Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

23: SOCIAL LIFE IN THE TERROR

Martha Peshkova. “Svetlana khozyaika but I calmed her”: Stalin in Charkviani, pp. 55–7.

Natalya Andreyeva. Martha Peshkova. Voroshilov knight—Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, pp. 71–3. Stepan and Sergo Mikoyan. Artyom Sergeev. Davies, pp. 119, 193, 26 Mar. 1938. Kaganovich and the jazz: Starr, Red and Hot, pp. 126–9, 178. Thanks to Mariana Haseldine for this. Rustaveli: Beria, p. 84. Pushkin cult: Figes, Natasha, p. 482. Spanish blouses: A. Adzhubei—Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, p. 69. Song words: Fitzpatrick, p. 71. Cheka anniversary: G. D. Raanan, International Policy Formation, p. 171. Pravda, 21 Dec. 1937. Parrish, “Yezhov,” p. 159. My Uncle Stalin: Artyom Sergeev.

Zarubina, pp. 29–31. Natalya Andreyeva. Sergo and Stepan Mikoyan. Eteri Ordzhonikidze. Sakharov, p. 93. The most sensitive work on the presence and effects of death is Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone, Death and Memory in Russia, pp. 253–63.

Mikoyan’s pistol: Stepan Mikoyan. Zarubina, p. 32. Yury Trifinov, House on the Embankment.

Dachas of dead men: Vaksberg, Vyshinsky, pp. 87–93. Svetlana, OOY, p 355. Sudoplatov, p. 103. S. Khrushchev, Superpower, p. 16. Gamarnik’s Zubalovo dacha passed to Stalin’s favourite officer Shaposhnikov after the former’s suicide, while another favourite, Kulik, got his apartment.

Expunging: Stepan M., p. 25. Leonid Redens.

School in Terror: Stepan M., p. 37. Richardson, Long Shadow , p. 207. At the NKVD School, No. 50, the arrests were even more intense: Zarubina, p. 32. Svetlana’s desk: Julia Gorshkova. Children and families: PB, 5 July 1937. Jansen-Petrov, p. 100. Trud, 17 Oct. 1997. Memorial-Aspekt, 1993, nos. 2–3. Okhotin and Roginskii, Iz Istorii, pp. 56–7. Young witnesses to arrests: Stepan M., p. 47: the boy in question was Oleg Frinovsky, the tall, handsome son of Yezhov’s deputy at the NKVD. This took place in 1939. Parents vetting friends: Stepan M., p. 47. Igor Boytsov telephoned Voroshilov’s adopted son Timur Frunze. Mikoyan cut relations with the Alliluyevs: Kira Alliluyeva. Yury Zhdanov.

Leonid Redens. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 56–7. Martha Peshkova.

24: STALIN’S JEWESSES AND THE FAMILY IN DANGER

Bronka: based on the author’s interviews with Natalya Poskrebysheva and stories told to her by her aunt Faina, her half-sister Galina and her nanny. Kira Alliluyeva. Also Brackman’s interviews with Bronislava’s first husband, I. P. Itskov, Secret File, p. 329. Itskov claims Bronka only married Poskrebyshev to save her brother from arrest but this seems premature. Also Volkogonov, p. 155.

Yezhova: Yezhov’s and Yevgenia’s lovers: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 123–4. Simon Uritsky’s interrogation quoted in KGB Lit. Archive, p. 56. Polianski, pp. 190–7. Pirozhkova, p. 105. V. F. Nekrasov, Zelezhnyi Narkom, p. 211. S. Povartzov, Prichina smerti-rastrel, pp. 151. Yezhova was from Gomel but grew up in Odessa.

Rosa Kaganovich: Kaganovich, pp. 48–50. Jewish women: Sergo B, p. 211. For the myth: see Kahan, Wolf of the Kremlin.

Svanidze diary, 5 Mar. 1937. Djugashvili, Ded, Otets, Mat i Drugie, pp. 18–24. Julia adventuress: Svanidze diary, 5 Mar. 1937. RGASPI 44.1.1.340–3, Maria Svanidze to Alyosha Svanidze, n.d. Leonid Redens. Kira Alliluyeva.

Svanidze: MR, p. 174. RGASPI 558.11.27.129, Stalin notes to Yezhov. Maria Svanidze papers, RGASPI 44.1.1.33b. Brackman, p. 287. Mikoyan, p. 359. Kira Alliluyeva. Leonid Redens. Svetlana in Richardson, Long Shadow , p. 143.

Postyshev: Getty, pp. 503–11. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 231–40. RGASPI 558.11.787.45–6, P. Postyshev to Stalin 16 Mar. 1938. He was arrested 12 Feb. Jansen-Petrov, p. 125. Shitters: RGASPI 558.11.787.6, Stalin to Postyshev on Orders of Lenin, Yezhov holiday 9 Sept. 1931, and Postyshev answers cheekily.

Jansen-Petrov, p. 124, quoted Suvenirov, Tragediya RKKA, p. 23. On drunkenness: FSB 3-os. 6.1.265–70. Frinovsky and Efimov interrogations, N-15301.7. 193–4, in Jansen-Petrov, p. 124. New quotas: 48,000 in Getty, pp. 518–9, and fall of Yegorov, pp. 521–2.

Shapoval in Taubman, pp. 19–25; KR I, pp. 129–36. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 2, 1989. Istochnik, 1, 1995. Naumov in Taubman, pp. 88–90, 91–2, 167, 565: people were arrested in the year and a half to 1940.

Jansen-Petrov, p. 134: case of A. I. Uspensky FSB 3.6.1 and 3.6.3. Extra quota: Moskovskie Novosti, 1992, no. 25.

Bukharin trial: Conquest, Terror, pp. 367–425.

25: BERIA AND THE WEARINESS OF HANGMEN

Kosior and Chubar: RGASPI 558.11.754.122–7, Kosior to Stalin 30 Apr. 1938. KR I, p. 106. Dreams: see Tukhachevsky’s trial. Medvedev, p. 295. Kaganovich, p. 89.

Stalin to aircraft designer Yakovlev, quoted in MR, p. 262.

RGASPI 558.11.698.33, Aronstam to Stalin and Stalin’s reply 7 May 1937. RGASPI 558.11.773.94, Mekhlis to Stalin 13 Jan. 1936 or possibly 1937. RGASPI 588.2.156.43, warning to Vyshinsky. Jansen-Petrov, p. 124, quoted Suvenirov, Tragedia RKKA, p. 23. On drunkenness: FSB 3-os.6.1.265–70. Frinovsky and Efimov interrogations, N- 15301.7.193–4, in Jansen-Petrov, p. 124. Drunken executioners: Peter Deriabin, Inside Stalin’s Kremlin, p. 42. Parrish, “Yezhov,” pp. 71–7. Yezhov feels Stalin’s dissatisfaction: Jansen-Petrov, p. 143, quoting APRF 7458.3.158– 62, Yezhov to Stalin. Even the brutal Beria had at times suffered from the nervous stress of a life in permanent paranoia: “I can’t argue with everyone throughout my lifetime… it will ruin my nerves… I feel I cannot go on much longer,” he had written earlier in the thirties, Beria, p. 40, L. P. Beria to Ordzhonikidze.

“Stalinodar”: Jansen-Petrov, p. 117. Parrish, “Yezhov,” pp. 78–88. Slutsky: Jansen-Petrov, p. 230, quotes FSB case of Frinovsky N-15301.3.117–23. Orlov’s account of this is essentially accurate.

Liushkov: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 144–5. Yezhov’s unsent letter to Stalin: APRF 57.1.265.16–26. Coox, “Lesser of Two Hells,” pp. 145–86; Coox “L’affaire Liushkov: Anatomy of a Defector,” Soviet Studies, pp. 145–86; vol. 8, no. 3, 1967, pp. 405–20.

Yury Zhdanov. Volya Malenkova. See also Andrei Malenkov, O moem otse Georgii Malenkove. M. Ebon, Malenkov, pp. 38–9. Starkov, “Narkom Yezhov” in Gerry/Manning (eds.), pp. 35–7. Blinking in light: Leonid Redens. Rees, p. 197. Yezhov and Polish spy and Orlov: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 147, quoting FSB 3-os.6.1.350. Uspensky, tracks covered Jansen-Petrov, p. 148, in FSB 3- os.6.1.350 and FSB 3os.6.3.316. Stalin death list signed 20 Aug. 1938: APRF 3.24.417.248–53.

Beria and Yezhov: Khrushchev quoted, Jansen-Petrov, p. 157. Beria, pp. 53, 87–91. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 149–57. V. A. Donskoi proposed Beria. Starkov, “Narkom Yezhov” in Getty/Manning (eds.), pp. 38–9. Voenno-Istoricheskii Zhurnal (henceforth VIZh), July 1989, Oct. 1991. Beria personal role in torture: GARF 8131.32.3289.117–18. The investigations by Rudeko into methods of interrogators, 22 Mar. 1955. V. F. Nekrazov, Beria: Konets karieri, pp. 374–5. B. S. Popov and V. G. Oppokov, “Berievshchina,” VIZh, 3, 1990, pp. 81–90.

IBM or GM: Martha Peshkova. V. I. Novikov quoted in Nekrasov, Konets karieri, pp. 229–37. Romanov quoted in Sergo B, p. 245. Y. Cohen, “Des lettres comme action: Stalin au debut des annees rente vu depuis les fonds Kaganovich” in Cahiers du Monde russe , vol. 38, no. 3, July–Sept. 1997, pp. 307–345.