20: BLOOD BATH BY NUMBERS
The quotas: RGASPI 17.162.21.189. Getty, pp. 468–81. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 82–91. Statistics: Jansen-Petrov, p. 91. “To finish off once and for all”—Order No. 00447. Trud, 4 June 1922, 2 Aug. and 17 Oct. 1997. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 254–6, 210–21: on Yezhov see Voroshilov, 2 Sept.: “Yesterday Comrade Yezhov received Comrade Gribov. I then discussed this with Comrade Yezhov who declared on the telephone he had neither a file nor a case against Comrade Gribov. I judge it possible to appoint Comrade Gribov CO of the North Causasus.” “Better too far”—Jansen-Petrov, p. 89, from Frinovsky testimony FSB N15301.5.110–11. National contingents: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 93–101, quoting NKVD Order No. 00439, 25 July 1937, N. Okhotin and A. Roginskii, pp. 54–71; FSB Order No. 00485; consular contacts: FSB 3.4.104. Statistics of nationals: Jansen-Petrov, p. 99, quoting N. Petrov and A. Roginskii, Polskaya operatsiya, pp. 30, 31, 33. Mongolia: Jansen-Petrov, p. 101. Numbers of PB/CC arrests: Khrushchev quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 103. Total arrests and executions: Jansen-Petrov, p. 104. Rees, p. 169.
“Surpass each other”: Yezhov, in testimony of Frinovsky FSB 3-os.6.3, quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 85. “An extra thousand”: testimony of N. V. Kondakov, Armenian NKVD chief, May 1939, in FSB 3-os.6.4, in Jansen-Petrov, pp. 85–235.
Ehrenburg, Eve of War, p. 197. Mandelstam, p. 321. Tucker, Power, p. 447. Holidays: Jansen-Petrov, p. 79.
RGVA 4.18.62.1–357, Stalin meets army commanders, 3–4 Aug. 1937.
Cannibals: RGASPI 82.2.887.32, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov 14 Apr. 1937.
Svanidze diary, Jan–Feb 1937. Yagoda’s diamonds: Yagoda, pp. 115–61, p. 171, 95–118, 109–17. Yakir’s villas: Shadenko at RKKA meeting, 3–4 August 1937: RGVA 4.18.61.7–66: Stalin commented: “He traded, he couldn’t be without trading.” Voroshilov at NKO, 9–10 June 1937. Glittering receptions: Galina Yegorova’s interrogation, account of the good life at Embassy parties etc. in Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 108–9.
Yakovlev, Century, pp. 8, 15, 20.
Molotov: on Ivan the Terrible in Volkogonov, p. 310. Mikoyan: on Ivan the Terrible, p. 534. “Stalin Molotov i Zhdanov o vtoroy serii filma Ivan Grozny” in Moskovskie Novosti, no. 37, 7 Aug. 1988, p. 8. Budyonny Notes, 8. Teacher and Ivan: RGASPI 558.3.350. Bukharin as “Shuisky” in Kaganovich, p. 74.
MR, p. 254. Kaganovich agreed with this analysis, Kaganovich , pp. 35, 37. Tucker, Power, p. 445. Also G. A. Kumanev, “Dve besedy s LM Kaganovichem,” Novaya i Noveishaya Istoriia, no. 2, 1999, pp. 101–16. Molotov received lists of executions sentenced by tribunals of the Military Collegium almost every day: a typical sample during early 1937 showed that 32 were shot on the Amur railway, 36 on another for being Trotskyite wreckers while a further 20 were shot for “planning terroristic acts against Comrade Kaganovich on his journey to the East.” Molotov underlined the numbers of the executed with his red pen, but never the names. They simply did not matter. IA 1998 p. 17. Death lists: RGASPI 82.2.887.66–9, 70, 133, 163, samples of lists of executions, 26–27 Mar., 3 June, 16 Aug. All Vyshinsky to Molotov, Volkogonov, p. 339.
Children and families: PR 5 July 1937. Jansen-Petrov, p. 100. Trud, 17 Oct. 1997. Memorial-Aspekt nos. 2–3, 1993. Okhotin and Roginskii, Iz Istorii, pp. 56–7. Yakovlev, Century, pp. 39–45. MR, p. 415. Yezhov order Aug. 1937 from Sbornik zakonodatelnykh i normativnykh actov o repressiyakh i reabilitatsii, pp. 8–93. In 1954, there were still 884,057 “specially resettled” children. Clan: Jansen-Petrov quotes Dmitrov, p. 111.
RGASPI 558.11.698.33, Aronstam to Stalin and Stalin’s reply, 7 May 1937.
Father appeals to Stalin and son is spared: RGASPI 558.11.712.11–13, Polish rosegrower: Oni, Roman Werfel, p. 104, and Berman, pp. 235–7. Sergo Kavtaradze. Oleg Troyanovsky. Pasternak and Ehrenburg were protected despite appearing in the confessions of many arrested writers. The Egnatashvili brothers were also protected.
RGASPI 558.11.805.75, Stalin to Stetsky 17 Jan. 1937, and reply.
Budyonny Notes, pp. 28–32.
Tucker, Power, p. 446. The Spanish connection: Vladimir Antonov Ovseenko, Medvedev, pp. 188, 291. See Radosh et al. (eds.), Spain Betrayed, pp. 150–3; Koltsov, p. 267, and denunciation to Stalin and Voroshilov, p. 521, no. 60.
RGASPI 82.2.896.71–5.
RGASPI 558.11.712.65, V. Bonch-Bruevich to Stalin 15 June 1937.
On Kanner. RGASPI 558.11.775.100, E. Makarova to Stalin 2 June 1937. RGASPI 558.11.55.822, Stalin to Khitarov 11 May 1937. RGASPI 558.11.726.22, Varo Djaparidze to Stalin 11 Mar. 1937.
RGASPI 558.11.756.118, N. Krylenko to Stalin 4 Nov. 1937.
Khrushchev to Stefan Staszewski, Oni, p. 158.
21: THE BLACKBERRY AT WORK AND PLAY
RGASPI 558.11.27.129.
FSB Frinovsky interrogation N-15301.2.32–5, quoted in Jansen-Petrov, p. 110.
Jansen-Petrov, pp. 200–1. Razgon, p. 104. Medvedev, p. 241.
Kostyrchenko, p. 269.
Jansen-Petrov, pp. 117–9. Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism , p. 24. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 114–5. Larina, p. 151. Davies, pp. 138, 155.
Jansen-Petrov, pp. 121–3, 199. G. Zhavoronkov, “I suitsa nochiu den,” Sintaksis, no. 32, 192, pp. 46–65; B. B. Briukhanov and E. N. Shoshkov, Opravdaniiu ne podlezhit: Ezhov i ezhovschina, p. 124; B. Starkov, “Narkom Yezhov” in J. A. Getty and R. T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives, pp. 34–5. B. Kamov, “Smert Nikolaia Yezhova,” in Iunost, no. 8, 1993, pp. 41–3. Vasily Grossman, “Mama,” in Znamya, no. 5, 1989, pp. 8–15. Vera Trail, pp. 4–11.
Jansen-Petrov, pp. 123–4. Execution lists: Memorial Archives No. 32D-1355. V. Shentalinsky, “Okhota v revzapovednike” in Novy Mir, no. 12, 1998, pp. 170–96. FSB 3-0s.6.4.238–41.
RGASPI 82.2.904.60, Yezhov to Molotov 12 Mar. 1938.
MR, pp. 277–8. Kaganovich, p. 75. Nina Khrushchev quoted in Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, p. 18. Yakovlev, Century, pp. 15–7. Tucker, Power, p. 448. Medvedev, p. 346. Molotov’s mask: Mikoyan, pp. 321–7.
RGASPI 82.2.897.12–13, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov and Molotov to Yezhov. When Molotov’s bust was smashed, Andrei Sakharov, the physicist, recalled how it became a dangerous political incident, p. 35, while a boy who knocked over a portrait of Stalin and blundered onto his face was arrested. Volkogonov, p. 269.
Rees, p. 153. Volkogonov, p. 306. RGASPI 588.2.155.111–3, Molotov to NKVD 7 Apr. 1938. Stalin personally kept up the pressure on the Premier: “To comrade Molotov,” he wrote on 28 Jan. 1938, “Why was it impossible to predict this business by studying the financial situation? That escaped you? It is necessary to discuss at the Politburo.” Khlevniuk, Circle, p. 258. Execution lists: Memorial Archives no. 32D-1355.
Tucker, Power, p. 447. Kaganovich, p. 46. Medvedev, p. 312. Budyonny Notes, p. 47. Testimony of Galina Yegorova in FSB archives quoted in full in Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 105–11. RGASPI 558.11.749.15/15 and 23, A. Kollontai to Stalin. Stasova: Dmitrov diary, 11 Nov. 1937.