Stalin

19. According to his son, Beria speculated that Stalin had Persian blood and compared him to Shah Abbas I [1571–1629], the ruler of Persia’s Safavid dynasty. (In 1587, a teenage Abbas had shoved aside his weak father, taking over a divided, nearly failed state, then went on to break the power and confiscate the wealth of the provincial chiefs, and fashion an imperial power that stretched from the Caucasus to the Tigris to the Indus and was distinguished by robust diplomatic relations and flourishing arts and architecture.) This might have been a Beria self-image. Beria, My Father, 21, 284.

20. Mikoian, S liubov’iu i pechal’iu, 27–8, 31–3; Mikoian, Svoimi glazami, 33–4, 36–40.

21. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 57–8. Nami Mikoyan’s father would soon be arrested.

22. In Armenia, his replacement had been Khachik Moughdousi [Astvatsaturov], a Beria loyalist.

23. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1990, no. 1), 69. Tsaturov was arrested in Oct. 1937 but would survive.

24. Stepanyan also wrote about the absence of Leninist party democracy under Stalin. Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 40, 49–50 (citing Arianskii filial IML, f. 4033, op. 6, d. 312, l. 1–6); Matossian, Impact of Soviet Policies, 129; Revoliutsionnyi vostok, 1936, no. 4: 50. In April 1936 and again in Sept., Lyudmila Yanushevskaya, the wife of Semyon Sef, head of the party’s culture-propaganda department in Tblisi, told people that Sef, not Beria, was the author of the work. Word reached Yezhov, who launched an investigation with interviews of witnesses. On Aug. 16, 1936, Yezhov wrote on the resolution: “Give me the material.” Another report from a participant, written Oct. 22, 1936, after Yezhov had been named head of the NKVD, was less categorical, as if Yezhov had merely wanted to gather and hold the compromising material on Beria. (Sef and his wife were expelled from the party.) Sokolov, Beriia, 98–105.

25. Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 52 (citing Arianskii filial IML, f. 1, d. 35, l. 98–9).

26. The bodyguards were detained but released after a month and a half. Sokolov, Beriia, 108–20.

27. Antonov-Ovseenko, Beriia, 92–6; Artsuni, “Samoubiistvo A. G. Khandzhiana”; Gazarian, “Etno ne dolzhno povtorit’sia” (no. 2), 65. After Beria’s destruction in 1953, witnesses came forward to charge him with shooting Khanjyan in his (Beria’s) office, then having the body somehow delivered past the bodyguards to Khanjyan’s room. The Armenian head of the typist pool of the South Caucasus secretariat (Sushannik Safaryan) would testify that she was carrying the bureau-meeting typescript to Beria, gently pushed open his office door a bit, caught a glimpse of a man lying on the carpet, and quickly retreated. In 1961, KGB chief Shelepin concluded that Beria had killed Khanjyan in his (Beria’s) office. The idea that the experienced operative Beria—with members of the Moscow Central Control Commission in the next room—would shoot Khanjyan in his own office raises more questions than it answers. “Sovetskie praviteli Armenii”(Jan. 2009): http://www.noev-kovcheg.ru/mag/2009–01/1499.html; Izvestiia, Oct. 28, 1961; Medvedev, Let History Judge, 413, 624–5.

28. http://www.noev-kovcheg.ru/mag/2009–01/1499.html#ixzz23qnzhqky. See also Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 52–3.

29. Zaria vostoka, July 11, 1936; Pravda [Armenia], July 12, 1936.

30. Tzitzernak, “Aghassi Khanjian.”

31. Zaria vostoka, July 20, 1936.

32. In Georgia between 1932 and 1936, the combined print run of all writings by Marx—in both Russian and Georgian—had totaled 20,000; those of Lenin, 200,000; those of Stalin, 696,000; those of Beria, 430,000. Toptygin, Neizvestnyi Beriia, 41. Beria’s Lado Ketskhoveli (1937), which celebrated Stalin’s martyred mentor in Marxism, was evidently plagiarized from the manuscript of L. Shengelaya, a copy of which had entered the Tiflis Affiliate of the Marxism-Leninism Institute in Sept. 1935. Here, too, Beria emulated the master. Sukharev, “Litsedeistvo,” 112 (citing PA IIP pri TsK KPSS, f. 8, op. 1, d. 39, l. 23).

33. After Papuliya’s arrest, Orjonikidze summoned the Azerbaijan party boss Bagirov to Kislovodsk. “Orjonikidze drilled me about Beria, and spoke of him very negatively,” Bagirov would later testify. “In particular, Orjonikidze said that he couldn’t believe in the guilt of his brother Papuliya . . . Beria learned through his own people that Orjonikidze had summoned me to Kislovodsk, and he asked me the reasons for it over the telephone.” Shariya would testify: “I knew that on the surface Beria thought well of Orjonikidze, but in fact he said all manner of despicable things about him to his circle of confidants.” Goglidze would testify: “Beria in my presence and that of others made sharp, deprecatory comments about Sergo Orjonikidze . . . I formed the impression that Beria said that as a result of some personal grudge against Orjonikidze and set others against him.” Nekrasov, Beria, 360; Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina,” 1991, no. 1: 50.

34. Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 2–26 (speech to Sukhum city soviet, Jan. 1, 1936). Pravda on March 4, 1936, celebrated fifteen years of Soviet power in Abkhazia with a front-page photo of Lakoba, alongside Stalin, Orjonikidze, and Mikoyan, from 1927, which was said to have come from Stalin’s private collection. No functionary—especially Beria—could miss a Kremlinological signal so immense, and for a place so small, a mere autonomous republic. Lakoba did not get to claim an article himself; instead, an article (“Itogi bor’ba i pobed”) was printed under the byline of Agrba, Abkhaz party secretary (Pravda was a party paper). In 1935 or 1936 Beria moved from an apartment building to a mansion at Machabeli St. 11. He also used a white stucco villa in Gagra, near Stalin’s villa. Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy, 511–2 .

35. An opportunity for Beria’s pressure came with the suicide, in 1935 or 1936, of the daughter of the foreign trade commissar Rosenholtz at Lakoba’s dacha in Gagra. At the time Beria was at his own dacha in Gagra, and there was a suspicion he had had sexual intercourse with her. In fact, she had sexual relations that day, but earlier, in the city, at the hotel where she was staying. In Gagra by invitation, she had supper with the host and others, then retired for the night and shot herself with one of Lakoba’s guns. Beria either could not manage or chose not to mount a case against Lakoba. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1991, no. 1), 47–8.

36. Abbas-ogly, Ne mogu zabyt’; Abbas-ogly, Moia Abkhaziia, moia sud’ba.

37. Musto, “Pistolet ili iad?”: http://www.hrono.ru/statii/2004/musto_yad.html. Once, it was said, in 1935, when Beria had used foul language in the presence of women, Mikhail Lakoba, Nestor’s half-brother, had put a Brauning to Beria’s temple. Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen, 294 (no citation).

38. Lakoba, “‘Ia Koba, a ty Lakoba,’” 74.

39. Lakoba, “‘Ia Koba, a ty Lakoba,’” 67. See also the hearsay in reminiscences by Musto Dkhikhasvili, “Konkurenty” (http://www.hrono.ru/statii/2004/musto_konkur.html). Musto writes that he did not attend the funeral in protest; photos show him as a pallbearer. Dimitrov’s diary notes (Dec. 12, 1936) “with Lakoba and his wife.” Banac, Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 41.

40. Lakoba had to obtain formal permission from the local party bureau to travel to Tiflis at Beria’s summons; permission was granted by telephone poll to him and M. Gobechiya on Dec. 25, 1936. Marykhuba, Moskovskie arkhivnye, 8 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 8, d. 97, l. 217–8).

41. By some accounts, Anastas Engelov, the Abkhaz plenipotentiary in Tblisi, assisted Lakoba in the walk to the hotel because Lakoba’s driver, as instructed, was waiting back at the hotel. Engelov would be executed in connection with the Nov. 1937 trial of Lakoba-ites.

42. Minchenok, “Nestor i ten’.” Beria arrived at the hotel with South Caucasus NKVD chief Goglidze and, evidently, German Mgaloblishvili, chairman of the Georgian Council of People’s Commissars. (Mgaloblishvili might have attended the theater with Lakoba and been at the hotel already.) Two Georgian NKVD operatives were already on the scene (including Kobulov), where the deceased Lakoba lay on the bed.

43. On April 26, 1935, the politburo in Moscow had discussed Lakoba’s health, and directed him to observe physicians’ instructions and enter the Kremlin hospital. The Kremlin doctors had recommended that Lakoba cut his workday down to four hours for a few weeks, observe a proper diet (including reducing meat consumption), refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol, engage in physical therapy, and apply cream and ointments. Marykhuba, Moskovskie arkhivnye, 23–4 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 971, l. 12); Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 1–7, Sept. 16, 1935.

44. Marykhuba, Moskovskie arkhivnye, 8 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 8, d. 97, l. 215: Dec. 29, 1936).

45. Pravda reported the death that day (Dec. 29).

46. Medvedev, Let History Judge, 624.

47. This started with Mgaloblishvili, whom Beria had chosen to lead the honor guard accompanying Lakoba’s casket home from Tblisi and who was arrested for “ties.” Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1991, no. 1), 48–9. The story goes that Beria’s men beat Sarie to testify that Lakoba had wanted to sell Abkhazia to Turkey; she evidently refused, even when they beat her fourteen-year-old son Rauf in front of her. She was said to have died of torture in her cell. Medvedev, Let History Judge, 495–6.

48. Coincidentally or not, after Lakoba’s demise, Stalin would not return to the Caucasus on a holiday for nine years. In 1937, the alphabet for writing the Abkhaz language would be changed to Georgian. On Dec. 16, 1936, the Abkhaz party bureau discussed an order to switch from the Latin to the Georgian alphabet (when elsewhere in the Union the Latin alphabet was being replaced by Cyrillic); all-new printing presses and typewriters would be required. Georgian peasants received land grants to settle on the Abkhaz coast, and Abkhaz language radio broadcasts were discontinued. Marykhuba, Moskovskie arkhivnye, 9 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 8, d. 105, l. 16–7); Abkhazia, 4. (The Abkhaz would switch to Cyrillic in 1954.)

49. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 64 (Aug. 4, 1937), 67–8 (Aug. 16, 1937), 69–70 (Aug. 16, 1937).

50. Beria promised documentation if necessary to testify to the supervision of lower level party organizations. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 29–30.

51. Mlechin, KGB, 199 (diary of Alexander G. Solovyov).

52. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1990, no. 5), 85 (testimony of Malik Dotsenko, citing Litvin).

53. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1990, no. 5), 86–7. (Yezhov’s holiday was 1931–2.) Khrushchev recalled going out with Malenkov to Yezhov’s Meshcherino dacha and finding Beria there. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 180.

54. Beria raised his own status by noting that “Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan are objects of especially heightened work of the imperialist powers”—a self-award of carte blanche to go after his enemies. Kosheleva et al., “Materialy fevral’-martovskogo plenuma TsK VKP (b) 1937 goda” (1995, no. 5–6): 8–13.

55. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1989, no. 7), 86 (Goglidze).

56. Nekrasov, Beria, 367.

57. In Sept. 1937, Orakhelashvili was said to have testified: “In my presence, in Sergo Orjonikidze’s apartment, Beso Lominadze, after a number of counterrevolutionary slurs aimed at the party leadership, made an exceptionally insulting and hooliganistic slur against comrade Stalin. To my surprise, in response to this counterrevolutionary audacity by Lominadze, Orjonikidze, smiling, turned to me and said, ‘Have a look at him!’ And continued to conduct the conversation with Lominadze in a calm tone . . . In general I have to say that the parlor in Sergo Orjonikidze’s apartment and, on days off, at his dacha (first in Volysnkoe, then in Sosnovka) was a frequent meeting place for members of our counterrevolutionary organization, which, while waiting for Seergo Orjonikidze to arrive, conducted the most candid counterrevolutionary conversations, which continued right on after Orjonikidze himself showed up.” Nekrasov, Beria, 78. See also Knight, Beria, 83. As her husband had his eyes gouged out and eardrums perforated, Orakhelashvili’s wife, Maria, Georgia’s commissar of enlightenment, was compelled to watch.

58. Ginzburg, “O gibeli Sergo Ordzhonikidze,” 91–2. Beria’s minion Goglidze would later admit the obvious: such “testimony” compromising Orjonikidze had been intended to please Stalin. Nekrasov, Beria, 360; Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1991, no. 1), 55; Nekrasov, Beria, 378–9.

59. At the Pyatakov trial Mdivani was accused of plotting to kill Yezhov and Beria. Report of Court Proceedings, 74. Toroshelidze, former head of the Georgian Affiliate of the Institute of Marx-Engels-Lenin, was also arrested in Oct. 1936.

60. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 113. Nadezhda Lukina, Bukharin’s first wife, had written to Stalin on Aug. 23, 1936, the day of the verdict against Kamenev and Zinoviev, claiming that during Kirov’s Red Square funeral Kamenev had smiled at Mdivani (“I simply could not keep myself from writing you”). RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 710, l. 135–6.

61. Zaria vostoka, May 27, 1937; Pravda, June 5, 1937.

62. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 53–5. On police-reported gossip in Georgia, see Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, II: 69–72 (Arkhiv MVD Gruzii, 2–I otdel, f. 14, op. 11, d. 244, l. 19–22).

63. Beria’s telegram to Stalin noted that Mezenin’s superior in Moscow, Alexander Nikitin, had sent a telegram tasking the correspondent with delivering sharply critical information, and that Nikitin had twice phoned Meznin to render his reportage still sharper. Nikitin (b. 1901) would be named editor of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Aug. 1937 and head of the Central Committee press department in Jan. 1938, arrested on Sept. 3, 1939 (under Beria), and executed in July 1941.

64. Avalishvili, “‘Great Terror.’” May 29, 1937, would be Ilya Chavchavadze’s 100th jubilee, and Beria telegrammed Stalin eight days prior to request permission to re-publish Stalin’s poetry from 1896 (some of which Chavchavadze’s journal had published). Stalin refused. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 46.

65. Nekrasov, Beria, 242–3. Mikoyan would recall that Beria’s role in Musavat was discussed at a Central Committee plenum in 1937. Naumov, Lavrentii Beriia, 1953, 165–6; Antonov-Ovseenko, Beriia, 19.

66. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 253–4. See also Kvashonkin, Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, 374 (RGASPI, f. 73, op. 2, d. 19, l. 49–50, Kaganovich to Stalin, Sept. 20, 1937).

67. Kaminskii, Grigorii Kaminsky; “Grigorii Naumovich Kaminskii.”

68. Pavliukhhov, Ezhov, 296–7. Kaminsky supposedly told his wife on the morning of June 25 that he might not return home from the plenum; he is said to have already removed all documents from his safe and desk at the commissariat, prompting his assistant to ask if he was being transferred. Zhavaronkov and Pariiskii, “Skazavshii budet uslyshan,” 200–3 (quoting the recollections of Karmanova, his deputy in the health commissariat, and the writer Aleksandra Bentsianova, neither of whom attended the plenum), 209 (quoting I. I. Mukhovoz).

69. Afanas’ev, Oni ne molchali, 204 (Svetlana Kaminskaya). Kaminsky had been perhaps the sole Soviet journalist on the ground in Germany in fall 1923 reporting objectively that the Comintern efforts to instigate a seizure of power were disastrous. Lozhechko, Grigorii Kaminskii.

70. Afanas’ev, Oni ne molchali, 210–1 (Kaminskaya).

71. The sentence was carried out Feb. 10, 1938, at Yagoda’s former dacha (Kommunarka).

72. “Ochen’ vysoko tsenit t. Beria,” 163–5 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 788, l. 114–5ob; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 788, l. 114–16ob, June 25, 1937). Tite Lordkipanidze, a former head of the South Caucasus secret police, was arrested on June 22, 1937, along with several subordinates, in the Crimea autonomous republic; he was sentenced to execution on Sept. 14, 1937, and shot fifteen days later.

73. Already back on Oct. 21, 1933, Stalin had written to Kaganovich: “Pavlunovsky destroyed the artillery. Orjonikidze must be given a scolding for having trusted two or three of his favorites. He was ready to give state benefits to these imbeciles.” Stalin to Kaganovich, RGASPI, f. 81, op. 3, d. 100, l. 38–9. Pavlunovsky would be shot on Oct. 30, 1937.

74. Already during his 1920s police work rooting out Menshevik sympathies, Beria had begun collecting dossiers on literary figures, musicians, and university personnel. Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen, 299.

75. Pravda, Jan. 15, 1937; Literaturnaia gazeta, Jan. 5 and 10, 1937. The central regime awarded 3 million additional rubles for new apartments for artists of the Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater, 700,000 for the theater’s refurbishment, 1 million to build a concert hall in the Tblisi conservatory, and half a million to refurbish its building. Gatagova et al., TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i natsional’nyi vopros, II: 212–3 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 983, l. 28: Jan. 14, 1937).

76. Akhmeteli was executed on June 27, 1937. Urushadze, Sandro Akhmeteli, 250–1, 266–70. On Akhmeteli’s theater, see also Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 213–4.

77. Rayfield, “Death of Paolo Iashvili,” 635–6.

78. Akhmeteli had been scathing toward fellow Georgian writers, whom he accused of giving in to political pressure; they now shrank from defending his name. Rayfield, “Death of Paolo Iashvili,” 655n23.

79. Zelinskii, “V iune 1954 goda,” 82–3.

80. According to the recollections of Semyon Chikovani, who carefully listed all the people who had been present. (Interview with Lasha Bakradze, director of the Georgian Literary Museum, who read out Chikovani’s Georgian-language memoir to me.) By other accounts, after Yashvili shot himself, Javakhishvili muttered, “He was a real man, he was a real man.” Be that as it may, four days later, the writers voted approval of a resolution condemning “Javakhishvili as an enemy of the people, spy and diversant [who] is to be expelled . . . and physically annihilated.” One friend, Geronti Kikodze, had the courage to walk out (and he would survive). Rayfield, “Death of Paolo Iashvili,” 660; Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen, 344; Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 269.

81. Pasternak, Essay in Autobiography, 110; Rayfield, “Pasternak and the Georgians”; Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 262–3. Beria also stripped Tblisi University of its professors, including the papyrologist and classical scholar Grigol Tsereteli.

82. Rayfield, “Death of Paolo Iashvili,” 636, 647; Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 247. Countless others were executed, including Dimitri Shevardnadze, a painter who had established the country’s national gallery in 1920 (and had co-designed the emblem of Georgia’s Mensevik-dominated republic of 1918–1921); he had led opposition to a proposal by Beria to tear down Tbilisi’s ancient Metekhi Church (which would survive).

83. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 16–9, 20 (Mikoyan and Beria to Stalin Jan. 5, 1937). These are documents from the former Communist Party Archive, Georgian Affiliate of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Tbilisi (f. 14, op. 11, korobka 18, d. 152: telegrammy, poslannye na imia sekretaria TsK VKP [b] tov. Stalina).

84. Beria had asked Molotov for 33,000 more tons, and received an answer from Molotov’s aid (Antipov) that Georgia would have to make do within its existing allocation. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 31 (Feb. 4, 1937), 40 (May 5, 1937), 47–8 (May 22, 1937).

85. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 41–5 (May 9, 1937).

86. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 61–3 (Beria to Stalin and Molotov, July 31, 1937).

87. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 58–9, 66, 73–5 (Sept. 1, 1937). In Sept. 1937 Beria wrote to Stalin asking for additional kerosene, complaining of severe shortages and queues because of central cutbacks in supplies to the republic. Demand, he wrote, was increasing as a result of the return of students to Tbilisi and provincial capitals for the academic year. In Oct. 1937, he wrote to Stalin and Molotov about failures to deliver planned supplies of gasoline, complaining that the Azerbaijan oil distribution company was sending Georgia’s allotments to Moscow. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 76–7, 88–9.

88. Zen’kovich, Marshaly i genseki, 194–5. See also Kremlev, Beriia, 84–5.

89. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 252–5 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 315, l. 24–42).

90. Six others stood in the same trial. Zaria vostoka, July 11, 1937; Conquest, Reassessment, 225. There is a story that Mdivani told his interrogators at Metekhi: “Being shot is not enough punishment for me; I need to be quartered! It was me who brought the 11th Army here. I betrayed my people and helped Stalin and Beria, these degenerates, enslave Georgia and bring Lenin’s party to its knees.” Antonov-Ovsenko, Beriia, 27.

91. The trial was staged Sept. 24, 1937, in Batum’s House of the Red Army. Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, II: 293–9 (Arkhiv MVD Gruzii, 2–i otdel, f. 14, op. 11, d. 106, l. 61–6).

92. The trial took place on Nov. 3, 1937, in the Drama Theater. RGANI, f. 89, op. 48, d. 5; APRF, Volkogonov papers, Hoover, container 27; Abkhazia, 433–40. See also Delba, “Besposhchadno borot’sia s vragami naroda,” 427–30. See also Sovetskaia Abkhazia, Nov. 3, 1937; Marykhuba, Moskovskie arkhivnye, 12–5, 26–7 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 18, d. 104, l. 15–7; op. 3, d. 993, l. 3).

93. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 71–2. See also Zaria vostoka, Aug. 26, 1937.

94. Ocherki istorii Kommunisticheskoi partii Armenii, 387; Artizov et al., Reabilitatsiia: kak eto bylo, II: 586. On Aug. 19, 1937, Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan, former head of the Armenian Council of People’s Commissars, died, apparently throwing himself out the fourth floor window of the Lubyanka. For another version, see Matossian, Impact of Soviet Policies, 158.

95. Agrba would be executed April 21, 1938. Zakhar Suleimanovich Agrba, the director of the Abkhaz theater, was also arrested and executed.

96. Mikoian, Tak bylo, 583.

97. Ocherki istorii Kommunisticheskoi partii Armenii, 387; Tucker, Stalin in Power, 488–9.

98. Blauvelt, “March of the Chekists.” Beria wrote to Stalin to request authorization to strengthen defenses on the border with Turkey, reacting quickly after a central decree had ordered such strengthening in Central Asia on the borders with Iran and Afghanistan. Beria understood not to push too far: in one draft telegram to Stalin, he changed the phrase “the Georgia Central Committee proposes” to “requests” when seeking to escape a new decree by the railroad commissariat. Beria also reported to Stalin that Artyomi Geurkov, the former party boss of Ajaria, had shot himself in his apartment, leaving a letter to Beria (which he forwarded) admitting his guilt, perhaps to try to protect family members (“I should be punished, I am doing this myself, perhaps in excess”). Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 78–9 (Sept. 26, 1937), 80–1 (Sept. 1937), 82–4 (Oct. 1, 1937).

99. Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 270; Rayfield, “Death of Paolo Iashvili,” 663. Back on Oct. 30, 1937, Beria had written to Stalin that of the 12,000-plus people arrested, only 7,374 had had their cases decided, leaving some 5,000 in overcrowded prisons, because the traveling military collegium from Moscow was busy going around to various locations; Beria requested permission for a special collegium of the Georgian court to determine sentences. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 415–6 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 212, l. 137–9); Junge and Bonwetsch, Bol’shevistskii poriadok, II: 23–4 (Arkhiv MVD Gruzii, 2–I otdel, f. 14, op. 11, d. 152, l. 171–3). Beria staged what would turn out to be his final show trial in Tbilisi, which resulted in executions for “wreckers” at the Georgian Animal Husbandry Institute. Zaria vostoka, Jan. 25, 1938.

100. Beria had sought Stalin’s permission to hold a plenum of the Soviet writers’ union in Tbilisi in honor of the Rustaveli celebrations: Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 56–7 (Beria to Stalin, May 31, 1937). Vsevolod Vishnevsky did a radio broadcast from Gori on Dec. 26, 1937, briefly narrating its thirteen centuries of history and describing a visit to Stalin’s birth hovel. Goriaeva, “Veilkaia kniga dnia,” 317–21 (RGALI, f. 1038, op. 1, d. 1181, l. 8–15).

101. In absolute terms, this was third highest, after the Russian and Ukrainian republics. Avalishvili, “‘Great Terror’”; http://stalin.memo. ru/images/note1957.htm.

102. Georgia’s list for the proposed mass operations (NKVD 00447), sent to Yezhov and Frinovsky in Moscow on July 8, 1937, contained 1,419 names in first category (execution) and 1,562 in second (Gulag). An additional 2,000 people were said to be members of former political parties in the republic. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 166, d. 588, l. 36. The NKVD quotas for Georgia were set at 2,000 (first) and 3,000 (second). APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 212, l. 55–78. The Georgia troika would assemble in Goglidze’s office, usually around midnight until 4:00 a.m., and work through 100 to 150 “cases” in a session, spending two minutes or so on each. Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, II: 411–28 (Arkhiv MVD Gruzii, 1–i otdel, f. vosstanovlennykh del G. Mamuliya: I . Takahadze, Jan. 8, 1957).

103. Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, I: 68, 71, 75, 81, 95, 200.

104. Esaiashvili, Ocherki istorii Kommunisticheskoi partii Gruzii, II: 160 (partarkhiv GF IML, f. 14, op. 40, d. 35, l. 13–4), 163.

105. “Beria as a literary critic,” quipped Rayfield, “had been successful beyond the dreams of most critics: every writer he had disapproved of had ceased to write.” Rayfield, Literature of Georgia, 262–3.

106. Already by this date, Beria reported to Stalin that more than 12,000 people had been arrested, of which 7,374 had been convicted, 5,236 extrajudicially (by troika). Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 95–7 (Oct. 30–31, 1937).

107. Overall in Georgia, nearly 20,000 new members would join the party between Nov. 1936 and March 1939. Almost half were children of functionaries. XVIII s”ezd Vsesoiuznoi Kommunsticheskoi partii (b), 577.

108. Among the targets were immigrants to Armenia: more than 40,000 ethnic Armenians had returned from Asia and Europe in the period 1921–1936, and many now met a grim fate. Melkonian, “Repressions in 1930s Soviet Armenia.” The decapitation at the top was roughly similar in Azerbaijan, under Bagirov: 22 people’s commissars, 49 county party secretaries, 29 chairmen of local soviet executive committees, 57 directors of factories, 95 engineers, 110 military men, 207 trade unionists, and 8 professors were arrested and, in the majority of cases, executed. And that was just in 1937. Ismailov, “1937.” See also Ocherki istorii Kommunisticheskoi partii Azerbaidzhana.

109. Tepliakov, Mashina terrora, 599.

110. Stephan, “‘Cleansing’ the Soviet Far East,” 51–3. The Soviet Far East was the fastest-growing region in terms of population in the Russian republic, doubling between 1926 and 1939. Stephan, Russian Far East, 185.

111. In 1938, 98 percent of the troika sentences in Ukraine were death; in Georgia, 68 percent. Georgia was not a land of exile or giant Gulag camps with which to pad or exceed quotas. It was, however, rich in members of former non-Bolshevik parties. Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, II: 55, 77.

112. Beria wrote to Stalin and Molotov seeking authorization to shut down the prestigious Sukhum Subtropical Institute and instead to transform a department at Georgia’s Agricultural Institute into the new de facto all-Union institution for training subtropical agronomists. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 36–7 (April 21, 1937). The Abkhazia Subtropical institute, as it had originally been known, had been opened in 1926 and six years later was designated an all-Union Institute. Anchbadze et al., Istoriia Abkhazskoi ASSR, 155; Blauvelt, “‘From Words to Action!,’” 252.

113. Abkhazskaia oblastnaia organizatsiia, 25–56.

114. Grdzelidze, Mezhnatsional’noe obshchenie, 102–3. Ethnic Abkhaz in the Communist party of Abkhazia fell from 28.3 to 18.5 percent over a single year (1929–30); the high water mark thereafter was 21.8 percent in 1936. In 1939, Abkhaz were down to just over 15 percent in their own party.

115. Ajarians had been designated “Muslim Georgians” under the tsars. Guruli and Tushurashvili, Correspondence, 104–5; Junge and Bonwetsch, Bolshevistskii poriadok, II: 67–8 (Arkhiv MVD Gruzii, 2–I otdel, f. 14, op. 11, d. 152, l. 169, 188: Jan. 5, 1937). Beria would sacrifice the boss of the Abkhaz NKVD, Grigory Pauchiliya (b. 1904), an ethnic Georgian whom he had promoted from the NKVD sports team Dynamo.

116. Iskanderov, Ocherki, 540–3. Bagirov initially had sought to impose limits. “Some people are not against demonstrating their ‘orthodoxy’ by firing from work the wives of those arrested, sisters-in-law, relatives,” he told a congress of soviets in Azerbaijan in March 1937. “Pardon me, please, this is not correct. This means arousing greater dissatisfaction, greater anger. This means increasing the number of enemies of Soviet power. Where are they supposed to go? We cannot leave them to starve.” Ismailov, Istoria “bol’shogo terora,” 72–3 (citing APD UDP AR, f. 1, op. 88, d. 137, l. 1), 73–4 (l. 8–9; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 131–2), 92–3 (citing APD UDP AR, f. 1, op. 77, d. 101, l. 98).

117. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 380 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 57, l. 99).

118. Ismailov, Istoria “bol’shogo terora,” 145–8 (citing APD UDP AR, f. 1, op. 88, d. 137, l. 1), 73–4 (l. 8–9; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 20, l. 131–2).

119. For some, Khrushchev’s rise presented a mystery. “I took part in the Moscow city party committee meeting, at which we were given instructions . . . Khrushchev’s speech was confused and chaotic,” Aleksandr Solovyov had recorded in his diary (Dec. 14, 1931). “It is incomprehensible how he got to that position, obtuse and narrow minded as he is.” On Jan. 28, 1932, Solovyov privately added following Khrushchev’s promotion: “I am, like many others, astonished at Khrushchev’s rapid rise. He did very badly in his studies at the Industrial Academy. But he has won the sympathy of his classmates . . . He is an incredibly obtuse man. And a frightful bootlicker.” Kozlov, Neizvestnaia Rossiia, IV: 170–1.

120. Kolman, My ne dolzhny byli tak zhit’, 192. A reporter for Vechernaia Moskva, A. V. Khrabovitsky, would recall: “I always saw Khrushchev together with Kaganovich. Kaganovich was the active, powerful one, whereas all I ever heard Khrushchev saying was, ‘Yes, Lazar Moiseyevich,’ ‘Right, Lazar Moiseyevich.’” Medvedev, All Stalin’s Men, 124–5.

121. Dmitrii Shepilov, in Vostryshev, Moskva stalinskaia, 365.

122. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 112–5 (reference to D. Rabinovich and I. Finkel).

123. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, 1: 132–4, 145–7; Khrushchev, Memoirs, I: 127–9, 138–40; Chuev, Tak govoril Kaganovich, 99; Taubman, Khrushchev, 103–4, 114–7; Na prieme, 227–9. See also Borys, “Who Ruled the Soviet Ukraine in Stalin’s Time?” A blithe absence of genuine concern from Stalin was evident in another favorite, the peasant-born Andreyev, who as a young man back in 1920–22 had voted for Trotsky’s platform in the trade union debate. During the June 1937 sessions of the Main Military Council, Stalin was seated next to Andreyev, pointed to him, and stated that “he had been a very active Trotskyite in 1921.” “Which Andreyev?” a voice interjected. “Andrei Andreyevich Andreyev, Central Committee Secretary,” Stalin answered, adding that Andreyev had “disarmed” and “is fighting the Trotskyites very well.” Istochnik, 1994, no. 3: 74.

124. That included both Moscow and Ukraine. Makarova, “Stalin i ‘blizhnyi krug,’” 301.

125. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 995, l. 5.

126. Borys, “Who Ruled the Soviet Ukraine in Stalin’s Time?,” 230.

127. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 139–40.

128. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 184; Khrushchev, Memoirs, I: 178–80.

129. Mikoyan later wrote that “Khrushchev made a career for himself in Moscow literally within a couple of years. As for how and why—it was because almost everybody else had been put in prison in the meantime. Besides, Khrushchev had Alliluyeva as his patron. They met at the Industrial Academy where Khrushchev was active in fighting against the opposition. It was then that he became secretary of the district party committee. He finally got onto the Central Committee over others’ dead bodies, as it were.” Mikoian, Tak bylo, 614.

130. This was formalized in a politburo decree on Feb. 17, 1938: RGASPI, f. 17, op., 162, d. 22, l. 127.

131. Yezhov’s orders were dated Feb. 26 and March 3, 1938. Uspensky, for his part, told one of the newly appointed provincial NKVD chiefs under him, “all Germans and Poles living in Ukraine are spies and saboteurs.” Kuromiya and Pepłoński, “The Great Terror,” 650 (citing Z arkhiviv VUChK-HPU-NKVD-KHB, 1998, no. 1–2: 215).

132. Leplyovsky was transferred to NKVD transport; he would be arrested on April 26, 1938, and “confessed” that he had been a plotter since 1930, when he had helped mount the Springtime case against former tsarist officers. Naumov, Stalin i NKVD, 515–21. The last person connected with the Tukhachevsky trial, Marshal Blyukher, would be arrested on Oct. 22, 1938.

133. Na prieme, 220 (Sept. 21, 1937).

134. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 418–9. At a Jan. 24–25, 1938, gathering of NKVD central and regional bosses, several requested extensions for the mass operations. Yezhov goaded them on, indirectly invoking Stalin. Frinovsky interrupted the speech of Grigory Gorbach, Mironov’s successor as NKVD chief in Western Siberia, “Have you heard? Fifty-five thousand arrested! Bravo Gorbach! There’s a star [molodets]!” Both Yezhov and Frinovsky ominously warned that additional enemies were lurking in NKVD ranks. “We have provinces where the local GB apparatus has not been touched at all.” Danilov et al., Tragediia Sovetskoi derevni, V/ii: 548; Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 241–2 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 5, d. 13, l. 358–9, 280); Pavliukov, Ezhov, 348–55.

135. Of the 204 special reports from the locales during the second half of July 1938 concerning the “struggle against counterrevolutionary elements,” Uspensky was responsible for more than thirty. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 243–5 (TSA FSB, f. 3 os, op. 6, d. 4, l. 31–4; op. 5, d. 63); Shapoval et al., ChK-GPU-NKVD, 173–4.

136. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 364–5 (TsA FSB, H-15301, t. 9, l. 100–2).

137. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 359–62; RGASPI, f. 560, op. 1, d. 10, l. 38 (Zhabokritsky).

138. Vasilev et al., Politicheskoe rukovodstvo Ukrainy, 35–47 (TsDAGOU, f . 1, d. 548, l. 1–105: June 13, 1938).

139. Slutsky was in the Little Corner once in 1935, three times in 1936, and twice in 1937 (the last time on July 5, for twenty minutes). Na prieme, 705.

140. Galina would later deny that this was her half-brother: V. Nechaev, “Vnuchka Stalina ‘o belykh piatniakh v istorii svoei sem’i,” Argumenty i fakty, Nov. 3, 1999.

141. Orlov, Secret History, 231–2, 237–8.

142. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 362–71 (citing TsA FSB, sledstvennoe delo No. N-15302, III: 100, XI: 184, Frinovsky testimony, Uspensky testimony); Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 81–2 (citing TsA FSB, sledstvennoe delo No. N-15301, t. 3, l. 117–23). Also in April 1938, an NKVD passport decree denied individuals the ability to determine their nationality and thus, from the regime’s point of view, to hide behind a false front: rather, the determination would be derived from the nationality of one’s parents. If mother and father were of different nations, both were inscribed in the passport. The decree aimed to “unmask” people, particularly in border regions, who had co-nationals abroad and were concealing their true nationality. Hirsch, Empire of Nations, 275, 294 (GARF, f. 7523, op. 65, d. 304, l. 1).

143. For example, the June 16, 1937, reception given by Latvia for its foreign minister would be attended by Molotov, Litvinov, Mikoyan, Budyonny and Yegorov, and Kerzhentsev. Pravda, June 18, 1937. On July 10, 1937, a breakfast given by the Swedish foreign minister would be attended by Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Chubar, Rukhimovich, and Bulganin. Pravda, July 11, 1937.

144. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 773, l. 1 (December 8, 1932); Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh sem’i, 159–60 (Nov. 4, 1934); Deviatov et al., Blizhniaia, 88.

145. Duggan, Fascist Voices, 319–24.

146. “Recently I have been dreaming about you a lot, perhaps, I don’t know, that is what stimulated me to write to you,” wrote Rakhil Dizik, a pedagogue of the Moscow region, in an undated letter, evidently from the 1930s, that mentioned her Communist Youth League membership and desire to get to know him better. Stalin returned her letter and accompanying photo with a note: “Comrade Unknown! I ask you to believe me that I have no desire to insult you . . . But all the same I must say that I am without the opportunity [no time!] to satisfy your wish. I wish you all the best.” “‘Tovarishch neznakomaia’: iz perepiski I. V. Stalina.”

147. Another service woman, who would be rumored to be Stalin’s mistress, the housekeeper Varvara Istomina [née Zhbychkina, b. 1917], would be assigned to the Near Dacha only in 1946. Deviatov et al., Blizhniaia, 384. The top service position at the Nearby Dacha was held by Matryona “Motya” Butuzova.

148. The occasion, Aug. 18, 1938, was Aviation Day, one of the country’s most important holidays. Rybin, Stalin v oktiabre, 18–9; Rybin, Stalin na fronte, 41; Turchenko, “Zhenschiny diktatora.” Rybin gives her name as Rusudan Jordaniya (Rybin, Stalin v oktiabre) and as Ruzadan Pachkoriya (Rybin, Stalin na fronte).

149. Vlasik had served in the tsarist army in the Great War, then in the Red Army, soon joining the Cheka, and worked under Pauker from 1926 in the operative department as part of the elite bodyguard corps. On Nov. 19, 1938 (in an appointment signed by both Yezhov and Beria), Vlasik took command of the First Department (bodyguards) in the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) (the Kremlin Commandantura of State Security went to N. K. Spiridonov). GARF, f, R-9401, op. 1, d. 1623, l. 157. On Dec. 27, 1938, Vlasik was promoted from senior major to commissar of state security, third level: GARF, f. R-9401, op. 57, d. 1625, l. 273, 76. Like his nemesis Beria, Vlasik would move into a private mansion on Moscow’s innermost ring road.

150. Elagin, Ukroshchenie isskustv, 328.

151. Khaustov, “Deiatel’nost’ organov,” 289 (TsA FSb, f. 3, op. 5, d. 82, l. 51), 304 (TsA FSB, f. 66, op. 1, d. 391, l. 55).

152. Kuromiya and Pepłoński, “The Great Terror,” 665 (citing RGVA, f. 308k, op. 3, d. 456, l. 37, and Archiwum akt nowych Warsaw, Sztab Główny, 616/249: Dec. 10–13, 1937).

153. Japanese consulates remained at Vladivostok, Petrovavlovsk, Okha, and Aleksandrovsk; Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state, maintained consulates in Chita and Blagoveshchensk.

154. Stephan, Russian Far East, 207.

155. Na prieme, 216 (July 28, 1937); Coox, “Lesser of Two Hells, Part 1,” 151.

156. Shreider, NKVD iznutri, 16.

157. Tumshis and Papchinskii, 1937, bol’shaia chistka, 254.

158. Petrov and Petrov, Empire of Fear, 74–5. Petrov wrongly gives the date for Lyushkov in Rostov as 1938, instead of 1937.

159. On July 17, 1937, Balytsky wrote a confession to Yezhov of his involvement in a conspiracy, which Frinovsky forwarded to Stalin on July 21; Stalin underlined several passages and wrote: “discuss with Yezhov.” Balytsky had refused to confess only three days earlier. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 257–8 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 316, l. 8–12).

160. Na prieme, 216. Lyushkov was received in the company of Yezhov, Molotov, and Voroshilov. It was Lyushkov’s one recorded visit to the Little Corner.

161. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 234–5 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 321, l. 11; op. 58, d. 405, l. 175).

162. Pravda, Dec. 20, 1937; Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 368–73 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 254, l. 203–15).

163. Tumshis and Papchinskii, 1937, bol’shaia chistka, 79.

164. Ethnic Chinese had comprised 13 percent of the Russian Far East population in 1911, but would fall to under 1 percent as of 1939. Stephan, Russian Far East, 213; Coox, “L’Affaire Lyushkov,” 416. In 1938, the NKVD took inventory of all Chinese in the Soviet Far East with the idea of forcing anyone remaining to emigrate to Xinjiang or resettle in Kazakhstan. But on June 10, 1938, only those who wanted to relocate had to do so, and many Chinese under arrest were released and allowed to go to China. Yezhov informed the NKVD in the Soviet Far East that the USSR was following “friendly relations with China.” Pobol’ and Polian, Stalinskie deportatsii, 103–4.

165. Merritt, “Great Purges,” 456–7.

166. Not including Yagoda, who was general commissar (equivalent to marshal), there were three levels of commissar of state security: first rank, second rank, third rank. Frinovsky held a military rank [komkor]. Two of these state security commissars would survive to 1941. Naumov, Stalin i NKVD (2010), 74–5; Pavliukov, Ezhov, 426.

167. Yezhov supposedly directed Frinovsky to instruct Lyushkov to commit suicide if he were to be recalled to Moscow. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 160 (citing TsA FSB, ASD Frinovskogo, N-15301, t. 2: 173).

168. The second Order of Lenin came on Feb. 23, 1938, Red Army Day. Conquest, Inside Stalin’s Secret Police, 90.

169. Svetlanin, Dal’nevostochnyi zagovor, 92 (referring to a conversation with Blyukher’s political adjutant Semyon Kladko, whom the author ran into in Moscow in mid-Aug. 1938). On July 10, 1937, Stalin received a letter from Blyukher addressed to Voroshilov, in which the Far Eastern marshal rebuked those who had organized his meeting in July 1936 with visiting communications commissar Rykov, blaming the arrested former Far Eastern party boss Kartvelishvili-Lavrentyev. But Blyukher also attacked Vareikis for passing on different information to the Center. Stalin kept Blyukher’s self-justification in his personal archive. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 205–6 (APRF, d. 313, l. 146–8).

170. Blyukher, “S. Vasiliem Konstantinovichem Bliukherom,” 80.

171. Coox, “Lesser of Two Hells, Part 1,” 158.

172. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 422–4 (citing TsA FSB, seldstvennoe delo N-15302, t. 10, l. 169, 175), 428.

173. Haslam, Threat from the East, 94 (citing DDF, 2e série, IX: 613–5, May 3, 1938).

174. The despot elaborated “that it was the ultimate objective of the Japanese to capture the whole of Siberia as far as Lake Baikal,” yet he made clear that “the Soviet Union would not, however, intervene in the war.” U.S. ambassador William Bullitt, relating a conversation with Sun Fo (the envoy who spoke to Stalin): FRUS, 1938, III: 165.

175. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 58, l. 21–4, 33–4 (May 14, 1938).

176. Soviet Naval Commissar Pyotr Smirnov, who co-signed the warning, was sent to the Soviet Far East at this time. Coox, “Lesser of Two Hells, Part 2,” 87.

177. Svetlanin, Dal’nevostochnyi zagovor, 105. Between May 28 and June 8, 1938, the Main Military Council in Moscow, with Stalin in attendance, resolved, among multiple agenda items in connection with the Far Eastern Army, “to purge the command-political cadres of enemies of the people, doubtful and morally debased elements.” All ethnic Germans, Poles, Latvians, Estonians, Koreans, Lithuanians, Romanians, Turks, Hungarians, and Bulgarians in the Far Eastern Army’s ranks were to be immediately discharged. Glavnyi voennyi sovet RKKA, 84–5.

178. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 427 (according to the then head of bodyguards, Dagin).

179. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 160–1 (citing TsA FSB, ASD Frinovskogo, N-15301, t. 2: 179).

180. It was said that Lyushkov had dispatched his twenty-seven-year-old wife, Nina, and their eleven-year-old adopted daughter, who needed a medical operation, to Moscow, with a secret plan for them to escape to Poland by train; to signal this plan was working, Nina was to send her regards by telegram. The telegram supposedly arrived. Whether this actually happened or was an invention by Lyushkov to put himself in a better light for having tried to save rather than abandon his family is unclear. It was also said that the Japanese used their “sources” to try to trace the fate of wife and daughter but without success; Lyushkov never saw or heard from his wife and daughter again. (His mother and sister were also arrested.) Nina was sentenced to eight years and incarcerated in a camp in Karaganda (Akmolinsk), survived, and was released in summer 1946. Coox, “L’Affaire Lyushkov,” 410; Tumshis and Papchinskii, 1937, bol’shaia chistka, 129.

181. Na prieme, 237; Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 161; Glavnyi voennyi sovet RKKA, 110n1.