Stalin

83. Kirilina, Neizvestny Kirov, 218; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 157. The witness accounts are supported by the post-Stalin memoirs of Rosliakov (first put to paper around 1959–60, and published in 1991), who was the deputy director of Leningrad regional planning (for finances), and was in Chudov’s office and one of the first to the scene. (Rosliakov believed Stalin organized the assassination.) Silverest Platoch, an electrician, was fixing the light fixtures on the third floor; Grigory G. Vasilyev, a stockman, was also there, to carry a typewriter from the secret department to the former Tauride Palace for the speech.

84. “It seems to be the most likely that at the moment Kirov was wounded he was not in a vertical position.” Deviatov et al., “Gibel’ Kirova,” 64; author interview with Devyatov in Moscow (Dec. 23, 2014). Kirov’s body was cremated at the Donskoi Monastery; his clothing was preserved at a museum dedicated to him in Leningrad.

85. RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 117, l. 1–18 (Pelshe commission report, 1966); Petukhov and Khomchik, “Delo o ‘Leningradskom tsentre,’” 15–8; Rosliakov, Ubiistvo Kirova, 43–4; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 763n30 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d, 13, l. 314-6: Kulesh, 1960).

86. The person closest to Kirov at the time of the shot, Platoch, who upon seeing an approaching Kirov had turned his back to lock the glass door (it had been opened to use the elevator to transport the typewriter), claims when he heard the shot he turned again and saw Kirov on the floor in the corridor alongside another male, whom he punched in the face. Another witness, Mikhail Lioninok, a city party functionary, claimed he came into the hall after hearing the first shot and saw Nikolayev standing, screaming, waving the gun, and then firing the second shot. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 153–4 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 44, l. 22: Platoch testimony, Dec. 1, l. 15–7: Molochnikov testimony, Dec. 9; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 113, l. 18–20: Platoch testimony, Dec. 2), 154 (TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 24, l. 81: Dec. 1), 167 (TsA FSB a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 12, l. 15–6: Nikolayev testimony, Dec. 3). On the bullets, see RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 117, l. 1–18 (Pelshe commission report, 1966); Petukhov and Khomchik, “Delo o ‘Leningradskom tsentre,’” 15–8; Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 43–4; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 763n30 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d, 13, l. 314–6: Kulesh, 1960).

87. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 170, 671–2, 764n32. The autopsy, performed on Dec. 2, determined that the bullet from the Nagant had entered Kirov’s cerebellum from behind, near his left ear, passed through the cerebellum and part of the left side of the temporal lobe, then bounced backward off the front of the skull slightly above the left eye; Kirov fell face forward with the left side of his forehead hitting the floor, and the combined bullet ricochet and floor impact cracked his skull, causing massive bleeding and bruising. He died instantly. Kirilina, Neizvestny Kirov, 223–5 (Kirov Museum, f. III-293, l. 1–4).

88. Deviatov et al., “Gibel’ Kirova,” 64 (TsA IPD StP, f. 25, op. 5, d. 52, l. 3–4, 119; d. 54, l. 53, 56).

89. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 211–4; Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 40; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 150 (citing RGANI, f. 6. op. 13, d. 73, l. 114–5: testimony of NKVD courier M. F. Fyodorova).

90. Rimmel, “Kirov Murder and Soviet Society,” 59, 62–4. Pavel Sudoplatov, whose wife (Emma Kaganova) was said to have helped compile a list in the central NKVD of Kirov’s mistresses and possible mistresses, wrote that Draule and Kirov were intimate, but that party leaders refused to acknowledge their hero had died because of adultery. Sudoplatov also asserted that Draule was a waitress in the Smolny cafeteria, and had considered filing for divorce. Sudoplatov, Razvedka i kreml’, 60–1; Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 50–1.

91. Kirilina, “Vystrely v Smol’nom,” 33, 70–8 (interview with interrogator Leonid Raikhman, recounting his Dec. 2, 1934, interrogation of Draule).

92. Tatyiana Sukharnikova, director of the Kirov Museum in St. Petersburg, with the aid of Marx Draule, was able to read through all eighty-five volumes of the Kirov investigation in secret police archives, and reported that the notebook-diary is in Nikolayev’s hand and that there is no mention of an affair between Draule and Kirov. Sukharnikova, “My nagnali takoi”; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 691–2.

93. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 171–2 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 62, l. 62–76: Fomin testimony, March 1, 1956; TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 24, l. 332–3: clinic examination, Dec. 1); Sedov et al., “Spravka,” 465; Petukhov and Khomchik, “Delo o ‘Leningradskom tsentre,’” 18 (Isakov, March 15, 1961); Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 251.

94. The interrogator noted that, upon reading the written record, Nikolayev “categorically refused to sign the present protocol of his testimony, and attempted to rip it up.” Zhukov, “Sledstvie,” 37; Petukhov and Khomchik, “Delo o ‘Leningradskom tsentre,’” 18; Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 250, 406–7; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 256–9 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 1, l. 92–9).

95. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 390–1 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 60, l. 47); Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 151 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 71, l. 14). Why Medved’s telegram was sent so late—well after Kirov was dead and Draule had been arrested—remains puzzling.

96. Sedov et al.,” Spravka,” 491; Deviatov et al., “Gibel’ Kirova,” 58; Koenker et al., Revelations, 73–4 (Poskryobyshev’s written recollections, 1961). Poskryobyshev recalled Stalin not being in; this could be faulty memory, or a reflection of the fact that Poskryobyshev’s office was in the Kremlin’s Imperial Senate, while that day Stalin was at Old Square.

97. Chuev, Tak govoril Kaganovich, 71–2.

98. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 259 (citing RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 62, l. 62–76: Fomin, 1956).

99. Molotov has Stalin saying “shliapy,” but he could have used saltier language. Chuev, Molotov, 376.

100. Pravda, Dec. 2 and 4, 1934; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 488 (APRF, f. 3, op. 62, d. 95, l. 14–15ob.).

101. Na prieme, 142. This was Suslov’s first recorded visit to Stalin’s office.

102. Pravda, Dec. 4, 1934. A draft terrorist law had been prepared after an earlier assassination (Voikov, the Soviet envoy in Warsaw, in 1927). Now, this one would be approved by telephone poll of politburo members by Dec. 3, but dated the day of the assassination. Pravda, Dec. 4, 1934; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 87; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 795n55, 796n60; Khaustov et al., Lubiankia: Stalin i VChK, 137–8 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 3, l. 113–113ob.); Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 252 (APRF, f. 3, op. 62, d. 95, l. 1); Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 233. Both the decree and the order for the special train were issued after the assassination. Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen, 240–5. The Dec. 1 decree scuttled the work of the commission and its draft politburo resolution on “rooting out illegal methods of investigation.” Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 132–3.

103. Local newspapers for the next morning, as well as some late-night extra editions, carried the announcement. Leningradskaia pravda, Dec. 2, 1934; Kirilina, Rikoshet, 30–1; Rimmel, “Kirov Murder and Soviet Society,” 21, 27–8; Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collection, Hoover Institution Archives, series 212, box 249, file 3 (V. I. Rudolf-Iurasov memoir). Ehrenburg’s name along with that of Pasternak and other writers was affixed to a note that appeared in Izvestiya (Dec. 2). Liudi, gody, zhizn’, in Ehrenburg, Sobranie sochinenii, IX: 53.

104. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 173–5 (TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 24, l. 1–2), 177–8 (l. 3–4). The consulate was actually at 43; the phone number was correct. Ves’ Leningrad na 1933 g. (Leningrad: Lenoblispolkom i Lensovet, 1934), 19.

105. Taubman, Khrushchev, 69, 71 (quoting Gostinskaya); Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 39, 92.

106. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 232 (A. Tammi).

107. Agranov took possession of the case materials at 11:00 a.m., and put the local army garrison, local NKVD troops, and regular police, as well as Fomin, at Pauker’s disposal. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 263 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 62, l. 62–76). Stalin, according to Fomin, demanded all operational documents concerning anti-Soviet groups and individuals, and, after looking over the list said, “Your recording-keeping is poor.” Petukhov and Khomchik, “Delo o ‘Leningradskom tsentre,’” 19 (Fomin recollections).

108. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 152–3 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 71, l. 14: Borisov’s Dec. 1 interrogation), 159 (l. 15–7: Molochnikov, Dec. 9), 263 (d. 92, l. 169–72: Zavilovich, Dec. 4).

109. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 414–27 (TsA FSB, a.u.d., N-Sh44, t. 24, l. 253–4: Maly, 255–6: Vinogradov, 259–62: Kuzin, twice; 242–44: expert commission report, 291–2: Chopovsky; RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 1, l. 10–53: Khvuiizov; d. 2, l. 78–107: Aug. 1956 commission report; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 271, l. 539–40), 686 (Lyushkov, 1939); Sedov et al., “Spravka,” 494–8; “O kul’te lichnosti,” 138; Kirilina, Neizvestny Kirov, 343–54.

110. The bodyguard responsible for the entire third floor, Nikolai Dureiko, had been even farther behind Kirov than Borisov on Dec. 1, and he was not killed in a vehicle accident. In fact, no other operative was killed.

111. Fomin and others, seeking a foreign link, had again interrogated Nikolayev in the wee hours on Dec. 2. After Stalin’s arrival, the Leningrad NKVD interrogated Nikolayev again, on Dec. 3. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 260–1 (TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 12, l. 12–4), 157, 249–50 (TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 12, l. 15–6: Nikolaev interrogation, Dec. 3).

112. See Stalin’s response to the incident (Aug. 5, 1934) involving Artyom Nakhayev, who brought unarmed cadets to an infantry barracks in Moscow and told them to start a new revolution: “He is, of course (of course!), not alone . . . He is probably a Polish-German (or Japanese) agent.” Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 411–2, 421, 425, 429, 431–2, 437, 459–60; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 87; Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 565 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 84, l. 15: Agranov to Stalin, Aug. 26, 1934), 818–9n147; Khromov, Po stranitsam, 154–5. Nakhayev had been expelled from the party and the Red Army for supporting the Trotskyite opposition in 1926–28. Zdanovich, Organy, 326 (citing TsA FSB, delo R-45677, l. 1).

113. Molotov added: “I don’t think any woman was involved.” Chuev, Sto sorok, 310–1; Chuev, Molotov, 376.

114. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 264–7 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 21, l. 86–93: A. I. Katsafa, who retook custody of Nikolayev after the interrogation); Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 46; Artizov, Reabilitatsiia: kak eto bylo, I: 296 (Molotov, Dec. 31, 1955).

115. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 271–3 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 79, l. 1).

116. The NKVD pursued not the German but the Latvian consul connection. Nikolayev proved able to pick the Latvian consul (Georgs Bissenieks) out of eighteen photographs, and to describe the facility’s interior. Bissenieks was expelled from the Soviet Union on Dec. 30, 1934. (The Soviets would capture and execute him in 1940–1.)

117. Sedov et al., “Spravka,” 482. Mikoyan is among the many sources who falsely assert that from the first minutes Stalin fingered the Zinovievites. Mikoian, Tak bylo, 316.

118. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 955, l. 20. A former Socialist Revolutionary who had joined the Bolsheviks in 1919, Kandelaki had served as commissar of enlightenment in Georgia (1925–30) and Soviet trade representative in Sweden. He would make twenty visits to Stalin’s office, according to the logbooks. Na prieme, 627.

119. Gnedin, Iz istorii otnoshenii, 34–5; Gnedin, Katastrofa i votoroe rozhdenie, 237–9. See also Raymond, “Witness and Chronicler.”

120. Rybin, Riadom so Stalinym, 10.

121. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 970–2 (RGASPI. f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 70–3). See also Mikoian, Tak bylo, 115, 148–50. The filmed Kirov speeches were to the second Leningrad province congress of collective farmers (July 17, 1933) and the Leningrad party plenum (Oct. 10, 1934). The documentary would open Jan. 14, 1935. Bliokh was awarded the Order of Lenin.

122. According to the heavy industry staffer Semyon Ginzburg, for days after Kirov’s death Orjonikidze would not appear at the commissariat. Upon his return, the staff “did not recognize the typically enthusiastic and vivacious Sergo. He had turned gray and aged noticeably. He often seemed lost in thought, with a face heavy from grief.” Ginzburg, “O gibeli Sergo Ordzhonikidze,” 89. Zinoviev and his former supporter Grigory Yevdokimov evidently sent an obituary to Pravda, which refused to publish it. Pravda, Aug. 15, 1936.

123. Stalin also liked “The Varangian” (“Tell the whole word, seagulls, the sad news: they did not surrender to the enemy, they fell for Russian honor”). Sergeev and Glushik, Besedy o Staline, 22–3, 78.

124. Stalin added: “Moreover, in the hands of talented masters, it is the most powerful art. We, the leaders, need to get directly involved in the work of cinema to help this extremely important cause. Those working in film need to take a great deal of care to ensure that films should be varied, that, together with serious works there should also be jolly ones, as in theatre, so that the viewer, depending on his mood and his level, might choose where he’d rather go today.” Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 973–42 (RGASPI. f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 74–5).

125. Taranova, Golos Stalina, 69–70. Levitan had been designated to break the news of Kirov’s assassination for the Soviet public, but he had been out sick. His voice (“Moscow speaking!”) was now heard across the USSR multiple times a day, in a broadcast known as “The Latest News,” from a studio at the Central Telegraph Station. (Natalya Tolstova was the second-most-heard voice.) Legend also has it that Stalin, in his office working on Jan. 25, 1934, on his speech for the 17th Party Congress, had turned up the dial on the radio and heard Levitan, who after a three-year training period, had finally gotten a chance to be assigned to read the next morning’s edition of Pravda over the radio; Stalin called the head of Soviet radio, Konstantin Maltsev, and directed that his congress report the next day—a five-hour performance—be read over the radio in its entirety by the same announcer. Taranova, Golos Stalina, 55–6. See also Tolstova, Vnimanie, vkliuchaiu mikrofon!; Liachenko, “Tak proletelo sorok let . . . ,” 47–51; and Goriaeva, “Veilkaia kniga dnia,” 77 (GARF, f. R-6903, op. 1 l/s, d. 25, l. 24).

126. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiaikh, 168 (Svanidze diary: Dec. 5, 1934).

127. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 281–3 (TsA FSB, u.a.d., N-Sh44, t. 12, l. 95–6: Nikolayev interrogation, Dec. 4). Agranov reported to Stalin and Yagoda (Dec. 5) over the phone that, according to Draule’s interrogation, “until August she participated in the compilation of her husband’s diary. She confirmed that she read several of his entries that carried a counterrevolutionary character.” He added that Draule’s relatives, in Latvia, were “traders” (i.e., class enemies) and that her brother in Leningrad had been sentenced to a three-year term in a labor colony for embezzlement. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 393 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 60, l. 1–6).

128. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 391–6 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 60, l. 1–6); Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 285–7 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 71, l. 23–6). Nikolayev, in an interrogation protocol (Dec. 13) delivered to Stalin, “confessed” that he belonged to a “group” of former oppositionists (Shatsky and Kotolynov), which adhered to Trotskyite-Zinovievite views and “considered it necessary to change the existing party leadership by all possible means.” This passage was underlined in pencil. The protocol further stated that they had directed Nikolayev to make it appear he acted alone “to hide the participation of the Zinovievite group.” This passage was also highlighted with pencil. Agranov called the threesome “best friends.” He tried to get Nikolayev to confess that his visits to the German and Latvian consulates in summer and fall 1934 constituted attempts by his “group” to contact Trotsky abroad. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 578–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 198, l. 2); Zhukov, “Sledstvie.”

129. Khlevniuk, Stalin: zhizn’, 187 (no citation).

130. Na prieme, 144; Mikoian, Tak bylo, 316. Agranov was relieved of his post as acting director of the Leningrad NKVD to focus on the investigation; Zakovsky was appointed in his place (Dec. 10).

131. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 304 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 138, l. 4–9; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 271, l. 542); Kotolynov had been expelled in 1927 and reinstated in 1928. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 411.

132. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 49–50 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 130, l. 161), 51 (d. 131, l. 34). From Dec. 1934, Polish-language instruction at schools and institutes was curtailed or eliminated. Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 208 (citing TsDAHO, f. 1, op. 16, spr. 12, ark. 278, 304, 313).

133. Murin, Stalin v ob’iatiakh, 167; Na prieme, 144.

134. Zhukov, “Sledstvie,” 42.

135. Kotolynov claimed he heard the following from Zinoviev: “It would be better if he [Stalin] did not exist.” Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 416.

136. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 577–8 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 198, l. 8, 9).

137. When they came for Zinoviev at night, he hastily composed a note to Stalin: “In no way, no way, am I guilty before the party, before the Central Committee or before you personally. I swear to you all by everything that is holy to a Bolshevik, I swear to you by Lenin’s memory. I cannot even imagine who could have raised suspicion against me. I beg you to believe this, my word of honor. I am shaken to the depth of my soul.” Stalin did not answer. He had Zinoviev, along with Kamenev, expelled from the party again on Dec. 20. The first draft of the indictment (Jan. 13) would note that Zinoviev and Kamenev pleaded innocent; the indictment soon changed. “O dele tak nazyvaeomom ‘Moskovskom tsentre.’”

138. “O dele tak nazyvaeomom ‘Moskovskom tsentre,’” 80; Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie portsessy, 154.

139. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 955, l. 42 (Dec. 19, 1934). “We lived and live under an unflagging regime of terror and force,” the Nobel Laureate Ivan Pavlov wrote to the Council of People’s Commissars (Dec. 21, 1934). “I more and more see the parallel between our life and the life of ancient Asiatic despotisms . . . Remember that humans, descended from animals, can fall easily, but elevating them is difficult . . . Take pity on the motherland and on us.” Sovetskaia kul’tura, Jan. 14, 1989.

140. Na prieme, 144. Akulov, frozen out by the clans at the OGPU, had been removed as first deputy there in Oct. 1932; he had been named USSR procurator general with the position’s creation on June 20, 1933. Golunskii, Istoriia zakonodatel’stva SSSR, 510–1; Kolpakidi and Seriakov, Shchit i mech, 343. In Feb. 1936, Akulov would fall off a horse, cracking his skull. “Bolezn’ tov. Akulova,” Pravda, Feb. 28, 1936: 6. Akulov would be arrested (July 1937) and executed.

141. Svetlana developed a high temperature (from scarlet fever). Sergeev and Glushik, Besedy o Staline, 144, 147.

142. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 169–71 (Maria Svanidze diary: Dec. 23 and 28, 1934). Svanidze effectively confessed to her diary that she was in love with Stalin, and vied with many women for the now twice-widowed Stalin’s attention: Sashiko and Mariko Svanidze, the sisters of Stalin’s deceased first wife; Anna Alliluyeva; Yevgeniya “Zhenya” Alliluyeva (Stalin’s sister-in-law, married to Pavel Allilyuev, Nadya’s elder brother)—all of whom hoped to become indispensable to “poor Iosif,” as Maria described him. Svanidze imagined that Stalin was having an affair with Zhenya (b. 1898), since he was attentive to her and the two were often missing at the same time. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 157–8.

143. On Dec. 25 at 9:15, Stalin convened a meeting in his office to discuss and edit the indictment; the sentence of execution for all fourteen defendants was printed before the trial commenced. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 344–52 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 34, l. 36; TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 1, l. 1–16).

144. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 396–404 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 60, l. 48–56, 33); Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 358–77. Others have Nikolayev supposedly falling to the ground and shouting, “You cannot shoot me. Comrade Stalin promised . . .” Kirilina, Rikoshet, 67.

145. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 303 (Matveyev).

146. Sedov et al., “Spravka”; Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 302–3; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 370–1 (RGANI, f. 6, p. 13, d. 24, l. 51–68).

147. Maslov and Chistiakov, “Stalinskie repressii i sovetskaia iutsitsiia,” 105.

148. Lugovskaia, Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl, 140.

149. Stalin had the politburo in May 1934 decree the Stalin Institute, in Tiflis, subordinated as an affiliate to the central Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute. Still, whether he was fully aware of the enormous pile of documents concerning his youth that was being accumulated remains unclear. Kun, Stalin, 3–4.

150. Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 1–57.

151. Lakoba, Stalin i Khashim, 5, 32–5.

152. Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 2–22. Sebastian Kirakozov made a painting of Stalin and Hashim. Kravchenko, Stalin v izobrazitel’nom iskusstve, opposite 26.

153. See also the intrigue surrounding Baron Bibineishvili’s biographical celebration of Kamo (1934), the revolutionary bandit: Sukharev, “Litsedeistvo,” 107, citing PA IIP pri TsK KP Gruzii, f. 8, op. 1, d. 22, l. 5; f. 14, op. 9, d. 18, l. 239. Bibineishvili, Kamo.

154. Enukidze, Nashi podpol’nye tipografii Kavkaza.

155. Shaumian, “Stoikii bol’shevik.”

156. Yenukidze wrote a response (Jan. 8, 1935) claiming the mistakes were not his; Stalin marked up and had Yenukidze’s response circulated. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 351–5 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 206, l. 111), 355–61 (d. 728, l. 108–24); Enukidze, Bol’shevistskie nelegal’nye tipografii.

157. Stalin had ordered a film crew out of the 16th party conference in April 1929 for creating a ruckus (“turning the conference into a bazaar”). Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 100 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 132, l. 77).

158. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 227 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 379, l. 163–4), 229–30 (d. 661, l. 97–9: Jan. 17, 1934). “Newsreels are an interesting type of art, they have notably done well here, they are pleasant and edifying to watch,” Stalin remarked after watching the May Day 1934 newsreel. Typically, he wanted them shortened and sharpened. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 919–23 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 27–30).

159. Bulgakowa, Eisenstein, 137 (citing Eisenstein archive, 1923–2–1116); Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 139 (PARf, f. 3, op. 35, d. 87, l. 13). Geduld and Gottesman, Sergei Eisenstein and Upton Sinclair. On Dec. 1, 1931, Eisenstein’s colleagues in Moscow pronounced the AWOL director a “deserter.” Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 150 (APRF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 87, l. 27: Yukov, Dec. 1, 191), 151 (l. 32: Shumyatsky, Dec. 1). On May 20, 1932, eleven days after Eisenstein and his assistant Grigory Alexandrov had finally arrived back from their three-year sojourn, they asked for an audience with Stalin, who wrote on the request, “I cannot receive them, no time.”

160. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 184 (APRF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 87, l. 81: June 8, 1932). See also Pyr’ev, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, I: 64; Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 176–7 (APRF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 87, l. 77–8), 180 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 403, l. 62); and Pravda, Jan. 23, 1973. Thunder over Mexico, attributed to Eisenstein, was screened in Los Angeles on May 10, 1933. In July 1933, he entered a hospital in Kislovodsk with depression. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 195–200 (RGASPI, f. 142, op. 1, d. 586, l.11–22).

161. Shumyatsky had only been able to show parts of the film at the first screening; a week later he showed it in its entirety. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 940–5 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 46–60: July 14, 1934), 945–7 (l. 51–2), 947n3 (d. 27, l. 88). One of the film’s numbers, “Such a lot of nice girls!,” would be immortalized as the tango “Heart” by Pyotr Leshchenko. Stalin tended to like thoughtful songs, even those a bit sad (such as “Suliko”) but he was captivated by the dance numbers. Stalin’s thirst for relaxation was immense. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 947–9 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 53–4).

162. Aleksandrov, Epokha i kino, 159; Kushnirov, Svetlyi put’, 96–7; Shumiatskii, Kinematografiia millionov, 236. On the resistance of some musicians to the acting tricks under Utyosov, and the changeover in his band’s personnel, see Batashev, Sovetskii dzhaz, 40–3; and Chernov and Bialik, O legkoi muzyke, 120. Igor Savchenko, the Ukrainian filmmaker, had actually made the first Soviet musical comedy, The Accordion (June 1934), about a youth who stops playing the supposedly frivolous instrument after he becomes a village Communist Youth league secretary. Aleksandrov, Epokha i kino, 196; Zel’dovich, Liubov’ Orlova, 17. Stites, Russian Popular Culture, 90–2.

163. “A film and its success are directly linked to the degree of entertainment in the plot,” Shumyatsky had noted in Dec. 1933. But that year, of the eight Soviet films released, a mere three were comedies. Shumiatskii, “Tvorcheskie zadachi templana”; Taylor, “Ideology as Mass Entertainment,” 193.

164. At the orgburo cinema commission, Jolly Fellows came in for severe criticism as “counterrevolutionary” and “muck, hooliganism, false throughout.” Sidorov, “‘Veselye rebiata’—komediia kontrrevoliutsionnaia,” 73–4; (RGASPI, f. 74, op. 1, d. 293, l. 18–20: July 28, 1934), 75 (l. 21: July 29). Iurii Saakov, “Secha v kommunal’noi kvartire,” Iskusstvo kino, 1995, no. 2: 134-44; Salys, Films of Grigorii Aleksandrov, 34. Stalin had the orgburo cinema commission dissolved. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 246–7, 248, 252 (f. 17, op. 163, d. 1048, l. 156: Dec. 17, 1934), 252n3 (op. 3, d. 955, l. 57). Shumyatsky showed Stalin a screed in Literarturna gazeta accusing Jolly Fellows of being “great talent wasted.” Stalin erupted and tasked Zhdanov with setting things right. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 969–70 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 69: Nov. 20, 1934); Literaturnaia gazeta, Nov. 18, 1934. On Dec. 11, 1934, when Stalin asked Shumyatsky how things were going he got an earful; the dictator phoned Molotov on the vertushka and inquired about the reserve budget fund and how much extra could be given for cinema. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 976–8 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 77–80).

165. Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting.

166. In Britain, the number of radios would jump from 3 million in 1930 to 9 million by the end of the decade—three of four British households—while the number of listeners would increase from an estimated 12 million in the 1920s to 34 million by 1939. By the second half of the 1930s, Germany would have more than 9 million radio receivers. Goebbels had noted (Aug. 1933), “What the press was to the 19th century, radio will be to the 20th.” Bowden and Offen, “Revolution that Never Was,” 244–74; Williams, Communications; Bergmeier and Lorz, Hitler’s Airwave, 6, 9.

167. The USSR would have 7 million by decade’s close, including 1.6 million in rural areas. It had planned for far more, but Soviet industry could not manufacture sufficient quantities of vacuum tubes. Inkeles, Public Opinion in Soviet Russia, 243–4, 274–5; Gurevich and Ruzhnikov, Sovetskoe radioveshchanie, chap. 5.

168. Lovell, Russia in the Microphone Age, 101. Small local stations had proliferated, but they were soon obliged to rebroadcast set amounts of Moscow material. Initially, live material predominated, although by 1933 texts for live broadcasts had to be submitted in advance, and programs were monitored for compliance. Goriaeva, Radio Rossii, 157; Goriaeva, “Veilkaia kniga dnia,” 91–2 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 558, l. 9–10: July 9, 1935), 93 (GARF, f. A-2306, op. 60, d. 79, 84: Dec. 27, 1935); Goriaeva, “Zhurnalistika i tsenzura.”

169. Taylor, “Ideology as Mass Entertainment,” 198.

170. Letters to the party propaganda department asked that radio lectures be read more slowly, to allow for notetaking. Lovell, Russia in the Microphone Age, 67 (citing Mikhail Angarskii and Voiacheslav Knushev, “Slovo slushatelei o peredachakh: obzor pisem radioslushatelei,” Govorit SSSR, 1933, no. 12–13: 33–4; GANO, f. 3630, op. 5, d. 54, l. 15–6; GARF, f. 6903, op. 1, d. 49, l. 2, 4, 9). Nazi-era radio featured popular music and comedy as well as anti-Semitic speeches. “Disney, Dietrich and Benny Goodman,” Anson Rabinbach observed, “shared radio time with Goebbels, Göring and the Führer.” Rabinbach, “Imperative to Participate,” 7.

171. Nikolaevich, “Poslednii seans,” at 22.

172. Ivanov, Ocherki istorii rossiisko (sovetsko)-pol’skikh otnoshenii, 195; Dolinskii, Sovetskaia kinokomediia tridtsatykh godov, I: 11.

173. Zil’ver, Za bol’shoe, 22–49, 58–80 (quote at 72).

174. Sovetskoe Kino, 1935, no. 1: 9; Taylor and Christie, Film Factory, 348–55 (Leonid Trauberg). See also Shumiatskii, Kinematografiia millionov, 7.

175. Maksimenkov, Kremlevskii kinoteater, 257–61 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 958, l. 15, 45–7; op. 163, d. 1051, l. 90–4); Pravda, Jan. 12, 1935; Sovetskoe kino, 1935, no. 1: 11–2; Fomin and Deriabin, Letopis’ Rossiiskogo kino, II: 315–6. See also Miller, Soviet Cinema, 22–3.

176. Eisenstein’s closing remarks were published (Kino, Jan. 17, 1935: 4), and Shumyatsky sent a withering complaint about them. Fomin and Deriabin, Letopis’ rossiiskogo kino, II: 317 (RGALI, f. 2456, op. 4, d. 23, l. 17–8). When the film industry completed an apartment house in 1934 in central Moscow (between Malaya Nikitskaya and Povarskaya streets, behind the House of Cinema), Eisenstein put in for two apartments (for himself and his mother); he got nothing. Bulgakowa, Eisenstein, 159–60.

177. Leyda, Kino, 319–20. Leyda attended the evening at the Bolshoi.

178. Shumiatskii, Kinematografiia millionov, 249, 8.

179. Evans, Third Reich in Power, 623–7; Domarus, Hitler: Reden, II: 643–8 (at 644); Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936, 546–8. “The French have definitely missed the opportunity for a preventive war,” Hitler remarked internally once the plebiscite arrangements had been finalized. DGFP, series C, III: 704–6 (Dec. 4, 1934).

180. Bud, “Fil’m o Kirove.”

181. Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 162, 166

182. Pravda, Jan. 16, 1935. See also Haslam, “Political Opposition,” 409–10.

183. A third trial, with another 77 defendants, including Zinoviev’s wife, Zlata Radić, and various relatives of Nikolayev, would result in sentences of two to five years.

184. Stalin authored the letter. The day before he sent the text to other politburo members. “O tak nazyvaemom ‘Antisovetskom ob”edinennom tsentre Trotskistko-Zinov’evskom tsentre,’” 95–100; Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 191–5; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 147–50; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 381 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 13, l. 18).

185. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 446–7 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 201, l. 106–8, 114), 447–50 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 92, l. 173–7: draft), 450 (169–72: draft). A draft is also in Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 592–3 (TsAFSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 7, l. 1–2).

186. Brontman, Dnevniki. See also Kommunisticheskaia revoliutsiia, 1935, no. 1: 23–4.

187. Stalin offered both praise and complaints about parts that were missing despite his instructions. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 989–90 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 828, l. 111); Pravda, Jan. 21 and 22, 1935. I. P. Kopalin and I. F. Setkina made the Lenin documentary.

188. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 436–52 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 79, l. 99–104; d. 82, l. 15–132).

189. See also Gronsky to Stalin in 1933 on Kuibyshev’s drinking: RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 725, l. 49–58.

190. Recently, on his trip to Central Asia to pressure the cotton harvest, he had undergone an emergency operation, but then returned to Moscow to work, refusing to lie in hospital. One evening, after countless meetings, he told his staff that before giving a speech that night he was going across the courtyard to his nearby apartment (on the third floor) to lie down. His aides and then the apartment staff woman wanted to call a doctor. He refused. By the time a doctor arrived, he was dead. Kabytov, “Valerian Kuibyshev”; Sochineniia, XI: 220.

191. Lota, “Alta” protiv “Barbarossy,” 143–191, 248–55; Lota, Sekretnyi front, 75–94; Lurie and Kochik, GRU, 504, 511–2, 531, 532.

192. Sorge had been born in the Baku oil fields (1895)—his father was an oil technician—and grew up in Germany, where he fought in the Great War, then became a Communist in 1919, before moving to Moscow. In late 1929, military intelligence poached him from Comintern intelligence and sent him to China; he arrived in Tokyo in 1933. He joined the Nazi party, to aid his spy work, and criticized Nazi officials and actions, which, however, enhanced his credibility. He chased women and drank. Colonel Ott, the German military attaché in Tokyo, invited Sorge to travel with him to Manchuria in Oct. 1934; Sorge wrote the trip’s report. Soon, Sorge bedded Ott’s wife, Helma. When Ott learned of the affair, he surmised it would not endure and did nothing, keeping the valuable Sorge, whom he called “the Irresistible” and “the man who knew everything.” Whymant, Stalin’s Spy, 145–94 (at 153, 184, no citation).

193. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 20, 26–39, 41; Costello and Tsarev, Deadly Illusions, 448n50, 449n65; Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 44–7; Poretsky, Our Own People, 72–85; Peake, Private Life of Kim Philby, 220–1; Gazur, Secret Assignment, 15. See also Borovik, Philby Files; and Koch, Double Lives.

194. Golubev, “Nash tovarisch”; Costello and Tsarev, Deadly Illusions, 445n3. Maclean would deliver his first purloined secret file in Jan. 1936 (about secret negotiations between Britain and Nazi Germany over an airforce agreement). The Soviets soon were able to discern that the British had an agent in the foreign affairs commissariat and in Willi Münzenberg’s circle. Maclean would also discover, through correspondence, the home address of Vernon Kell, the head of the secret MI5, allowing the Soviets to establish surveillance on the residence. See Primakov, Ocherki, III: 40–9. An alleged Polish agent who worked in Molotov’s secretariat, who passed on evaluations of Soviet brass, was never discovered. Dzanovich, Organy, 723n54, citing TsA FSB, f. 1, op. 9, d. 19, l. 339–400.

195. Shearer, Policing Stalin’s Socialism, 136–7. The special departments were particularly busy hauling in soldiers for counterrevolutionary utterances in relation to the Kirov murder. Suvenirov, Tragediia, 27; Whitewood, Red Army and the Great Terror, 170 (citing RGVA, f. 37837, op. 10, d. 26, l. 289, 194–6). In March 1935, the NKVD instructed an agent in Germany to investigate the links between Tukhachevsky and the Wehrmacht high command. “M. N. Tukachevskii i ‘voenno-fashistskii zagovor’,” 11.

196. Artizov et al., Reabilitatsiia: kak eto bylo, II: 735: Dec. 13, 1934); Gamarnik had managed, during the push for socialist legality, to obtain a ruling whereby the OGPU could summon army personnel for interrogation only with the agreement of the unit’s commissar. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 524 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 16, l. 66: May 26, 1934).

197. Dokumenty i materialy po istorii sovetsko-pol’skikh otnoshenii, VI: 249–250 (AAN, d. AMSZ, Poselstwo RP, Berlin); Roos, Polen und Europa, 208–12; Weinberg, Foreign Policy, I: 193 (citing Bundesarchiv, Papers of General Beck, H 08–28/1, f. 54: Schindler to Blomberg, Feb. 22, 1935); Mikhutina, Sovetsko-pol’skie otnosheniia, 239–41, citing Diariusz i teki Jana Szembeka, 1935–1945, 2 vols. (London: Polish Research Centre/Orbis, 1964–6), I: 217–25, 230; Wojciechowski, Stosunki polsko-niemieckie, 243–4; and Beck, Final Report, 27–31. See also Weinberg, Foreign Policy, I: 204.

198. “General Goering to Visit Poland,” “General Goering’s Secret Visit to Warsaw,” and “Conscription in Germany,” Manchester Guardian, Jan. 25, 28, and 29, 1935, respectively; “General Goering in Warsaw,” The Times, Jan. 28, 1935; Izvestiia, Feb. 14, 1935. See also Harris, “Encircled by Enemies,” 539 (citing AVP RF f. 05, op. 15, pap. 109, d. 67, l. 5: Göring with Bek).

199. Bobylev et al., Sovetskie Vooruzhennye Sily, 143 (no citation). In 1933, the actual figure for military expenditures had been 4.299 billion, versus the published 1.421 billion rubles (hence Tukhachevsky’s claims of fourfold increase in one year). Harrison and Davies, “Soviet Military-Economic Effort,” 369–70.

200. Barmine, One Who Survived, 221 (confirmed in the Pravda account).

201. Erickson, Soviet High Command, 381; Berson, Kreml na biało, 49. On Feb. 23, 1935, Red Star published a photomontage of five military portraits: Tukhachevsky occupied third position, after Voroshilov and Gamarnik, ahead of Yakir and Uborevičius.

202. Iurii Domobrovskii, in Literaturnaia gazeta, Aug. 22, 1990: 6; Larina, Nezabyvaemoe, 270.

203. Zhavaronkov, “I snitsia noch’iu den’,” 52; Pavliukov, Ezhov, 335–6 (citing Aleksander Fadeev, “Nikolai Ivanovich Ezhov”).

204. Encountering Yezhov in spring 1930 at a government resort in Sukhum on the Black Sea coast, Nadezhda Mandelstam, wife of the poet Osip, found him “a modest and rather agreeable person.” Mandelstam, Hope against Hope, 321–5.

205. Razgon, Plen v svoem otechestve, 50–1.

206. On Yezhov’s remarkable workload, see Pavliukov, Ezhov, 96 (citing RGASPI, f. 17m, op. 114, d. 298, l. 1–5; d. 300, l. 8–11).

207. “Blizhaishee okruzhene diktatora,” Sotsialisticheskii vestnik, 1933, no. 23: 8–9. Yezhov suspected the essay’s source was Pyatakov, first deputy commissar of heavy industry, who had traveled to Berlin in late 1932. Pyatakov was Yezhov’s old drinking buddy. (Once, after Pyatakov, inebriated, had pricked him with a pin, Yezhov had punched in the face.) Pavliukov, Ezhov, 99–100; Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 29–30.

208. They would adopt a daughter (Natasha) from a children’s home. Yevgeniya ran a literary salon, while pursuing extramarital affairs. Yezhov, for his part, bedded subordinates’ wives, household and cleaning personnel, prostitutes, and various male lovers; he drank and became pugnacious, beating her.

209. Chubar, whom Stalin met during the October days of 1917, had a reputation as an expert, and Stalin promoted him to deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars and finance commissar and invited him to inner-circle meals. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 228–9; Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh sem’i, 167.

210. This resolution appears to have been dictated by Stalin to Poskryobyshev; other members of the politburo signed it in the same red pencil on Stalin’s desk (Kalinin’s was evidently a telephone approval). The logbook for Stalin’s office records no meeting that day. Khlevniuk, Master of the House, 139 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 163, d. 1056, l. 35–6); Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 142 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 960, l. 7; op. 2, d. 538, l. 3), 143 (op. 3, d. 961, l. 16); Na prieme, 152.

211. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 141.

212. Mironenko, Moskovskii kreml’, 187, 210, 241.

213. On Sept. 23, 1934, Barbusse had requested an audience with Stalin, which was granted. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 341–2 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 699, l. 81). On the Sept. 16, 1927, audience, see RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 699, l. 2–10; “‘U nas malo rasstrelivaiut’: beseda I. V. Stalina s A. Babiusom” (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 699, l. 2-10); and Barbusse, Voici ce qu’on a fait de la Géorgie (Paris: E. Flammarion, 1929). On the Oct. 5, 1932, meeting: Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 251–8 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 699, l. 35–42, 43–51), 259 (l. 53–4).

214. Stetsky, who was assigned to edit Barbusse, mostly raised issues about the portrayal of Trotsky and the Stalin-Trotsky clash. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 341–6 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 699, l. 124–5: Sept. 29, 1934).

215. Barbusse described the Amusement Palace apartment, where Stalin no longer lived by the time the book came out. Barbusse, Stalin, vii–viii, 7, 277, 278. Louis Fischer would write that in Moscow, Barbusse had talked mostly about Jesus Christ. Margarete Buber-Neumann, who had encountered Barbusse in Moscow in 1932, would write that “I was very surprised my idol Barbusse displayed such traits of the bourgeois and the prima donna” by complaining about the hotel. Fischer, Men and Politics, 193; Buber-Neumann, Von Potsdam nach Moskau, 326.

216. Davies et al., Years of Progress, 153–6; Pravda, Jan. 30 and Feb. 16, 1935; Vtoroi vsesoiuznyi s”ezd kolkhoznikov-udarnikov, 186–7 (Yezhov), 247–97; Vyltsan, Zavershchaiushchii etap, 25–40.

217. Pravda, Feb. 10, 1935; Vtoroi vsesoiuznyi s”ezd kolkhoznikov-udarnikov, 144. See also Kolkhoznitsa, 1935, no. 11–12: 14–5; “Priem kolkhoznits-udarnits sveklovichnykh polei rukovoditeliami partii i pravitel’stva,” Sotsialisticheskaia rekonstruktsiia sel’skogo khoziaistva, no. 11 (1935): 15–8; Kataev, “Mariia Demchenko,” 295–300 (dated 1938).

218. Buckley, Mobilizing Soviet Peasants, 235–6, citing Sergei K. Korotkov et al., My predsedatel’stvuem na Vsesoiuznom s”ezde (Moscow: Sel’khozgiz, 1935), 12–3, 39. See also Kazakhstanskaia pravda, Feb. 18, 1935. All congress delegates received a copy of the bound published record. Stoletov, “Zamechatel’nye knigi.”

219. Pravda, Feb. 15, 1935. A model statute had been drafted in late 1929 and published in revised form on March 2, 1930, but it had contained no specifics on organization, forms of payment, and so on. Ivnitskii, Kollektivizatsiia i raskulachivanie, 78–80. As one scholar has demonstrated, enduring regulations governing the collective farm system were not in place until 1933, when the concessions of 1932 were acknowledged as permanent. Merl, Bauern unter Stalin.

220. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, IV: 390–402 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 120, d. 138, l. 68–91). Yakov Yakovlev, head of the CC agriculture department, gave the report on the new model statute the first day; Mikhail Chernov, the new USSR land commissar and chairman of the commission, reported on Feb. 17 with the Stalin-corrected version. II vsesoiuznyi s”ezd kolkhoznikov-udarnikov, 225–32. The 1935 statute defined “land as state property owned by the whole people, and assigned to artels for permanent use.” Land was “not subject to either purchase-sale or leasing.” Nomad households in Kazakhstan were allowed 8–10 cows and their calves, 100–150 sheep/goats, 10 horses, and 5–8 camels. Izvestiia, Feb. 18, 1935; Sobranie zakonov, 1935, art. 82; “Soviet Legislation (XIII): Selection of Decrees and Documents,” Slavonic and East European Review 14, no. 40 (1935): 188–99.

221. Women made up 30.5 percent of the delegates (more than double the number at the first congress in 1933). Pravda, Feb. 16, 1935. According to the Soviet press, more than 7,000 women served as collective farm chairmen (up from just 1,290 in 1931), 8.1 percent of the total. Women made up 49.2 percent of managers of livestock units. Sotsialisticheskoe zemledelie, March 7, 1935; II vsesoiuznyi s”ezd kolkhoznikov-udarnikov, 247–97.

222. Yakovlev, in a report to party activists, summarized Stalin’s remarks: Pravda, March 13, 1935; Sotsialisticheskie zemledelie, March 13, 1935; Sotsialisticheskaia rekonstruktsiia sel’skogo khoziaistva, 1935, no. 2–3: 8–30. See also Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, 122 (quoting Krestian’skaia pravda, Feb. 27, 1935: 2).

223. Whitman, “Kolkhoz Market,” 393. Rural laborers’ market sales fed regime coffers in the form of taxes, but the household plots and the direct marketing absorbed time from collective farm duties, and the opportunities for marketing further reinforced rural laborers’ deep commitment to the plots.

224. Maslov, Kolkhoznaia Rossiia, 198, 227–8.

225. Remuneration was calculated by a system known as the “labor day” (time plus skill, so that the chairman’s work time was worth more than the field hand’s). But only about 10 percent of the collective farmers’ cash income came from collective farm work; more than half came from sales at market or to state contractors. Seasonal labor at factories and construction sites provided significant cash income as well. Vyltsan, Zavershchaiushchii etap, 101 (citing GRAE, f. 4372, op. 36, d. 356, l. 18), 203–4; Kolkhozy vo vtoroi, 37; 20 let sovetskoi vlasti, 48.

226. Pravda, March 13, 1935 (Yakovlev). New members were to be admitted even if they had no animals or implements to contribute, a bitter pill for those who had had to yield up their property. Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, 124–7, citing Krest’ainskaia pravda, Feb. 28, 1935; II vsesoiuznyi s”ezd kolkhoznikov-udarnikov, 17–8, 85.

227. Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, 139–42. Collective farmers “could shout, fume, curse,” wrote the eyewitness Hindus, “but they could not dodge the challenge the kolkhoz had thrust upon them.” Hindus, Red Bread, 210.