PROLOGUE: THE HOLIDAY DINNER
This account of 8 November 1932 is based on the memoirs of Molotov and Svetlana Alliluyeva, interviews with the surviving members of the Stalin family and children of the Soviet leaders along with Nadezhda’s health records, letters to and from Stalin, and official reports in the RGASPI and GARF archives, and also published accounts such as Edvard Radzinsky’s Stalin. Nadezhda’s looks: Svetlana Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters to a Friend, pp. 90–111. Boris Bazhanov, Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin, p. 110. Testimony of Nadezhda Stalin quoted in Radzinsky, Stalin, pp. 278–9. Women: F. Chuev (ed.), Molotov Remembers (henceforth MR), pp. 164, 174. Stalin’s diary 8 Nov. Postyshev was also in the meeting, Istorichesky Arkhiv (henceforth IA) 1994 no. 1 to 1997 no. 1 and Index. 1998 no. 4, Posetiteli Kremlevskogo Kabineta IV Stalina 1924–1953. Yagoda: A. L. Litvin et al. (eds.), Genrikh Yagoda Narkom vnytrennikh del SSSR, Generalnyi kommissar gosudarstvennoy bezopastnosti (henceforth Yagoda), pp. 1–20. Yagoda’s Hitlerian moustache: interview Martha Peshkova. Stalin’s looks: honey eyes, interview Maya Kavtaradze. Arm not so bad, old greatcoat: interview Artyom Sergeev. Smell of tobacco; interviews Leonid Redens with author and Svetlana Alliluyeva with Rosamund Richardson (henceforth Svetlana RR). Actors copy gait: Galina Vishnevskaya, Galina: A Russian Story, pp. 95–7. Layout of Kremlin and homes of leaders: interview Stepan Mikoyan. Wonderful time: RGASPI 74.1.429.65–6, diary of E. D. Voroshilova, 21 June 1954.
Security: RGASPI 17.162.9.54, quoted in Oleg Khlevniuk, Le Circle du Kremlin, Staline et le bureau politique dans les années 30. Les jeux du pouvoir, p. 51. On Lenin: Robert Service, Lenin, pp. 400–1. Visits to Bedny: see Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, p. 52. Beggar: MR, pp. 14, 213. N.S. Vlasik, “Moya Biografiya,” Shpion, vol. 8–9, pp. 25–7: until 1927, Stalin had one bodyguard, Yusis, a Lithuanian who was then joined by Vlasik. Hitchhikers: interviews Yury A. Zhdanov, Artyom Sergeev. Sudoplatov, p. 52. Decree on Stalin’s walking: RGASPI 17.162.9.54, quoted in Khlevniuk, Circle, p. 51. F. Chuev (ed.), Tak govoril Kaganovich (henceforth Kaganovich), p. 191. See also MR for the story of how Stalin and Molotov met a tramp walking through Moscow. Kremlin children running into Stalin: interview Natalya Andreyeva.
For the psoriasis theory, which is unproven, see W. H. Bos, and E. M. Farber, “Joseph Stalin’s Psoriasis: Its Treatment and the Consequences” in Cutis, vol. 59, April 1997. Thanks to R. Service for bringing this to my attention. For tonsillitis and sore throats: I. Valedinsky, “Vospominaniya o vstrechah s tov. Stalinym IV” in Muzei Revolutzii, vol. 23, Moscow, 1992, pp. 121–6. Stalin reprimands Vasily: Artyom Sergeev. Also: see Akaki Mgeladze, Stalin kakim ya ego znal, pp. 198–9: “If I had done that, I wouldn’t have been Stalin.” “Five or six Stalins”: Kaganovich, p. 154. Litsedei: see V. Zubok and C. Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (henceforth Zubok), p. 21. The early formation of Stalin’s character: “Joseph Stalin, the Making of a Stalinist” by Robert Service in J. Channon (ed.), Politics, Society and Stalinism in the USSR, pp. 15–30.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.34–5, Stalin to Nadya 21 June 1930. Nadya the snitch: RGASPI 85.28.63.13, Nadya Alliluyeva to Ordzhonikidze, complaining of neglect of Stalin’s call for correct training of technicians at Prodaka demiya, 2 April 1931. Thanks to Robert Service for this information.
RGASPI 558.11.1550, Nadya to Stalin 28 Aug. 1929.
On Nadya’s madness: MR, pp. 173–4. The mental problems of the Alliluyev family: interviews Kira Alliluyeva and Stanislas Redens. Svetlana RR. Polina quoted in Svetlana, Twenty Letters, p. 118.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.27, Nadya to Stalin 27 Sept. 1929.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.8, Stalin to Nadya 29 Aug. 1929. On Vasily’s studies and teacher: RGASPI 558.11.1550.31–2, Stalin to Nadya 2 July 1930. 558.11.1550.61–63, Svetlana to Stalin 21 Sept. 1931.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.7, Nadya to Stalin 28 Aug. 1929. RGASPI 558.11.1550.8, Stalin to Nadya 29 Aug. 1929. Stalin on Nadya’s doctors: RGASPI 558.11.1550.30, Stalin to Nadya 21 June 1930. Stalin’s teeth: RGASPI 558.11.1550.43–5, Stalin to Nadya 24 Sept. 1930 and RGASPI 558.11.1550.34–5, Nadya to Stalin 5 Sept. 1930.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.29, Nadya to Stalin 1 Oct. 1929.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.36–7, Stalin to Nadya 8 Sept. 1930.
RGASPI 558.11.1550.7, Nadya to Stalin 28 Aug. 1929.
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. Fanmaiclass="underline" 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.