Young Stalin

Stanford, such as the fact that the Okhrana expected the expropriation earlier in the year and the involvement of the SRs of Tiflis. His reference to a mansion perhaps has the same source as the Trotsky-Bessedovsky tale of Prince Sumbatov’s house. Tbilisi folklore: Dr. Peter Mamradze interview on stories of Kamo’s drunken claims in early 1920s.

16

15. Arsenidze, interviews nos. 1–3, 103–4, Nikolaevsky box 667, series 279, folder 4–5.

17

16. GF IML 8.2.1.624.1–26, Bachua Kupriashvili. Dubinsky-Mukhadze, Kamo, pp. 71–84. GF IML 8.2.1.5. RGASPI 558.6.658; Ostrovsky, p. 454; Niall Ferguson, The World’s Banker: History of the House of Rothschild, pp. 1034–36, Appendix One, “Prices and Purchasing Power.” A scholar of Imperial Russia, Greg King, simply converts Romanov-era roubles into today’s U.S.$ by multiplying by ten, which turns 341,000 roubles into $3.4 million (one halves that dollar figure to convert into today’s pounds sterling). None of these figures, however, gives the real value of the rouble in 1907; see Note on “Money.” Contemporaries reckoned that the Emperor of Russia’s private fortune of land, art, palaces, jewels and mineral wealth was about 14 million roubles. In today’s money, that is only about ?70 million ($140 million). One simply has to conclude that the bank robbery scored a very substantial amount of money. Greg King’s The Court of the Last Tsar, pp. 231–39. GDMS 87.1955–368.11–13: Alexandra “Sashiko” Svanidze-Monoselidze. Capt. Zubov bribed: Ostrovsky, pp. 545–47.

18

17. Nadezhda Krupskaya, Memoirs of Lenin (henceforth Krupskaya), pp. 40 and 151–52. Radzinsky, Alexander II, p. 227, on Bakunin. Frank Owen, Three Dictators, pp. 114–15.

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18. Uratadze, p. 234. Kun, p. 127. Davrichewy, pp. 237–39, 174–77, 188–89. GDMS 87.1955–368.11–13: Alexandra “Sashiko” Svanidze Monoselidze. Owen, Three Dictators, pp. 114–15. GF IML 8.2.1.624.1–26. Dubinsky-Mukhadze, Kamo, pp. 71–84. Akopian, Shaumian, p. 64. GF IML 8.2.1.5. RGASPI 558.6.658. Ostrovsky, p. 454.

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1. Beso-Keke marriage. The main source of this chapter, unless otherwise stated, is Keke herself in her memoirs, GF IML 8.2.15.2–15, E. G. Djugashvhili, recorded on 23, 25, 27 Aug. 1935 by L. Kasradze (henceforth Keke). Marriage records: GF IML 8.5.213 and RGASPI 558.4.1.1, Zaria Vostoka, 8 June 1937, and RGASPI 558.4.665, M. K. Abramidze-Tsikhatatrishvili. Keke’s chestnut hair, slender, large eyes: GF IML 8.2.1.1.143–6, M. K. Abramidze-Tsikhatatrishvili. Keke pretty, Beso a runt: Davrichewy, p. 26. Beso’s originality: GF IML 8.2.1.48, N. Tlashadze. Gori weddings: D. Suliashvili, Uchenichesky gody (henceforth Suliashvili), p. 24. Sources quoted from: V. Kaminsky and I. Vereshchagin, “Detstvo i yunost vozhdya” (henceforth Kaminsky-Vereshchagin). The home: V. Vishnevsky, “Domik v Gori,” Zaria Vostoka, 27 Dec. 1937, pp. 27–28.

Georgian behaviour ritualized: D. Rayfield, Stalin and the Hangmen, p. 15. Singing on way to market: Kun, p. 227.

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2. Ossetia: Kun, p. 19. Genealogichesky Zhurnal no. 1,2001, pp. 39–40. Stalin, Works, 2: 363.

22

3. Beso’s own account of his origins: Keke, pp. 2–15. Davrichewy, p. 26. The best review of the evidence is by Ostrovsky, pp. 76–82. Zaza: M. Lobanov, Stalin: v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov i dokumentov epokhi (henceforth Lobanov), p. 13. Beso’s death, registered as “Ossetian”: GF IML 8.14.160.1– 8.

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4. Geladze family: Ostrovsky, pp. 82–84. Keke, pp. 2–15. Kaminsky-Vereshchagin, pp. 22–101, especially G. I. Elisabedashvili (p. 25) and Maria Abramidze-Tsikhatatrishvili.

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5. Davrichewy, p. 26. GF IML 8.2.1.48, N. Tlashadze. GF IML 8.2.1.49.185.210, Kote Khakhanashvili. GF IML 8.2.1.9, Ivan Geldiashvili.

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6. Births: GF IML 8.5.213.41–53. RGASPI 71.10.275.24/558.4.2.1. RGASPI 558.4.2.2. New dates: Kun, p. 8; Ostrovsky, p. 83. “Kogda rodilsa I. V. Stalin,” Izvestiya TSK KPSS no. 1,1990, p. 132. Stalin looked more and more like Beso: GF IML 8.2.1.53, Alexander M. Tsikhatatrishvili.