109. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 882, ll. 57–58.
110. Letter dated 1 November 1952; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 903, ll. 42–46.
111. This undated letter was sent from Stalin’s secretariat for Malenkov to deal with on 4 November 1952; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 901, ll. 39–40.
112. Chernobaev, Na prieme u Stalina, p. 551; N. Kovaleva et al., comps., Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich. 1957. Stenogramma iiun’skogo plenuma TsK KPSS i drugie dokumenty (Moscow, 1998), pp. 193–194.
113. On the works of this commission and Stalin’s position on the subject, see Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, pp. 139–140.
114. A. I. Mikoian, Tak bylo. Razmyshleniia o minuvshem (Moscow, 1999), p. 578.
115. RGAE, f. 4372, op. 11, d. 459, ll. 164–170.
116. Kokurin and Petrov, GULAG. 1917–1960, pp. 788–791; RGAE, f. 4372, op. 11, d. 677, l. 9.
117. The inventories did not specify the agency originating the coded telegrams. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 117, ll. 1–173.
118. Ignatiev told this story in testimony given 27 March 1953; N. V. Petrov, Palachi (Moscow, 2011), p. 307.
119. K. A. Stoliarov, Palachi i zhertvy (Moscow, 1998), p. 163.
120. Ibid., pp. 225–226.
121. Ibid., pp. 167–168.
122. Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beriia, pp. 34–35.
123. For more details, see Timothy Blauvelt, “Abkhazia: Patronage and Power in the Stalin Era,” Nationalities Papers 35, no. 2 (2007): 220, 222–223.
124. Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beriia, pp. 29–40.
125. It was at the Nineteenth Party Congress that the party’s name was officially changed from the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, commonly referred to by the acronym VKP(b), to simply the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or KPSS. This name endured until the party and country were abolished in 1991.
126. Mikoian, Tak bylo, p. 573.
127. Ibid., pp. 574–576; Chuev, Sto sorok besed s Molotovym, p. 469; L. N. Efremov, Dorogami bor’by i truda (Stavropol, 1998), pp. 12–16.
128. N. Mukhitdinov, Reka vremeni. Ot Stalina do Gorbacheva. Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1995), pp. 88–89.
129. Volokitina et al., Moskva i Vostochnaia Evropa, pp. 558–566.
130. Explanatory memorandum from Ignatiev to Beria dated 27 March 1953; cited in Petrov, Palachi, p. 297.
131. Ibid., pp. 287, 299–300.
132. Cited in V. N. Khaustov et al., comps. Lubianka. Stalin i MGB SSSR. Mart 1946–mart 1953 (Moscow, 2007), pp. 522–523.
133. Cited in N. V. Petrov, Pervyi predsedatel’ KGB Ivan Serov (Moscow, 2005), p. 124.
134. From a transcript of remarks by Stalin to a commission on reorganizing the Ministry of State Security’s intelligence service, November–December 1952; cited in Istochnik, no. 5 (2001): 132.
135. These press items were edited by Stalin. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 157, ll. 9–14, 29–33; Khlevniuk et al., Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, pp. 392–397.
136. For a detailed examination of this theory about the deportation of Jews, see G. V. Kostyrchenko, Stalin protiv “kosmopolitov”. Vlast’ i evreiskaia intelligentsiia v SSSR (Moscow, 2009), pp. 329–380.
137. B. S. Klein, “Politika SShA i ‘delo vrachei,’” Voprosy istorii, no. 6 (2006): 35–47.
The Dictatorship Collapses
1. A. A. Chernobaev, ed., Na prieme u Stalina. Tetradi (zhurnaly) zapisei lits, priniatykh I. V. Stalinym (1924–1953 gg.) (Moscow, 2008), p. 553; O. V. Khlevniuk et al., comps., Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR. 1945–1953 (Moscow, 2002), p. 436. When the log of visitors to Stalin’s office was published, Tkachev’s name was mistakenly given as Tolkachev.
2. Chernobaev, Na prieme u Stalina, p. 553; Khlevniuk et al., Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p. 436.
3. A. L. Miasnikov, Ia lechil Stalina (Moscow, 2011), p. 295.
4. Khlevniuk et al., TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, pp. 436–437.
5. N. Kovaleva et al., comps., Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich. 1957. Stenogramma iiun’skogo plenuma TsK KPSS i drugie dokumenty (Moscow, 1998), pp. 42, 45. The papers were removed when Malenkov’s assistant was arrested.
6. The decisions were recorded in the minutes of the 5 March 1953 joint meeting of the Central Committee plenum, the Council of Ministers, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Istochnik, no. 1 (1994): 107–111.
7. K. M. Simonov, Glazami cheloveka moego pokoleniia (Moscow, 1989), pp. 257–258.
8. Ibid., p. 260.
9. Svetlana Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters to a Friend, trans. Priscilla Johnson McMillan (New York, 1967), p. 10.
10. Chernobaev, Na prieme u Stalina, p. 553.
11. From Shepilov’s memoirs; cited in Voprosy istorii, no. 3 (1998): 15.
12. A. N. Artizov et al., comps., Reabilitatsiia: Kak eto bylo, vol. 1 (Moscow, 2000), p. 19.
13. V. Naumov and Iu. Sigachev, comps., Lavrentii Beriia. 1953. Stenogramma iul’skogo plenuma TsK KPSS i drugie dokumenty (Moscow, 1999), pp. 28–29.
14. Oleg Khlevniuk, “The Economy of the OGPU, NKVD and MVD of the USSR, 1930–1953: The Scale, Structure and Trends of Development,” in The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag, ed. Paul R. Gregory and Valery Lazarev (Stanford, CA, 2003), pp. 54–55.
15. According to official statistics, between 1 January and 1 October 1953 the number of cows increased from 24.3 million to 26 million, and almost 1 million of that increase took place outside of the collective and state farm system. During that same period the number of pigs increased from 28.5 to 47.6 million, including an increase of 12 million in private herds; Narodnoe khoziastvo SSSR. Statisticheskii sbornik (Moscow, 1956), pp. 119–120. Even with the consideration of possible seasonal fluctuations, these numbers are significant and surely attributable to lower taxes and higher procurement prices.
16. A. V. Torkunov, Zagadochnaia voina: Koreiskii konflikt 1950–1953 (Moscow, 2000), pp. 272–279.
17. This directive was largely in response to the large number of defections from East Germany to the West. See Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beriia, pp. 55–59.
The Funeral
1. Speech by Khrushchev at a dinner in the Bulgarian city of Varna during an official visit on 16 May 1962; cited in Istochnik, no. 6 (2003): 130.
2. Letter dated 10 March 1953 from a group of citizens to the Central Committee and the Supreme Soviet; GARF, f. R-7523, op. 52, d. 18, ll. 94–95.
3. Anonymous letter addressed to Georgy Malenkov, dated 6 March 1953; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1486, l. 157.
4. Ibid., d. 1487, l. 55.
5. Ibid., ll. 66–71.
6. Cited in V. A. Kozlov, Neizvestnaia Rossiia XX vek, vol. 2 (Moscow, 1992), pp. 254–258.
7. Cited in V. A. Kozlov and S. V. Mironenko, 58–10. Nadzornye proizvodstva Prokuratury SSSR po delam ob antisovetskoi agitatsii i propagande. Annotirovannyi katalog. Mart 1953–1991 (Moscow, 1999), pp. 13, 21, 23, 32.
8. There is a long list of published documents and studies on the public mood and mechanisms used to shape it and on social adaptation and the particular mindset that Stalinism strove to shape. Studies vary in terms of their authors’ viewpoints and the aspect of reality they emphasize. See, for example, the following: Sheila Fitzpatrick: The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca, NY, 1992), and Tear off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia (Princeton, 2005); Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995); Sarah Davies, Popular Opinion in Stalin’s Russia: Terror, Propaganda and Dissent, 1934–1941 (Cambridge, 1997); Elena Zubkova, Russia after the War: Hopes, Illusions, and Disappointments, 1945–1957 (New York, 1998); Jochen Hellbeck, Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary under Stalin (Cambridge, MA, 2006).