RGASPI 558.11.1549.40, Nadya to Keke Djugashvili 12 March 1932. Larina, pp. 65, 142. Bukharin’s influence and Yenukidze: MR, p. 173.
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 Academy, 2 Apr. 1931. Thanks to Robert Service for this information. Interview with Nina Budyonny. Tormentor and Pauker’s “peppery woman”: Orlov, p. 315. Zhenya on sickness and Stalin on caffeine: Svanidze diaries, 9 May 1935 and 11 Sept. 1933. Chicken out of window: Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 90–104, 114–6. Irina Yenukidze interview on TV film, Stalin: Secret History, pt. 3. Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Unbalanced: MR, p. 173.
RGASPI 558.11.754.121, Stalin to Kosior 26 Apr. 1932.
MR, pp. 42–3.
RGASPI 558.11.90–132, Stalin’s meeting with Transkavkaz Kraikom and Secretaries on appointment of Beria. Medvedev, pp. 242–3. Local bosses try to recalclass="underline" Beria, intrigue with Redens: RGASPI 558.11.801.42, Redens to Stalin 14 Nov. 1930.
RGASPI 79.1.777.1, Kaganovich to Kuibyshev 2 July 1932. Holiday: 29 May 1932 meetings with Kaganovich, Kuibyshev, Ordzhonikidze etc.: IA. Tucker, Power, pp. 109–95. Conquest, Harvest , pp. 225–59.
Lakoba, p. 115.
RGASPI 74.2.37.54–9, Voroshilov to Stalin 26 July 1932. Also RGASPI 54.1.100.101–2, Stalin to Kaganovich.
Stalin to Churchilclass="underline" W. S. Churchill, The Second World War, 4, pp. 447–8.
OGPU reports to Stalin on holiday: RGASPI 558.11.79.101 and 129. On 7th August Law: RGASPI 558.11.78.85, Kaganovich, Molotov to Stalin 24 July 1932. Ordzhonikidze also on holiday: RGASPI 558.11.78.39, Stalin to Kaganovich and Molotov 14 July 1932. The Korneiev Case: RGASPI 558.11.79.10, Kaganovich to Stalin 15 Aug. 1932. RGASPI 558.11.79.8–9. Voroshilov to Stalin 15 Aug. 1932. RGASPI 558.11.79.8, Stalin to Kaganovich, Voroshilov 15 Aug. 1932. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 102–3. Chinsky, pp. 88–94. Lose Ukraine, warns Redens: RGASPI 81.3.99144–51, Stalin to Kaganovich 11 Aug. 1932, Kaganovich Perepiska, p. 273. Bukharin and Yenukidze: MR, p. 173.
Riutin: Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 101–2. Kirov, p. 154. Tucker, Power, pp. 210–11. 27 August: IA.
RGASPI 558.11.1551, IA.
On Riutin Platform and Nadya: Radzinsky quotes Vlasik by Antipenko, p. 286. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 101–2. Kirov, p. 154. Tucker, Power, pp. 210–11. So many enemies: Mgeladze, pp. 117–8.
7: STALIN THE INTELLECTUAL
The CC sent Stalin lists of reliable writers arranged into different sections of loyalty and political usefulness. There were old writers like Gorky and a special section for tame outsiders like Alexei Tolstoy and Ehrenburg. RGASPI 558.11.815, Y. Yakovlev to Stalin 3 July 1933.
RAPP as “literary wing”: Orlando Figes’s phrase, Natasha’s Dance, pp. 262–4, 471. KGB Lit. Archive.
RGASPI 74.2.38.89, Stalin to Voroshilov. Mikoyan visits Gorky, Stepan M., p. 38. Svetlana, OOY, p. 327. Martha Peshkova. KGB Lit. Archive, p. 257. Another example of Stalin’s cynical view of Gorky: when Gorky showed Stalin another of his works, in which Bela Kun, the brutal Hungarian Bolshevik, was thanked, Stalin suggested removing Kun’s name: “It will only weaken the effect of Humanism. Greetings! Stalin.” RGASPI 558.11.720.28, Stalin to Gorky 16 Mar. 1934.
KGB Lit. Archive, p. 261. Pravda, 15 Nov. 1930.
Yagoda: Yagoda, pp. 15–18; spending R3.7 m. on his dachas, p. 444. KGB Lit. Archive, pbk, pp. 253–7. “Everyone goes to see someone”: Mandelstam, pp. 79–80, 113. Babel and Yagoda: A. N. Pirozhkova, At His Side: The Last Ten Years of Isaac Babel, p. 63. Timosha and Yagoda: Vasilieva, Deti Kremlya, pp. 283–7. Yagoda’s thoroughbred: RGASPI 74.2.45.
KGB Lit. Archive, pp. 257–9. Radzinsky, pp. 259–63, based on accounts by Peter Pavlenko, Evgeny Gabrilovich and Korneli Zelinsky. Figes, Natasha, pp. 470–74. Brooks, Thank You C. Stalin, p. 108. Evgenii Gromov, Stalin: Vlast i Iskusstvo, pp. 150–5—pearl penknife, “taste of iron,” laughing at first in account of writer K. Zelinsky. A. Kemp-Welch, Stalin and the Literary Intelligentsia, pp. 12–31.
Good Soldier Svejk: Rybin, Oktyabre 1941. Dostoevsky: Djilas, pp. 110, 157. Library: Svetlana, OOY, pp. 14, 327. Still studying: Svetlana, Twenty Letters, p. 222. Reading Chekhov to Alliluyevs: Kira Alliluyeva. Reading Zoshchenko to boys: Artyom Sergeev. Reading Saltykov-Shchedrin to Zhdanov: Yury Zhdanov. Svetlana OOY, pp. 335–7. Reading Knight in Panther Skin to Voroshilov: Ketevan and Shalva Nutsibidze, Nakaduli, pp. 96–105. Deep knowledge of Georgian literature: Charkviani, pp. 68–73. Knowledge of antiquity: MR, p. 177. Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans : Oleg Troyanovsky. Stalin’s library: RGASPI 558.3.186, Anatole France’s Sub Rosa. “Ha-ha-ha!”—see, for example, Gamsakhurdia: RGASPI 558.3.50. Gulia Djugashvili in Enzo Biagi, Svetlana: The Inside Story, pp. 53–4 and Svetlana OOY, p. 336. Stalin reading Gogol, Chekhov, Hugo, Thackeray, Balzac: Stalin wrote his comments on the books as he read them: he really went to town on Anatole France’s Sub Rosa. When France says he wants to write about love and death, Stalin joked: “Pity he didn’t manage it.” When France discusses how the Jewish God was cruel and petty, Stalin noted, “Anatole is quite a big anti-Semite. He was a pedant.” France suggested people followed their own dreams, to which Stalin commented: “Revealed truth,” adding, “Those who trust in God don’t understand him.” On God, he mused, “So didn’t know, did not see God did not exist for me. And where can I go? (Greeting to God) Ha-ha!” France claimed that Napoleon would have chosen the Sun as his God. “Good,” wrote Stalin. On F. Leonidze’s work on Georgi Saakadze, he covered the pages with “What does this mean?” and “Foolish scene.” RGASPI 558.3.186. On Bulgakov: RGASPI 558.11.711.63 and 74–5, Stalin to V. Bil-Belotsarkovsky Dec. 1928, and n.d. J. A. E. Curtis, Manuscripts Don’t Burn: Mikhail Bulgakov: A Life in Letters and Diaries, pp. 69–71, 111–13. On telephone call to Bulgakov: KGB Lit. Archive, pbk, p. 91. RGASPI 558.11.773.44, Stalin to N. Y. Marr 20 Jan. 1932. Stalin loved Zola, “find out what they read” and 500 pages a day: Sergo B, p. 142. On Pilniak: see KGB Lit. Archive, pbk, pp. 139–57.
Easter, pp. 127, 177. “Molot,” 8 Nov. 1932, and Pravda, 19 Nov. 1932. Corpses: Kopelev, p. 33. RGASPI 558.11.1549.40, 12 Mar. 1932. Khrushchev, Glasnost, pp. 14–15. On Stalin’s meetings 8 November 1932: IA. On Yagoda and the report on activities of A. Eismont and A. P. Smirnov: Radzinsky, p. 268. Svetlana, Twenty Letters , pp. 114–6. Caffeine: Svanidze diaries, 11 Sept. 1933. “Arrests just before November dinner: Tucker, Power, pp. 189, 210–11. Artyom Sergeev. Kira Alliluyeva. Natalya Andreyeva. “So much pressure,” enemies; Mgeladze, pp. 117–8.
The gun: Nadezhda’s request to Paveclass="underline" interview with Kira Alliluyeva, 10 July 2001. Artyom Sergeev actually handled the pistoclass="underline" interview May–June 2001. The flat: Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 116–7. Artyom Sergeev. Time of death: Dr. Kushner’s secret report, GARF 7523c.149a.2–7.
8: THE FUNERAL