Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

RGASPI 82.2.897.32, Beria to Molotov 26 Feb. 1940. Beria, pp. 195, 174. “Bull nerves”: interview Nikolai Baibakov. Tireless, clever: “An interview with VM Molotov,” Literaturuli Sakhartvelo, 27 Oct. 1989, in Beria, pp. 195–274.

Kill best friend: GARF 7523.85.236.17–23, Tsanava, 24 Mar. 1955. Fear and enthusiasm: Sudoplatov, p. 186. “Idolized”—Krotkov quoted in Beria, p. 203. “Camp dust”: Beria A fair , p. 5. King: KR I, p. 125. Interview with Alyosha Mirtskhulava. Cosiness with wife, Mexican bandits: Martha Peshkova. Worshipped Stalin: Sergo B, pp. 144–5. Richardson, Long Shadow, p. 158. Clear pince-nez: Golovanov in MR, p. 343. Artyom Sergeev.

Candide Charkviani at Beria’s when Stalin arrived: interview Gela Charkviani. Sergo B, p. 34. Mikoyan, p. 33.

RGASPI 82.2.897.12–13, Vyshinsky to Stalin and Molotov and Molotov to Vyshinsky, n.d. Volya Malenkova. Martha Peshkova. Kira Alliluyeva. Sudoplatov, pp. 39–40. Beria, pp. 87–91. Polianski, p. 190. KR I, pp. 118–9. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 154–9.

Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 240–5. Volkogonov, p. 338.

RGVA 9.29.390.275, Mekhlis to Stalin and Voroshilov, 23 Aug. 1938. Mekhlis, pp. 103–4, 107. Mekhlis’s role: Voprosy istorii. no. 10, 1998, p. 78. Coox, “Liushkov,” pp. 145–86. Mekhlis was accompanied by Yezhov’s deputy, Frinovsky. “Appoint commission to investigate the Lenin Academy… if any of the Tolmachev grouping are still there, remove them down to the last one.” Mekhlis, 5 July 1938. Volkogonov, p. 368. Mekhlis to Stalin 20 Nov. 1938, Mekhlis, p. 102; on Blyukher, p. 106. War and Blyukher: Volkogonov, p. 328. Mekhlis, p. 124. Spahr, p. 186. M. V. Zakharov, Generalnyi shtab v predvoennye gody, pp. 137–42. Kaganovich, p. 30. Roy Medvedev, “Joseph Stalin and Joseph Apanasenko: The Far Eastern Front during WW2” in Neizvestnyi Stalin.

S. Fedoseev, “Favorit Yezhova,” Sovershenno Sekretno 9, 1996. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 150–6, quoting FSB 3- os.6.3.367, Frinovsky Case N-15301.2.32; Frinovsky N-15301.7.195; Dagin in FSB 3.6.3.259, 323; Evdokimov in FSB 3.6.4.403 and FSB 3.6.3.261.

26: THE TRAGEDY AND DEPRAVITY OF THE YEZHOVS

V. D. Uspenski, Tainy Sovetnik Vozhdia. Lesser Terror, pp. 4–6. Jansen-Petrov, pp. 153, 159, 166–7. Shentalinsky, “Okhota,” pp. 70–96.

Molotov’s face like a mask: Mikoyan, pp. 321–7. Molotov, claims to have saved Tevosian, MR, p. 294.

Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 224–30. Parrish, “Yezhov,” pp. 78–89. Sudoplatov, p. 43.

Family tragedy of Yezhov: Jansen-Petrov, pp. 121–4; Briukhanov and Shoshkov, p. 124; Starkov, “Narkom Yezhov,” Getty/Manning (eds.), pp. 34–5. Kamov, “Smert Nikolaia Yezhova,” pp. 41–3. Vasily Grossman, Mama, pp. 8–15. Simon Uritsky’s interrogation quoted in KGB Lit. Archive, p. 56. Polianski, pp. 190–7.

On Beria and Stalin’s plan to use Yevgenia against Yezhov: Politicheskii Dnevnik, vol. 2, Amsterdam, 1975, p. 136. Kamov, “ Smert Nikolaia Yezhova,” pp. 41–3. Yezhova to Stalin: APRF 45.1.729.96, quoted in Jansen-Petrov, pp. 166–8. Polianski, p. 190. Briukhanov and Shoshkov, pp. 122–3. KGB Lit. Archive, p. 42. Yezhova to Stalin, APRF 45.1.729.100, quoted in Jansen- Petrov, p. 169. Stalin, Kaganovich and Molotov distance themselves from Yezhov and Terror: RGASPI 17.3.1002.37. On “troikas”: Moskovskie Novosti, 21 June 1992, quoted in Getty, p. 531. RGASPI 17.3.1003.85–7.

Jansen-Petrov, p. 164. IA, 1995: 5–6, p. 24. Testimony of I. Dementev in FSB 3- os-6.3.257; APRF 3.24.375.120; testimony of Yezhov in FSB 3-os.6.3.332–333; both quoted in Jansen-Petrov p. 170–2. Shentalinsky, “Okhota,” p. 179. The autopsy that described her as a “woman of 34, of medium height, well-developed physique” reveals that she died of Luminal poisoning. Parrish, “Yezhov,” p. 101. Polianski, p. 190. Beria, p. 250. Yezhov’s brother was shot. KR I, p. 115–20. Pirozhkova, p. 105.

Jansen-Petrov, p. 164, orgies and oral sex, p. 173, God’s will, p. 174, and “plague ridden,” p. 202. Gay sex with Dementev, FSB 3-os.6.1 and 6.3. Sex with Konstantinov and wife: FSB 3-os.6.3.247–52, all quoted in Jansen- Petrov, pp. 172–3. Khlevniuk, Circle, pp. 224–30. Parrish, Yezhov, p. 89. VIZh, 2, 1993. IA 1998. Getty, pp. 528–39. RGASPI 17.3.1003.34 and 17.3.1004.11.

Parrish, “Yezhov,” Testimony of Zimin, chief of Lefortovo, and prison doctor Rozenblum in 1956, quoted in Vaksberg, Vyshinsky, p. 118. Working with Beria and Yezhov: Dmitrov diary, 24/25 Nov. 1938. Beria personally arrested the head of Komsomol, A. V. Kosarev, on 29 November, an act of vengeance for insults. Mgeladze, pp. 168–73: Mgeladze told Stalin the full story of Beria’s vindictive destruction of Kosarev after the war. Yet the Kosarev Case had been bubbling for some time: see RGASPI 558.11.725.160, Gorshenin to Stalin 13 July 1937. Larina, pp. 186–200. On Beria’s men: Beria, pp. 90–4. Sergo B, pp. 179–80. Interviews Martha Peshkova, Gela Charkviani, Eka Rapava, Maya Kavtaradze, Nina Rukhadze, Nadya Dekanozova, Alyosha Mirtskhulava, Nikita Petrov. On Kobulov’s shame: Elena Durden-Smith. See also: Lesser Terror; Parrish, “Yezhov”; Petrov and Scorkin.

Nadezhda Vlasik. Natalya Poskrebysheva. Parrish, “Yezhov,” p. 86. Petrov and Scorkin. KR I, pp. 294–5. Artyom Sergeev. Svetlana OOY, p. 333. Vlasik, pp. 24–45.

27: DEATH OF THE STALIN FAMILY

Richardson, Long Shadow, p. 154. PB contempt for Alliluyev women: Natalya Andreyeva. Vlasik’s irritation with Anna Redens’s constant complaints about laundry: Nadezhda Vlasik. Poskrebyshev treated us like poor relations: Kira Alliluyeva. Richardson, Long Shadow, p. 156. Bronka groped by Beria: Natalya Poskrebysheva. Zhenya mocks Beria’s flirtations: Svetlana OOY, p. 323.

Redens and slave labour: Yagoda, pp. 41, 382–90. Agranov’s speech at 1937 Plenum in Getty, p. 430. Banning beating? Leonid Redens and Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). Petrov and Scorkin.

Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). Kira Alliluyeva. Svetlana RR, p. 144. Orlov, p. 309. Pavel’s medical: RGASPI 558.11.1551.43. The story of the letter of protest against the Terror based on confession before execution of General D. Pavlov: see Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, pp. 427–9.

Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 66–7. Beria and Malenkov propose Redens’s arrest: Vasily Stalin to Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). Redens’s involvement in plot against Beria 1931: RGASPI 558.11.801.42–3, Redens to Stalin. Redens replaced by Balitsky, Aug. 1932: Kaganovich Perepiska, pp. 273–5. Yezhov on Poles, Chase, Enemies, pp. 234–5, 239, 265. Richardson, Long Shadow, p. 150, Mikoyan, p. 59. Vladimir Alliluyev (Redens). Leonid Redens.

Stalin and Dmitrov: Sovershenno Sekretno, 3, 2000. “I’m not Stalin”: Artyom Sergeev. Slavotinskaya’s later career: Miklos Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 46.

Nakashidze: Sergo Mikoyan. Martha Peshkova. Leonid Redens. Svetlana, Twenty Letters, pp. 135–7. Marriage for Stalin: Volkogonov, p. 155.

Kira Alliluyeva. Kostyrchenko, p. 80.

Stalin appreciative of well-dressed women, flirtations: Kira Alliluyeva, Leonid Redens. Svanidze diary. Stalin’s types, Schpiller and Davydova. Svetlana OOY, p. 329. Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, pp. 74–6. Galina , p. 95. MR, p. 174. Maya Plisetskaya and Tim Schott, I, Maya (henceforth Maya), p. 81. Davydova’s belt: Rybin, Ryadom so Stalinym v Bolshom Teatre, pp. 32–3, 67–9. Stalin nicknamed his favourite ballerina, Lepeshinskaya, “the Dragonfly.”