31. R. W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft, The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–1933 (Basingstoke, 2004), pp. 412–415.
32. James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, 1985).
33. On proposals submitted to Stalin in 1932 to introduce fixed grain procurement norms, see N. A. Ivnitskii, Kollektivizatsiia i raskulachivanie (nachalo 30-kh godov) (Moscow, 1994), p. 191.
34. Politburo resolution, 29 April 1932; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 12, l. 115.
35. Judging by reports from the head of the Procurement Committee to Stalin, as of 1 July 1933—i.e., before the deliveries of grain from the 1933 harvest—Soviet grain reserves, including all grain cultures, totaled approximately 1.4 million metric tons, including more than 1 million tons of grains for human consumption (APRF [Archive of the President of the Russian Federation], f. 3, op. 40, d. 27, ll. 123, 133). Davies and Wheatcroft found these figures in the archives of the Procurement Committee (The Years of Hunger, p. 229). It is known that peasant households in Russia annually consumed an average of 262 kilograms of grain per capita. That figure suggests that these reserves would have been sufficient to provide normal rations for approximately 4 million people for an entire year or even more people at below-standard rations. Even more striking is the quantity of grain exported during the famine. Although the government was forced to cut back, grain exports still totaled 1.8 million tons in 1932 and 223,000 tons during the first half of 1933 (Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, vol. 3, pp. 33–34; Davies and Wheat-croft, The Years of Hunger, p. 440).
36. Oleg V. Khlevniuk, The History of the Gulag from Collectivization to the Great Terror (New Haven and London, 2004), p. 62; Zemskov, Spetsposelentsy v SSSR, p. 20.
37. While formally part of the Russian Federation, the North Caucasus was geographically, economically, and ethnically (due to a significant Ukrainian population) tied to Ukraine.
38. Davies and Wheatcroft, The Years of Hunger, pp. 448–449, 470.
39. Cited in Iu. Murin, comp., Pisatel’ i vozhd’. Perepiska M. A. Sholokhova s I. V. Stalinym. 1931–1950 gody (Moscow, 1997), p. 68.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (1905–1984) has been called a classic writer of Soviet literature and enjoyed Stalin’s particular patronage. Despite his success, Sholokhov continued to live in his native village in the Don region of Russia, a location that exposed him to the realities of collectivization and the Terror. On several occasions Sholokhov appealed directly to Stalin for help.
40. R. W. Davies et al., eds., The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931–1936 (New Haven, 2003), pp. 179–181.
41. Hiroaki Kuromiya, Stalin: Profiles in Power (New York, 2005), pp. 111–112. Historians continue to argue about the anti-Ukrainian nature of the famine and whether it represents a case of genocide. See, for example, Andrea Graziosi, Stalinism, Collectivization and the Great Famine (Cambridge, MA, 2009).
42. Stalin, Works, vol. 13, pp. 253–254.
43. Stalin was referring to a law enacted 7 August 1932 that provided for draconian penalties, including execution, for stealing kolkhoz property.
44. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 799, ll. 24–25, 30–31. A transcript of these discussions was first published in 1951: I. V. Stalin, Sochineniia, vol. 13 (Moscow, 1951), pp. 260–273. The published version of the text was redacted and the discussion of the state of the countryside cited here was cut.
45. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, vol. 3, pp. 527–528, 661–665.
46. Cited in Murin, Pisatel’ i vozhd’, pp. 28–58.
47. Ibid., pp. 68, 145–147.
48. Within the party, many people knew of Trotsky’s speeches. They were even quoted at the January 1933 Central Committee plenum, albeit labeled as “slanderous” (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 514. vyp. 1, l. 55).
49. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, pp. 56, 57–58, 68.
50. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 779, l. 47.
51. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 15, ll. 154–155; G. M. Adibekov et al., eds., Politbiuro TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b) i Evropa. Resheniia ‘osoboi papki’ (Moscow, 2001), pp. 305–306.
52. Stalin, Sochineniia, vol. 13, p. 252.
53. Davies, Harrison, and Wheatcroft, The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, p. 127.
54. RGASPI., f. 17, op. 2, d. 530. ll. 78–98.
55. Khlevniuk. History of the Gulag, p. 63.
56. Peter H. Solomon, Jr., Soviet Criminal Justice under Stalin (New York, 1996), pp. 153–195.
57. APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 71, ll. 11–31.
58. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 16, ll. 88–89. Subsequently, Aleksei Seliavkin fared relatively well. He survived the repression of 1937–1938 and fought in World War II, earning the rank of colonel. He even managed to publish his memoirs in the early 1980s (A. I. Seliavkin, V trekh voinakh na bronevikakh i tankakh [Kharkov, 1981]), a testament to the position of respect he held in Soviet society.
59. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, pp. 121–123.
60. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 31; V. N. Khaustov et al., comps., Lubianka. Stalin i VChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD. Ianvar’ 1922–dekabr’ 1936 (Moscow, 2003), p. 566; V. N. Khaustov and L. Samuel’son, Stalin, NKVD i repressii. 1936–1938 (Moscow, 2009), p. 70.
61. A major part in promoting such accounts was played by the works of Roy Medvedev. See, for example, Roy Medvedev, Let History Judge: The Origin and Consequences of Stalinism (New York, 1972).
62. For more details, see Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Master of the House: Stalin and His Inner Circle (New Haven and London, 2008), pp. 108–116.
63. An examination of the most important evidence is offered in Matthew E. Lenoe, The Kirov Murder and Soviet History (New Haven and London, 2010). My discussion of this event relies heavily on this highly professional and detailed study and on A. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov (St. Petersburg and Moscow, 2001).
64. One of the most recent publications on this subject is based on documents from the archives of the RF Federal Protection Service, the agency responsible for protecting senior officials. See S. Deviatov et al., “Gibel’ Kirova. Fakty i versii,” Rodina, no. 3 (2005): 64.
65. Cited in F. Chuev, Sto sorok besed s Molotovym (Moscow, 1991), p. 310.
66. Cited in Voprosy istorii, no. 2 (1995): 16–17.
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (1895–1940) played a central role in carrying out Stalin’s plans for the mass purges and repression in 1935–1938. Yezhov initially oversaw this campaign in his capacity as the Central Committee secretary charged with monitoring the NKVD. In late 1936 he was placed directly in charge of the organization. Under Stalin’s guidance, Yezhov conducted the large-scale repressive operations of 1937–1938 that constituted the core of the Great Terror. After carrying out the duties that had been placed on his shoulders, Yezhov was arrested and shot.
Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kosarev (1903–1939) was head of the Komsomol, the Soviet youth organization. He was arrested in 1938 and shot in 1939.
67. A. N. Artizov et al., comps., Reabilitatsiia: Kak eto bylo, vol. 2 (Moscow, 2003), pp. 546, 548–549, and vol. 3 (Moscow, 2004), pp. 491–492.