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 pistoclass="underline" 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.