, “Vospominaniya,” p. 124.

  18: SERGO: DEATH OF A “PERFECT BOLSHEVIK”

  Tucker, Power, pp. 405–7. Conquest, Terror, pp. 179–85. RGASPI 588.2.155. 104–7, Vyshinsky’s notes of meeting with Stalin. Yury Zhdanov on Stalin joke on apostles. Svanidze diary, Jan.–Feb. 1937. Emotional effervescence in Michael Burleigh, The
Third Reich, A New History, p. 7. Yezhov in Kremlin; Jansen-Petrov, p. 121. Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze, pp. 190–4. Railways: Rees, p. 118.

  This account of Sergo’s last days is based on Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze , pp. 119, 126–42, 145. Mikoyan, p. 329. Also Beria A fair, p. 110. The account of his death is based on the version of Zinaida Ordzhonikidze told to Mikoyan, pp. 331–3, and that of Konstantin Ordzhonikidze, brother, in Medvedev, pp. 195–6. Stepan Mikoyan, p. 38. Eteri Ordzhonikidze.

  Poem: Larina, pp. 328. RGASPI 558.11.710.180–1, Bukharin to Stalin 20 Feb. 1937. Natalya Rykova. Eteri Ordzhonikidze. RGASPI 74.1.429.79, E. D. Voroshilova diary, 1956. KR I, p. 174. Khlevniuk, Circle , p. 261.

  The Plenum is mainly based on Getty, pp. 373–97, 413–9. Larina, pp. 64–5, 146, 330, 334–9. Natalya Rykova. Molotov reading out Voroshilov’s cruel reply to Bukharin’s letter: Volkogonov, pp. 280–6. Railways: Rees, p. 169. Conquest, Terror, p. 193. Postyshev was not yet arrested but was demoted to run the Kuibyshev (Samara) Party: Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 233–4, 262, and Khlevniuk, Ordzhonikidze , p. 171. Tucker, Power, p. 423, 426, 429.

  Walter Krivitsky, I Was Stalin’s Agent, p. 197. Orlov, pp. 147, 221. Tucker, Power, p. 432. E. P. Frolov quoted in Medvedev, p. 339.

  19: THE MASSACRE OF GENERALS, FALL OF YAGODA AND DEATH OF A MOTHER

  Jansen-Petrov, pp. 71–2.

  Yagoda, p. 20 and p. 89 for the search, 28 Mar.–4 Apr. 1937.

  Yagoda, pp. 115–61, 171, 95–118, 109–17, 234, 255–7, 450. Jansen-Petrov, p. 63. Conquest, Stalin: Breaker of Nations, p. 203. Orlov, p. 264.

  Budyonny Notes, p. 25. RGVA 4.19.16.265, Budyonny to Voroshilov 22 Aug. 1936; plus Kaganovich and Voroshilov to Stalin, see earlier. Voroshilov forwards Red Army intelligence intercept from German Embassy to Berlin on Red Army officers including Yegorov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky: RGVA 4.19.1.170–4, 20 Apr. 1936. See also Voroshilov to Stalin on interview of Comrade Tukhachevsky to Polish newspapers: RGVA 4.19.71.52–60, Jan. 1936.

  Stalin’s view of Tukhachevsky’s plans, 1930: RGASPI 74.2.38.59, Stalin to Voroshilov. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 69–70. Timoshenko in Kumanev (ed.), p. 270. Shimon Naveh, Tukhachevsky: Harold Shukman (ed.) Stalin’s Generals, p. 266. “Napoleonchik” in Larina, p. 198. Spahr, pp. 169, 171 (Tukh’s sister’s testimony). Slavic Military Studies , vol. 11, no. 4, Dec. 1998. Book review by John Erickson of Forging Stalin’s Army: M. Tukhachevsky and the Politics of Military Innovation by Sally Stoecker, Boulder, CO, 1998. The phrase “military entrepreneur” is hers. IA, 1998. Kaganovich, p. 100. S. Ushakov and A. A. Stukakov, Front Voennykh Prokurorov, p. 71. Bloodstains: Izvestiya TsK KPSS, no. 4, p. 50, 1989. R. R. Reese, Stalin’s Reluctant Soldiers, A Social History of the Red Army, pp. 131–4.

  Sergo B, p. 22. On her death: RGASPI 558.11.1549.74–92, Stalin’s note for wreath, Tass announcement approved by Poskrebyshev and contents of her house.

  Kaganovich, pp. 45–6, 100. Mikoyan, p. 552. Stepan M., p. 39.

  Rudzutak: Larina, p. 173. MR, p. 273. Kaganovich, p. 89. RGASPI 558.11. 800.113, Rudzutak to Stalin and Stalin’s reply 5 Dec. 1934. Polls: RGASPI 17.2.615.68. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, no. 4, 1989, p. 50. Getty, p. 448. Farts: RGASPI 81.3.100.91–4.

  RGASPI 17.2.630.56, Plenum: Yegorov, 4 Dec. 1937. RGASPI 17.2.614.377, Veinberg, 26 May 1937.

  Izvestiya TsK KPSS, no. 4, 1989, pp. 52–4. Spahr, p. 172. Istochnik, no. 3, 1994, pp. 72–88. Arrest and Testimony of M. Tukhachevsky May–June 1937 by Steven J. Main, Slavic Military Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, Mar. 1997, pp. 151–95. VIZh, nos. 8 and 9, 1991. Molodaya gvardiya, nos. 9 and 10, 1994. For the latest research, see O. F. Suvenirov, Tragediya RKKA 1937/8.

  RGVA 4.18.61.7–66, Voroshilov at NKO 9–10 June 1937.

  Medvedev, p. 345. Vaksberg, Vyshinsky, pp. 104–5.

  RGVA 4.18.62.1–357. Stalin meets army commanders 3–4 Aug. 1937. Voroshilov’s role: Voroshilov to Yezhov note quoted in Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 285. Yakovlev, Century, p. 18. Vaksberg, Vyshinksy, pp. 104–5. Volkogonov, pp. 323–4. Tucker, Power, p. 437. Spahr, pp. 158–65. Ilya Ehrenburg, Eve of War, p. 197. Tukhachevsky’s wife and two brothers were shot while his mother and sisters were exiled. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 4, p. 59. Budyonny: Vaksberg, p. 104. Tukhachevsky Case in 1930: RGASPI 558.11./ 78.43, Stalin to Ordzhonikidze 24 Sept. 1930. RGASPI 558.11.778.38, Menzhinsky to Stalin 10 Sept. 1930. For the story of Stalin, Okhrana file and the generals, see Orlov’s account in Edward P. Gazur, Secret Assignment: The FBI’s KGB General, pp. 441–73. Shooting officers en masse: RGASPI 74.2.38.130, Stalin to Voroshilov, n.d.

  Mekhlis as Stalin’s secretary: Stalin’s orders RGASPI 558.11.68, Stalin to Mekhlis 17 July 1925. RGASPI 558.11.773.92, Stalin on Congress of Writers’ Union to Kaganovich, Zhdanov, Stetsky and Mekhlis 24 Aug. 1934; RGASPI 558.11.773.95, Stalin to Mekhlis criticizing Pravda, 17 Dec. 1936. RGASPI 558.11.773.93, Mekhlis to Stalin 4 Dec 1935. Mekhlis supports Gorky’s request for Stalin to meet Pravda writers. RGASPI 558.11.723.119, Mekhlis to Stalin and Stalin to Mekhlis 27 May 1936. “Comrade Stalin, Gorky has sent us an article . . . which contains philosophical problems . . . I’d like you to read it. L. Mekhlis.” Stalin read it and wrote straight back: “Comrade Mekhlis: Publish without changes.” His days as a literary bully were not quite over. In December, Stalin sent the ex-Pravda editor to purge Kiev and “take all necessary measures” to strengthen “editorial persons on the Ukrainian newspapers.” Henceforth it was the unfortunate military that were to feel the stinging blows of Mekhlis’s “necessary measures.” He joined the CC on 12 Oct. 1937 and became Chief Commissar of the Red Army on 30 Dec. 1937. RGASPI 558.11.702.112, Mekhlis to Stalin, Molotov, Yezhov 19 June 1937, and Stalin’s reply, 20 July, and Mekhlis’s reply, 21 July 1937. RGASPI 558.11.702.99–100, Stalin to Mekhlis 8 Dec. 1937. Stalin laughs at Mekhlis’s “ludicrous zeal”: Charkviani, pp. 30–1. Mekhlis: youth and early career: Y. Rubtsov, Alter Ego Stalina: Stranitsy politicheskoi biografi LZ Mekhlisa (henceforth Mekhlis), pp. 1–100.

  20: BLOOD BATH BY NUMBERS

  The quotas: RGASPI 17.162.21.189. Getty, pp. 468–81. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 82–91. Statistics: Jansen-Petrov, p. 91. “To finish off once and for all”—Order No. 00447. Trud, 4 June 1922, 2 Aug. and 17 Oct. 1997. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 254–6, 210–21: on Yezhov see Voroshilov, 2 Sept.: “Yesterday Comrade Yezhov received Comrade Gribov. I then discussed this with Comrade Yezhov who declared on the telephone he had neither a file nor a case against Comrade Gribov. I judge it possible to appoint Comrade Gribov CO of the North Causasus.” “Better too far”—Jansen-Petrov, p. 89, from Frinovsky testimony FSB N15301.5.110–11. National contingents: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 93–101, quoting NKVD Order No. 00439, 25 July 1937, N. Okhotin and A. Roginskii, pp. 54–71; FSB Order No. 00485; consular contacts: FSB 3.4.104. Statistics of nationals: Jansen-Petrov, p. 99, quoting N. Petrov and A. Roginskii, Polskaya operatsiya, pp. 30, 31, 33. Mongolia: Jansen-Petrov, p. 101. Numbers of PB/CC arrests: Khrushchev quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 103. Total arrests and executions: Jansen-Petrov, p. 104. Rees, p. 169.

  “Surpass each other”: Yezhov, in testimony of Frinovsky FSB 3-os.6.3, quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 85. “An extra thousand”: testimony of N. V. Kondakov, Armenian NKVD chief, May 1939, in FSB 3-os.6.4, in Jansen-Petrov, pp. 85–235.

  Ehrenburg, Eve of War, p. 197. Mandelstam, p. 321. Tucker, Power, p. 447. Holidays: Jansen-Petrov, p. 79.

  RGVA 4.18.62.1–357, Stalin meets army commanders, 3–4 Aug. 1937.

  Cannibals: RGASPI 82.2.887.32, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov 14 Apr. 1937.

  Svanidze diary, Jan–Feb 1937. Yagoda’s diamonds: Yagoda, pp. 115–61, p. 171, 95–118, 109–17. Yakir’s villas: Shadenko at RKKA meeting, 3–4 August 1937: RGVA 4.18.61.7–66: Stalin commented: “He traded, he couldn’t be without trading.” Voroshilov at NKO, 9–10 June 1937. Glittering receptions: Galina Yegorova’s interrogation, account of the good life at Embassy parties etc. in Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 108–9.

  Yakovlev, Century, pp. 8, 15, 20.

 
; Molotov: on Ivan the Terrible in Volkogonov, p. 310. Mikoyan: on Ivan the Terrible, p. 534. “Stalin Molotov i Zhdanov o vtoroy serii filma Ivan Grozny” in Moskovskie Novosti, no. 37, 7 Aug. 1988, p. 8. Budyonny Notes, 8. Teacher and Ivan: RGASPI 558.3.350. Bukharin as “Shuisky” in Kaganovich, p. 74.

  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.