Stalin

17. Thomas, Spanish Civil War, 243. See also Jackson, Spanish Republic; Preston, Concise History; Brouè, Civil War in Spain; Carr, Spanish Tragedy; Payne, Spanish Civil War; and Linz and Stepan, Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, 142–215.

18. Preston, Franco, 129–30, 134.

19. De Madariaga, “Intervention of Moroccan Troops,” 77.

20. “We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation those who do not think as we do,” General Mola boasted. Preston, Spanish Holocaust, 179.

21. Malefakis, “La revolución social,” 319–54.

22. Payne, Franco Regime, 176; Novikov, SSSR, Komintern, II: 73 (citing RGASPI, f. 495, op. 120, d. 245, l. 7, 11); Mezhdunarodnaia vstrecha, 201; Pertsov, Voina i revoliutsiia v Ispanii, I: 63. On July 6, 1936, the Popular Front government had imprisoned the Falange leader, Antonio Primo de Rivera. He would be sentenced to death on Nov. 20, 1936. Franco would not try to free him.

23. Edwards, British Government and the Spanish Civil War, 77; Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 791.

24. Spain had finally recognized the USSR in July 1933, but Madrid’s efforts to name an envoy were stymied by changes of government, while Moscow’s appointed representative, Anatoly Lunacharsky, had fallen ill in Paris en route to Madrid and died on the Cote d’Azur at age fifty-eight (Dec. 26, 1933), never taking up his post. Lunacharskaia-Rozenel’, Pamiat’ serdtsa, 15–6. Lunacharsky had written the play Don Quixote Liberated (1922), one of the few interesting books in Russian on Spanish culture.

25. Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 107–8; Alpert, New International History, 19–24.

26. British intelligence had been warning about Comintern “financing” and “overt and subterranean activities in Spain,” while advising its French counterparts that “the establishment of a Soviet regime in the Iberian Peninsula is hardly a happening which anyone can view with equanimity for military, political or economic reasons.” The British ambassador to Madrid, Sir Henry Chilton, had bluntly warned that “if the military coup d’état, which it is generally believed is being planned, does not succeed, things will turn pretty awful.” Jeffrey, MI6, 22; Little, Malevolent Neutrality, 196; Steiner, Triumph of the Dark, 202–3. On July 26, Baldwin instructed foreign secretary Eden “that on no account, French or other, must he bring us into the fight on the side of the Russians.” Jones, Diary with Letters, 213.

27. Churchill, Step by Step, 76; Moradiellos, “Origins of British Non-Intervention.”

28. “Non-Intervention,” Blum’s chef de cabinet would later assert, “was essentially an attempt to prevent others from doing what we were incapable of achieving.” Lacouture, Léon Blum, 370.

29. Abendroth, Hitler in der spanischen Arena.

30. Göring had objected to Franco’s request. Leitz, “Nazi Germany Intervention,” 53–85; Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936, 13–7; von Ribbentrop, Memoirs, 59; Preston, Franco, 158–60.

31. Fröhlich, Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, III/ii: 140 (July 27, 1936).

32. Mussolini added: “to found a parliamentary republic today [1931] means using an oil lamp in the era of electric lights.” Bosworth, Mussolini, 315; Coverdale, Italian Intervention.

33. Bosworth, Mussolini, 316–7.

34. Jackson, “French Strategy,” 55–80.

35. Coulondre, De Staline à Hitler, 20–2. See Ford and Schorske, “Voice in the Wilderness,” 556–61; and Jordan, Popular Front, 228.

36. “O tak nazyvaemom ‘antisovetskom ob”edinennom trotskistsko-zinov’ievskom tsentre,’” 94.

37. Il’inskii, Narkom Iagoda, 709–16; Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 89.

38. “My soul burns with one desire: to prove to you that I am no longer an enemy,” Zinoviev wrote to Stalin in 1935. “I am at the point where I sit for long periods and stare at your portrait in the newspapers and those of other members of the Politburo thinking: my dear ones, look into my heart and surely you will see that I’m no longer your enemy . . .” Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 184–5. “There has been a distinct cooling in my relations with Zinoviev,” Kamenev told his interrogator. “I think it necessary to mention that living in one dacha in the summer of 1934 we led completely separate lives and met rarely. . . . At the time of the inner-party struggle, I never regarded Zinoviev as fit to run the party; the recent years have confirmed my conviction that he possesses no leadership qualities.” Volkogonov, Lenin, 286, citing Arkhiv Ministerstvo Bezaposnosti Rossiisskoi Federatsii no. R-33 834, t. 1, l. 107. See also Izvestiia, March 21, 1990 (Kamenev to his wife, T. Glebova, Nov. 12, 1935).

39. Profound insight into a despot’s psychology can be found in Canetti, Crowds and Power, esp. 231–4. Rogovin, 1937, 5–9.

40. Orlov, Tainaia istoriia, 135–6. Kaganovich confirmed the fact that Stalin and Voroshilov received Zinoviev and Kamenev: Chuev, Tak govoril Kaganovich, 140.

41. Trotskii, Prestuplenia Stalina, 72.

42. Yagoda was said to have written across the interrogation testimony of a link to Trotsky: “untrue,” “rubbish.” Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 179; “Materialy marto-fevral’skogo plenuma TsK VKP (b) 1937 goda” (1994, no. 12), 18.

43. On July 21, 1936, for example, Manuilsky relayed to Stalin a note with a citation from a document received from the head of the Spanish Communist party to the effect that “the military uprising has been put down.” Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 28 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 33). The British intercepted and decrypted the Spanish Communist party ciphered telegrams. Roberts, “Soviet Foreign Policy and the Spanish Civil War,” 100n11 (citing PRO HW/17/27).

44. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 28 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 34).

45. RGASPI, f. 495, op. 18, d. 1101, l. 15, 21–3 (ECCI Protocol No. 60, July 23, 1936); Dallin and Firsov, Dimitrov and Stalin, 46–8 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 74, d. 210, l. 2–3).

46. Meshcheriakov, “SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii,” 85 (citing AVP RF, f. 048 z, op. 14–6, d. 4, pap. 7, l. 69–106).

47. Steiner, Triumph of the Dark, 187. Stalin’s Kremlin office logbook shows few or no visitors July 25–27, 1936. Na prieme, 190.

48. Na prieme, 190–1.

49. VII Kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala, 10–1, 28–33.

50. Titarenko, VKP (b), komintern i kitai: dokumenty, IV/ii: 1055–60 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 74, d. 249, l. 8–17: Dimitrov to Stalin, early July 1936); Dallin and Firsov, Dimitrov and Stalin, 96–100.

51. Titarenko, VKP (b), komintern i kitai: dokumenty, IV/ii: 1060–4 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 18, d. 1101, l. 17–20: edited transcript). See also Braun, Comintern Agent in China; and Garver, “Origins of the Second United Front.”

52. Borkenau, who went to Spain in Sept. 1936, was describing the scene in Barcelona, and added: “Practically all the factory-owners, we were told, had either fled or been killed, and their factories taken over by the workers.” Borkenau, Spanish Cockpit, 70–1. In a 1936 biography of Vilfredo Pareto, Borkenau employed the latter’s “circulation of elites” theory to try to explain the rise of and affinities among Italian fascism, Nazism, and Soviet communism. Jones, “Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism,” 457.

53. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 29–31 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 38–40).

54. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 84–5. Primakov names two Soviet agents in Trotsky’s inner circle, one code-named “Tomas,” the other “Tyulpan,” which is known to be Zborowski. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 82.

55. Høidal, Trotsky in Norway.

56. Zipperstein, “Underground Man.”

57. Volkogonov, Trotskii, II: 134–5 (citing Arkhiv INO OGPU, f. 31660, d. 9067, t. 1, l. 24–5). See also Antonov, “Kaznen i opravdan.”

58. In 1934, Stalin had quoted Trotsky’s Bulletin of the Opposition from the dais of the 17th Party Congress: XVII s”ezd, 32. In 1935, Yezhov quoted from Trotsky’s Bulletin at length at a Central Committee meeting. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 542, l. 73–6. In March 1937, Yezhov’s staff in the NKVD would give Stalin a very detailed compilation of all Trotskyite publications on every continent, with their contents outlined. Volkogonov, Trotskii, II: 141–2 (citing Arkhiv INO OGPU-NKVD, f. 17548, d. 0292, l. 17); Volkogonov, Trotsky, 347. At least one concrete example of draft articles forwarded before publication to Stalin (and Molotov), by Yezhov, has come to light. Volkogonov, Trotskii, II: 141 (citing Arkhiv INO OGPU-NKVD, f. 17548, d. 0292, t. 2, l. 160). See also Poretsky, Our Own People, 272–3.

59. Trotsky, “Lesson of Spain.”

60. Pozharskaia and Saplin, Komintern i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 9; Payne, Spanish Civil War, 124.

61. The official post-Soviet history of intelligence justifies Stalin’s assassination of Trotsky by referring to the latter’s responsibility for the fever pitch of anti-Sovietism abroad, the supposed role of Trotskyites in destabilizing the Spanish Republic, and the threat of the Fourth International. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 90. The forged Litvinov “diaries” that were handed to Carr and published in 1955 observed of Spain: “There was some confusion there. The Trotskyites have started a strong propaganda campaign against Iosif Vissarionovich calling him liquidator and traitor to the Spanish revolution, abettor of Hitler and Mussolini.” Litvinov, Notes for a Journal, 208, 211. The forger appears to have been Besedovsky, who figures prominently in them. Wolfe, “Adventures in Forged Sovietica”; Wolfe, “Case of the Litvinov Diary”; Wolfe, Strange Communists, 207–22. See also Agursky, “Soviet Disinformation,” 21. Litvinov’s actual diary is thought to have been destroyed by his American wife, Ivy’s, closest confidant, Joseph Freeman. Danielson, “Elusive Litvinov Memoirs.”

62. Pravda’s editorial (June 7, 1936) echoing Postyshev’s stance decried blanket accusations against the “majority of engineering and technical personnel.” Postyshev himself was criticized at the June 1936 plenum for a “high-handed” approach to the expulsions of rank and file party members.

63. Sovet pri narodnom komissare tiazheloi promyshlennosti SSSR, 25–29 iuniia 1936 g.: stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1936), 390; Khlevniuk, 1937–i, 116–20, 122; Khlevniuk, Stalin i Ordzhonikidze, 60–3; Benvenuti, “Stakhanovism and Stalinism,” 42–9; Davies, “Soviet Economy,” 20–1; Pravda, July 5, 1936. Zhdanov noted in a speech (July 16, 1936) that “it is not possible to declare that all engineers and technicians who do not lead the Stakhanovite movement are saboteurs.” Priestland, Politics of Mobilization, 347 (citing RGASPI, f. 77, op. 1, d. 600, l. 19).

64. Rybin, Kto otravil Stalina?, 23–4 (citing conversations with V. Tukov, one of Orjonikidze’s guards, responsible for his train carriage when he visited factories around the country).

65. Za industrializatsiiu, Feb. 20, 1937: 5 (S. Birman); Ordzhonikidze, O Sergo Ordzhonikidze, 259 (quoting I. I. Gudov); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 978, l. 75.

66. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 627 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 743, l. 53).

67. “Zakrytoe pis’mo Tsk VKP (b),” 100–15; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 250–7. Stalin’s motives have been a matter of guesswork: Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 203–6. Getty and Naumov speculate that the secret circular was actually Yezhov’s initiative, in a careerist move. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 578. Agranov divulged to a meeting of the NKVD “active” that the original trial of Zinovievites, in 1935, had resulted not from operational work, but from a command from the country’s leadership. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 90 (March 1937).

68. Harris, Great Urals, 178–9.

69. Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 144–8 (citing Sotsialisticheskii transport, 1936, no. 5: 8, 150, 158–9); Pravda, July 31 and Aug. 2, 1936.

70. Izvestiia, Aug. 26, 27, 1936; Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 150.

71. Izvestiia, Feb. 20, 1937.

72. Radek, “Dikhanie voiny.”

73. Vostryshev, Moskva Stalinskaia, 348.

74. “I am full of doubts,” Gide said in Pasternak’s oral account. “What I have seen in your country is not at all what I anticipated. Here state power is unbelievable. . . . While I was in France, it seemed that here there was personal freedom, but in reality I do not see it. This concerns me greatly, and I want to write about it in an essay and I came here to consult with you about it.” RGASPI, f. 57, op., 1, d. 64, l. 58–61 (Report to Molchanov). Christopher J. Barnes, Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography, vol. 2 (New York: Cambridge University, 1998), 127–32. Gide took off for Soviet Georgia and Crimea, and would depart the USSR almost without notice.

75. Mikhail Kol’tsov, “Ispanskii dnevnik: kniga pervaia,” Novyi mir, 1938, no. 4: 5–125 (at 5), reprinted in Kol’tsov, Ispanskii dnevnik, 11–2.

76. Kirschenbaum, “Exile, Gender, and Communist Self-Fashioning,” 572. When We of Kronstadt (1936), Yefim Dzigan’s tale of an anarchist band’s transformation into disciplined Red Army men during Russia’s civil war, premiered in Spain, the entire Spanish Republic cabinet attended. Kowalsky, “Soviet Cinematic Offensive”; Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 51 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 86).

77. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 32 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 44); Pravda, Aug. 4 and 5, 1936; Izvestiia, Aug. 4 and 5, 1936; Trud, Aug. 4 and 5, 1936.

78. RGASPI, f. 495, op. 18, d. 1105, l. 1.

79. By the end of Oct., nearly 48 million rubles would be deducted from the pay of Soviet factory workers in solidarity with Spain. That was equivalent to £2 million sterling. Izvestiia, Oct. 27, 1936.

80. Pravda, Aug. 3, 1936; Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraphs 187–8. “The German and Italian fascists are preparing to intervene against the Spanish revolution to place in their hands the important trump cards for preparation of a world war and a new territorial distribution of the world,” Radek explained, outlining the case in Izvestiya (Aug. 4, 1936) for “humanitarian” aid by the USSR.

81. Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 111, citing FRUS, 1936, II: 461 (Henderson to Hull).

82. Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War, 43.

83. DDF, 1e série, III: 97–8, 100–1.

84. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 339n2 (RGASPI, f. 71, op. 25, d. 3663); DVP SSSR, XIX: 392–3 (Veinberg, head of the Western department, report on conversation with Payart); 393–4 (Krestinsky to Maisky); Degras, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, III: 203; Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 112; Izvestiia, Aug. 6, 1936.

85. Volkogonov, Trotsky, 370 (citing Arkhiv INO OGPU-NKVD, f. 17548, d. 0292, t. 2, l. 130–2).

86. Volkogonov, who has little to say about Spain, noted that “Stalin’s determination to get rid of Trotsky stiffened when he learned in late 1936 that Trotsky was writing The Revolution Betrayed and continuing his biography of Stalin himself.” Volkogonov, Trotsky, 444.

87. See also MacNeal, “Trotskyist Interpretations of Stalinism.”

88. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 189 (RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 168, l. 202: testimony attributed to Pikel); Orlov, Tainaia istoriia, 81; Pravda, Aug. 20, 1936 (Reingold).

89. Haslam, “Spanish Problem,” 70–85 (citing PRO, HW17/26: British decryptions of Comintern telegrams). “Madrid’s not receiving substantial external assistance could have heavy consequences for the course of the struggle,” Soviet military intelligence concluded in Aug. 1936. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 20 (citing RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 845, l. 9). On Aug. 7, 1936, the politburo approved Krestinsky’s proposal to invite Blum of France’s Popular Front government to Moscow. No visit materialized. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 338–9 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 38); DVP SSSR, XXII: 49.

90. DVP SSSR, XIX: 394–6 (Stein); Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 112–3. See also Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 340 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 58).

91. Moradiellos, “British Government and General Franco,” 44 (citing PRO FO371/20475, W11340, Sir Maurice Hankey, The Future of the League of Nations).

92. Krestinsky had written to Surits (Aug. 11) that “we recently discussed the so-called 500-million credit. It was rejected.” Abramov, “Osobaia missiia David Kandelaki,” 149 (citing AVP RF, f. 010, op. 11, pap. 68, d. 34, l. 130, 131).

93. Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 205 (citing Institut für Konjunkturforschung, Weekly Report, May 6, 1936).

94. DGFP, series C, V: 853–62 (unsigned; Hitler’s authorship established in a note by Speer, Aug. 1936).

95. According to an official then working in the Western military district: Samsonov, “Smysl ego zhizhi,” 217.

96. Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 219–24.

97. Titarenko, VKP (b), komintern i kitai: dokumenty, IV/ii: 1067 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 74, d. 275, l. 1: Dimitrov to Stalin, July 27, 1936), 1067–71 (1. 5–9); Titarenko, Kommiunisticheskii internatsional, 262–6, 266–9; Dallin and Firsov, Dimitrov and Stalin, 101 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 73, d. 48, 1. 54), 102–5.

98. Schram, Mao’s Road to Power, V: 232–32.

99. Meshcheriakov, “SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii,” 83–4 (citing AVP RF, f. 048 z, op. 14–6, pap. 4, d. 7, l. 194–5).

100. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 42 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 66); Zuehilke, Gallant Cause, 35. See also Karmen, No Pasaran!; and Makaseev, “Iz khroniki geroicheskoi respubliki,” 158–64. Karmen would make the film Ispaniia (1939).

101. Litvinov instructed the Soviet chargé d’affaires in Paris to inform the Spanish ambassador that “the Soviet leadership does not consider it possible to comply with requests to supply arms on the grounds that Spain is far away from Russia, such deliveries are expensive, arms cargo can be intercepted, and because the USSR is bound by its declaration of nonintervention and cannot violate it.” DVP SSSR, XIX: 402–3; Degras, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, III: 203–4.

102. Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 219; “O tak nazyvaemom ‘parallel’nom antisovetskom trotskistom tsentre,’” 37. Pyatakov’s ex-wife Zina had been arrested in Dec. 1927 as a Trotskyite and internally exiled. See also Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 311. After Pyatakov, in bilateral negotiations, had unwittingly demonstrated too detailed knowledge of German metal industry, a Soviet undercover agent in Germany was arrested. Khaustov, “Deiatel’nost’ organov,” 157 (referencing uncited recollections of Spiegelglass).

103. Pravda, Aug. 15, 1936.

104. For Stalin’s role micromanaging the trial, see “O tak nazyvaemom ‘antisovetskom ob”edinennom trotskistsko-zinov’evskom tsentre’,” 92. See also “O tak nazyvaemom ‘parallel’nom antisovetskom trotskistskom tsentre’,” 42. The trial transcript was made available in foreign translations, including in English: The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Center (New York, 1936). For a multisided analysis of how contemporaries saw the trial, including Trotsky’s misapprehensions, see Schrader, Der Moskauer Prozess 1936.

105. Kamenev’s Machiavelli volume was quoted against him at his trial in 1936. “You, Kamenev, transmitted the rules of Machiavelli and developed them to the height of unprincipled-ness and immorality,” thundered Vyshinsky, who deemed Machiavelli the “spiritual teacher” of the Trotskyites. Yet Vyshinsky also called the Italian “a bumpkin” and amateur compared with the Trotskyites. Vyshinskii, Sudebnye rechi, 403–4.

106. Testimony about a 1932 meeting that had allegedly taken place with Trotsky in Copenhagen’s Hotel Bristol ignored that the building had been torn down in 1917 (the NKVD fabricators confused two sites). Orlov, Tainaia istoriia, 70.

107. Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 187–8.

108. Izvestiia, Aug. 21, 1936.

109. Dem’ian Bednyi, “Poshchady net!” Pravda, Aug. 21, 1936, reprinted in Literaturnaia gazeta, Aug. 27, and in Bednyi, Sobranie sochinenii, IV: 288–90. See also Horvath, “Poet of the Terror”; Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 415–6 (Sept. 9, 1938). On Aug. 13, 1936, in the presence of Molotov, Voroshilov, Orjonikidze, and Yezhov, Bedny spent an hour in the Little Corner, his one and only recorded visit to Stalin’s Kremlin office. Bedny’s abandoned wife, Vera Rufovna [Pridvorova], had written to Stalin indicating that she wanted to ask him for material help for her four children, possibly reminding the dictator of the poet’s existence. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 421–2 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 702, l. 109, 110–1); Na prieme, 191. Before the year was out, Bedny would be fearing arrest. He would somehow survive. Pridvorov, “Ob otse,” 219.

110. Whereas since 1931 more than 40 percent of the correspondence had concerned economic matters (internal and external), especially grain collections, in 1936 these nearly vanished—despite the fact that a spring–summer drought in the Volga heartland and other difficulties resulted in a poor harvest in fall 1936. Davies, “Soviet Economy,” 22–3.

111. Stalin had afforded Bukharin an opportunity to defect: in Feb. 1936, he had appointed Bukharin to lead a commission to purchase a Marx-Engels archive in France, leaving the trip’s duration up to Bukharin and permitting the pregnant Larina to join him. But his father, brother, first wife, second wife, and daughter lived in Moscow, and the trip to France had taken place before Zinoviev and Kamenev had been executed. Cohen, Bukharin, 472; Liebich, “I Am the Last.” See also Dan, “Bukharin o Staline,” 181–2; and Nicolaevsky, Power and the Soviet Elite.

112. Trotsky, Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1935–1936, 389; Høidal, Trotsky in Norway, 133–4. In Dec. Trotsky would be expelled from Norway, and placed on a Norwegian oil tanker to Mexico; en route he would write in his journal that Zinoviev and Kamenev “lacked sufficient character.” Trotsky, “Zinoviev and Kamenev [Dec. 31, 1936],” in Trotsky, Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1936–1937, 48–55 (at 49).

113. “Samoubiistvo ne opravdanie: predsmertnoe pis’mo Tomskogo Stalinu,” Rodina, 1996, no. 2: 90–3; Gorelov, Tsugtsvang Mikhail Tomskogo, 234.

114. Pravda, Aug. 23, 1936. The Menshevik émigré newspaper eulogized Tomsky as a “most colorful and splendid figure among the Bolshevik leaders.” Sotsialisticheskii vestnik, Aug. 30, 1936: 11.

115. Molchanov, dispatched to Tomsky’s dacha to investigate the scene, retrieved the note, which stated: “If you want to know who it was that pushed me onto the path of right deviation in May 1928, ask my wife personally. Only she will name them.” Tomsky’s widow told Yezhov that the person who had recruited Tomsky to the path of opposition was none other than NKVD chief Yagoda. Yezhov’s report to Stalin defended Yagoda. Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politcheskie protesessy, 244–5; “O partiinosti lits, prokhodivshikh po delu tak nazyvaemogo ‘antisovetskogo pravotrotskistskogo bloka,’” 71. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 204–6 (no citation).

116. Kvashonkin, Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, 16 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5391, l. 3).

117. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 642–3 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 93, l. 77–80).

118. Stalin forbade mention of the fact that there would be no appeal (“these words are superfluous and would give a bad impression”). Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 642 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 93, l. 62–4).

119. Vostryshev, Moskva stalinskaia, 349 (Alexander G. Solovyov).

120. Eduard Gol’tsman wrote a note that he would not seek clemency. Volkogonov, Lenin, 276 (citing AMBRF, archive no. R-33833, t. 41, l. 256).

121. Conquest, Great Terror: Reassessment, 71–108; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 247–57.

122. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 44 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 217, l. 22); Izvestiia, Aug. 28, 1936.

123. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 43 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 217, l. 21), 44 (l. 20).

124. Antonov-Ovseyenko would take to the Spanish assignment energetically, writing pleading notes to Kaganovich suggesting resolute measures for organizing serious military resistance even before he had reached Barcelona (Oct. 1). Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 67 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 217, l. 23), 70 (d. 221, l. 141), 81–2 (l. 184–5); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 981, l. 213; Izvestiia, Oct. 3, 1936; Ehrenburg, Sobranie sochinenii, IX: 114–9. Antonov-Ovseyenko wrote to Rosenberg (Oct. 6): “Our view of anarchism in Catalonia is a mistaken one . . . The government is genuinely willing to organize a defense and it is doing a lot in that direction.” Ehrenburg, who arrived in Spain from Paris in the latter part of August 1936 as a special correspondent for Izvestiya, had already written to Rosenberg, in letters sent on to Stalin, accusing the anarchists of not understanding the critical importance of heavy industry and discipline, being infiltrated by German agents and, under the guise of pressing for “revolution,” aiming to demoralize and defeat the Republic. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 120, d. 259, l. 73–4; Radosh et al., Spain Betrayed, 23–32; Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 39 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 217, l. 19), 43 (l. 17), 110 (d. 222, l. 88), 113–14 (l. 87); Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 342–3 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 162); Erenburg, Sobranie sochinenii, IX: 100. By Nov. 1936, Antonov-Ovseyenko was complaining of the anarchy caused by the anarchists: Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 142–3 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 222, l. 145–46ob.).

125. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 39 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 217, l. 11). See also Efimov, “Vernost’ prizvaniiu,” 29.

126. Koltsov had also composed profiles of Lenin (1920, 1923, 1924), Dzierżyński (1928), Gorky (1932, 1936), and Stakhanov (1935), and captured the boorishness of the new epoch in his short story “Ivan Vadimovich, A Person of a Certain Level.” Kol’tsov, Khochu letat’; Kol’tsov, Izbrannye proizvedeniia v trekh tomakh; Kol’tsov, Pisatel’ v gazete.

127. Cockburn, In Time of Trouble, 245.

128. Skorokhodov, Mikhail Kol’tsov, 158–9. On Koltsov’s links to Soviet military intelligence in Spain, see Volodarsky, Stalin’s Agent, 219, citing Paulina Abramson and Adelina Abramson, Mosaico Roto (Madrid: Compañía Literara, 1994), 64 (Emma Wolf, Vladimir Gorev’s interpreter and perhaps mistress). Ehrenburg would later call his rival Koltsov “the most important” Soviet representative in Spain, “more important than the official advisers.” Literaturnaia gazeta, June 15, 1988. A recommendation by Berzin and Gorev (Jan. 4, 1937) to award Koltsov the Order of Lenin would be downgraded by Stalin to an Order of the Red Banner. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 170 (APRF, f. 3, op. 53, d. 470, l. 124). On May 23, 1937, Koltsov would send a telegram directly to Stalin from Paris about preparations for an antifascist congress in Spain; it included a number of political observations about Largo Caballero and Negrín, as well as about Ehrenburg and Gide. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 468 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 214, l. 67–8). Koltsov’s archive seems not to have survived. Rubashkin, Mikhail Kol’tsov.

129. Trotsky, “The Treachery of the POUM,” New Militant, Feb. 15, 1936, and Trotsky, “The Tasks of the Fourth International in Spain,” New Militant, May 2, 1936, reprinted in Trotsky, Spanish Revolution, 207–11, 211–4. Trotsky similarly condemned Spain’s anarchists.

130. Rogovin, 1937, 341 (citing Trotsky archives, document no. 5020); Thomas, Spanish Civil War, 631; Biulleten’ oppoztisii, no. 56–7 (1937): 14–5. See also Trotsky, “Lessons of Spain,” 322.

131. Kennan, Russia and the West, 238.

132. Rogovin, 1937, 40–5, 8.

133. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 664–5 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 32–9).

134. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 249–52 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 729, l. 83–4). On Aug. 22, 1936, in connection with the Moscow trial, Budyonny had sent a letter to Voroshilov noting that the Trotskyite network had penetrated the army, which needed to be thoroughly checked; Voroshilov forwarded the letter to Stalin, Yezhov, and Andreyev (Sept. 1). Whitewood, Red Army, 202 (citing RGVA, f. 4, op. 19, d. 16, l. 262, 265).

135. Volkogonov, Lenin, 298 (Sept. 1, 1936).

136. Jansen and Petrov, Stalin’s Loyal Executioner, 58 (citing APRF, f. 57, op. 1, d. 176; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 176, l. 66–74).

137. Davies et al., Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 357.

138. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 710, l. 164–5.

139. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 779, l. 99–107; Khlevniuk, Master of the House, 154.

140. Arkhiv MB r-3383, d. 3257, Volkogonov papers, Hoover Institution Archives, container 4.

141. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 779, l. 106. On Sept. 11, when Stalin had Pyatakov’s arrest submitted for post-facto politburo approval, Orjonikidze wrote: “I vote ‘Yes.’” RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 75, 84; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 290–1 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 573, l. 33). The NKVD arrested Radek on Sept. 16. Radek’s mouth was a security risk: Lerner, Karl Radek, 163–4 (citing memo from Bullitt to Hull, Decimal Files, U.S. Department of State Archives, file no. 7600.61/692); Ken, “Karl Radek i Biuro,” 173–4.

142. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 340 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 62); DVP SSSR, XIX: 418 (to S. B. Kagan). Litvinov had written to Rosenberg (Aug. 30, 1936) in Madrid that “the question of assisting the Spanish government has been discussed by us several times, but we have come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to send anything from here.” Meshcheriakov, “SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii,” 85, citing AVP RF, f. 048 z, op. 14–16, pap. 4, d. 7, l. 88, 105–6. See also Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War, 46 (citing AVP RF, f. 05, op. 16, pap. 114, d. 1, l. 195–8; Sept. 7).

143. Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 434, 441; Pravda, Sept. 4, 1936.

144. These developments were reported by Diaz, the Spanish Communist party head, via Comintern channels to Kaganovich as symptomatic of Popular Front internal tension. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 44–5 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 74), 45 (l. 78).

145. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 666 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 53–4). Precisely when Stalin ordered and approved contingency planning for Soviet military assistance to Spain remains uncertain. On Aug. 13, he had received Vladimir Gorev and Semyon Uritsky together for twenty minutes. Na prieme, 191. Around the time of the Sept. 6 telegram, Stalin was also exchanging instructions with Kaganovich about Soviet protests to the Norwegian government about Trotsky’s political activities.

146. Meshcheriakov, “SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii,” 85.

147. Banac, Diary of Gerogi Dimitrov, 27 (Aug. 28, 1936); Richardson, Comintern Army, 30–46; Thomas, Spanish Civil War, 439–50; Eby, Comrades and Commissars; Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 115, 162 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 222, l. 90–1, 187). An international brigade training base was set up near Albacete, where the first 500 volunteers commenced their service on Oct. 14, 1936, and as many as 35,000 foreigners would be trained. Novikov, SSSR, Komintern, II: 100 (citing RGASPI, f. 495, op. 76, l. 33, l. 18).

148. Krivitsky, In Stalin’s Secret Service, 95.

149. On Aug. 21–22, 1936, with the trial in Moscow climaxing, the politburo had formally approved the dispatch of a group of military and intelligence personnel, as well as the diplomats, to Spain. Kowalsky, Stalin, chap. 2, note 21 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 980, l. 308; d. 981, l. 213), 65, d. 217, l. 20, 22).

150. Kuznetsov, Na dalekom meridian, 8–15. Kuznetsov got to Spain Sept. 5.

151. On Gorev in the United States, see Ulanovskaia and Ulanovskaia, Istoriiia odnoi sem’i, 101.

152. Krivitsky, In Stalin’s Secret Service, 96–9.

153. Pospelov, Istoriia Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny, I: 113; Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 11n6.

154. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 132; Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 462, citing Aleksandr Orlov, “Answers to the Questionnaire of Prof. S. G. Payne” (unpublished, 1968), 1–3.

155. Fischer, Men and Politics, 361.

156. Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 45; Costello and Tsarev, Deadly Illusions, 349; Volodarsky, Stalin’s Agent, 129. The assistant was Galina Voitova.

157. Volodarsky, Stalin’s Agent, 153 (citing stamp in Orlov’s diplomatic passport, a copy of which is at LSE’s Cañada Blanch Centre).

158. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 48–50 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 103–6).

159. Steiner, Triumph of the Dark, 215–6; Girard de Charbonnières, La plus evitable de toutes les guerres, 114–22; Gromyko and Ponomarev, Istoriia vneshnei politiki SSSR, I: 321.

160. Edwards, British Government and the Spanish Civil War, 137.

161. Isserson, “Zapiski sovremennika o M. N. Tukhachevskom,” 73–5.

162. Ovchinnikov et al., Krasnoznamennyi Belorusskii voennyi okrug, 119–20; Sovetskaia voennaia entsiklopediia, V: 121.

163. Martel, Russian Outlook, 21–4; Erickson, Soviet High Command, 436–7. See also Lukes, Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler, 91. Major General Archibald P. Wavell, head of the British delegation, spoke Russian.

164. DDF, 2e série, IV: 510–4 (Daladier to Delbos, Oct. 13, 1936, reference to Schweisguth report Oct. 5). Schweisguth had traveled to Czechoslovakia (Aug. 15–Sept. 1) on his way to the USSR (Sept. 5–23).

165. Colton, Leon Blum, 211; Young, In Command of France, 147–8, 288n50.

166. DDF, 2e série, III: 511–4 (“Rapport du General Schweisguth, Chef de la Mission française,” included in note from Daladier to foreign minister Delbos, Oct. 13, 1936); Dreifort, “French Popular Front,” 218–9; Young, In Command of France, 145. See also Ragsdale, Coming of World War II, 32–3.

167. Yakir had visited France (August 19–September 2, 1936) accompanied by the Soviet military and aviation attachés and the air force officer Khripin, flattered his hosts, but back in the USSR quietly offered a negative assessment. Le Temps, Aug. 21, 26, 29, and Sept. 4, 1936; Pravda, Aug. 21 and Sept. 9, 1936; Orlov, “V poiskakh soiuznikov,” 51.

168. Moravec added that soon enough the Soviets “made careful note of our experience with provincial newspapers, published in the smaller German towns, in which numerous indiscretions about military matters could still be found despite the severe Nazi censorship.” Moravec, Master of Spies, 48–57.

169. Even British intelligence, by fall 1936, conceded German rearmament might be unlimited and aiming for domination of the continent. Wark, Ultimate Enemy, 228–31.

170. “No army,” he wrote, “can manage without modern, well-organized and well-taught infantry.” Habeck, Storm of Steel, 242–3 (citing RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 838, I. 2–5: Uborevičius to Voroshilov and Yegorov, Sept. 7–10, 1936; f. 4, op. 18, d. 53, l. 23–25, 712–7: Oct. 13–19, 1936). Voroshilov, in 1934, had called the tank corps “a very far-fetched idea and therefore we should have nothing to do with it.” Erickson, Road to Stalingrad, 15.

171. At the invitation of General Fritzsch, Uborevičius attended German maneuvers in fall 1936; Hitler became angry at German generals who “get drunk and go around with Communist generals.” Görlitz, German General Staff, 308; Hegner, Die Reichskanzlei, 255–6. Voroshilov tried to move Uborevičius to Moscow, out of his power base in the Belorussian military district. Fakel, II: 237–8 (RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1/s, d. 151, l. 2–4); Minakov, 1937, 236–7. Yakir, who ran the Ukraine (then Kiev) military district for twelve years, for his part declined a promotion to head the general staff, also preferring a command in the field. Iakir, Komandarm Iakir, 226–7; Istoriia Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soiuza, IV/ii: 301.

172. Banac, Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 32; Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 57–8 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 109–11). On Sept. 13, 1936, Yagoda submitted a memorandum to Kaganovich and Molotov in reference to an unspecified decision in the name of the politburo six days earlier about the clandestine purchase through third parties in Europe of rifles and fighter planes for Spain, which had been occasioned by a letter from Stalin in Sochi. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 52–3 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 92–6). The politburo had met on Sept. 11 in Stalin’s absence and, in part, discussed Spain, but what decision was reached or confirmed remains unclear. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 666; Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 50–1 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, 221, l. 85).

173. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 54–6 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, l. 97–101). See also Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraphs 458–62 (citing Iurii E. Rybalkin, “Voennaia pomoshch’ Sovetskogo Soiuza ispanskomu narodu v natsional’no-revoliutsionnoi voine 1936–1939,” PhD diss, Institute of Military History [Moscow], 1992, 79). See also Novikov, SSSR, Komintern, II: 44.

174. Gorkii et al., Krakh germanskoi okkupatsii na Ukraine, 16.

175. Domarus, Hitler: Reden, II: 645 (editor’s note). See also Kerrl, Nürnberg 1936: Der Parteitag der Ehre.

176. Waddington, Hitler’s Crusade, 109 (citing National Archives, State Department decimal file, 761.62/395: Dodd to Hull, Sept. 11). The British embassy in Berlin reported that “the extent of the attacks and their violent and pointed, and in fact provocative, nature exceeded all expectations.” DBFP, 2nd series, XVII: 319–26 (Newton, Sept. 23, 1936).

177. Fröhlich, Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, III/ii: 178 (Sept. 9, 1936).

178. Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War, 46–7 (citing AVP RF, f. 05, op. 16, papka, 114, d. 1, l. 213); RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 743, l. 56; DVP SSSR, XIX: 423, 762 n160; Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 341 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 78).

179. Howson, Arms for Spain, 126.

180. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 26 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 120, d. 266, l. 24; RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 845, l. 14, 17–18, 40; d. 848, l. 109).

181. Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 115 (citing German intelligence reports). For Spain, 274 million rubles would be collected from 1936–39. Komshukov, “Natsional’no-revoliutsionnaia voina ispanskogo naroda,” 179. On aid, see also Novikov, SSSR, Komintern, I: 152–63; and RGASPI, f. 17, op. 120, d. 274, l. 1–2, 4–5.

182. Vechernyi Cheliabinsk, Aug. 9, 2001.

183. DVP SSSR, XIX: 762; Sipols, “SSSR i problema mira,” 51.

184. Dimitrov, “Zashchishchat’ podlykh terroristov” (no. 14), 3–6, (no. 15), 17–8. In the same issue, Palmiro Togliatti presented Stalin’s retrospective criminalization of long-ago factional activity as “an act to defend democracy, peace, socialism, and the revolution.” Ercoli, “Uroki protsessa,” 37, 43. “The Moscow trial has had a catastrophic effect and has dreadfully compromised the policy of the Popular Front,” the Austrian Marxist Rudolf Hilferding had lamented in Aug. 1936. McDermott and Agnew, Comintern, 156.

185. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 209 (citing author’s archive); Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 53 (citing APRF, f. 57, op. 1, d. 27, l. 1–26; f. 045, op. 1, d. 729, l. 86–9).

186. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 66–7; Jansen and Petrov, Stalin’s Loyal Executioner, 54.

187. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 147.

188. Orjonikidze was also summoned to Sochi from Kislovodsk, a distance of 200 miles over the mountains. Khlevniuk, In Stalin’s Shadow, 104 (citing Kaganovich to Orjonikidze, Sept. 30, 1936: RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1/s. d. 136, l. 46).

189. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 682–3 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 124–7).

190. Tumshis and Papchinskii, 1937, bol’shaia chistka, 241–2.

191. RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 852, l. 138–41; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 981, l. 50. Agranov was retained as deputy NKVD commissar under Yezhov.

192. Starkov, “Narkom Ezhov,” 27.

193. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 683n1 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 131); Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 437–8 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 9, l. 239–40: Vlasik).

194. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 66.

195. Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 148; RGASPI, f. 85, op. 27, d. 93, l. 12–23.

196. Shreider, NKVD iznutri, 35. Shreider recalled a conversation in which a colleague “began to extol [Yezhov’s] democratism and simplicity, explaining that he visited the offices of all the investigators, personally acquainting himself how the work was going” (37). Those visits often entailed Yezhov’s demonstrations of how to extract testimony by beating the accused to a pulp.

197. “O tak nazyvaemom ‘parallel’nom antisovetskom trotskistom tsentre,’” 39; APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 241, l. 213. Also on Sept. 29, 1936, the politburo formally approved Operation X, which was well under way. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 75–7 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 221, 178–82), 78 (l. 173–7); Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 28–9 (citing APRF, f. 3, op. 74, d. 20, l. 87); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 87.

198. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 42; Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 472 (citing RGAVMF, f. 1529, op. 1, d. 147, l. 56).

199. Grechko et al., Istoriia vtoroi mirovoi voiny, I: 54. Cf. Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraphs 491–2.

200. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 37 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 853, l. 45); Howson, Arms for Spain, 125–6.

201. DVP SSSR, XIX: 463–4; Degras, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, III: 211–2. On Oct. 6, 1936, Litvinov sent a telegram to Stalin (from Geneva) indicating that Blum had asked him to inform Stalin that Schacht had asked Blum to speak with British P.M. Baldwin about a pan-European settlement with Germany. When Blum had inquired whether the USSR could be included, Schacht answered that Hitler was unlikely to go for any direct agreement between Germany and the USSR, but that such an agreement might be reached indirectly. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 95, l. 23.

202. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 700 (RGASPi, f. 558, op. 11, d. 95, l. 97), 700 n2 (l. 96). Kaganovich told Stalin that the Spanish ambassador, Pascua, feared the fall of Madrid and was “not a genuine revolutionary-Bolshevik, but a Menshevik” (701–2: d. 743, op. 64–71: Oct. 11, 1936).

203. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 42 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 870, l. 341–3).

204. Gorev appended an eyewitness account: “the greatest impression, sometimes impossible to convey, was made by the tanks.” Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 105 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 222, l. 66–7: Oct. 16, 1936).

205. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 36–7, 43–5 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 870, l. 278–9); Grechko, Istoriia votori mirovoi voiny, I: 53; Howson, Arms for Spain, 138–42; Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 502.

206. Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraphs 503–14. When Kaganovich and Molotov reported (Sept. 5, 1936) on a proposed deal to sell England and Sweden petroleum products at a 5 percent discount to the world price, Stalin wrote back from Sochi, “Why . . . do we have so much oil? Stalin.” They informed him that that was standard international practice. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 94, l. 65–6. Stalin had just recommended selling oil to Republican Spain at well below world prices (d. 9, l. 28–30). The Nationalists got their oil from Standard Oil of New Jersey and the Texas Oil Company.

207. The regime discharged 22,000 soldiers for various reasons (including political ones) in 1936, worsening the housing shortage. RGVA, f. 33 987, op. 3, d. 1045, Volkogonov papers, Hoover, container 17.

208. The Soviets also unloaded on Spain some 280 British-, French-, and Japanese-made artillery pieces. Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 30 (citing TsAMO, f. 119, op. 663, d. 1, l. 22: Nov. 2, 1936).

209. Kowalsky, Stalin, paragraph 604 (citing RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 961, l. 158).

210. Meshcheriakov, “Sovetskii Soiuz i antifashistskaia voina ispanskogo naroda,” 29; Radosh et al., Spain Betrayed, 147 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 1010, l. 295: Krivoshein to Voroshilov, undated, probably early 1937); Rybalkin, Operatisiia “X,” 25.

211. Costello and Tsarev, Deadly Illusions, 255–6 (citing ASVRR, file 17679, operational correspondence, Spain, I: 20). On the mixed performance of Soviet military advisers, see Payne, Spanish Civil War, 166–72.

212. Pons, Global Revolution, 81 (citing RGASPI, f. 495, op. 18, d. 1135).

213. Pravda, Oct. 16, 1936; Degras, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, III: 212.

214. De Mayo, Last Optimist, 281, 285–6. It is possible other Soviet officials knew of the secret gold stash earlier than Rosenberg. The Spanish government made the request official on Oct. 15. Four days later, Krestinsky telegrammed Soviet assent and conditions to Rosenberg. Kudriashov, SSSR i grazhdanskaia voina v Ispanii, 89 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 234, l. 1), 99 (APRF, f. 3, op. 65, d. 234, l. 2: Krestinsky to Rosenberg, Oct. 13, 1936), 102 (l.3), 106 (l. 5), 107–9 (l. 9–10, 6, 11); Rybalkin, Operatsiia “X,” 92–3 (citing APRF, f. 3, op. 74, d. 20, l. 104).