325. Khrushchev, Vremia, liudi, vlast’: vosponinaniia, 4 vols. (Moscow: Novosti, 1999), I: 291–3. The defector Alexander Barmine claimed he saw her on Red Square the day before her death: he recalled her as looking exhausted. But others said she looked in good spirits. Barmine, One Who Survived, 63; Vasil’eva, Kremlevskie zheny, 197.
326. Na prieme, 78; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 45, l. 23; Aldazhumanov et al., Nasil’stvennaia kollektivizatsiia, 193–4 (APRK, f. 141, op. 1, d. 5235, l. 139–40). On Oct. 22, Stalin had sent commissions headed by Molotov to Ukraine and by Kaganovich to the North Caucasus for ten days, to break “the kulak sabotage.” Oskolkov, Golod 1932/1933, 26–8 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 904, l. 11); Sheboldaev, Doklad, 11; Na prieme, 77.
327. Vladimir Alliluyev recalled that Stalin and Nadya had gone to the Bolshoi together and fought there, but Stalin’s office logbook seems to preclude theater attendance that particular night before the banquet. Alliluev, Khronika odnoi sem’i, 25.
328. Radzinsky, Stalin, 287 (quoting an interview with Nadezhda Stalin, daughter of Vasily Stalin and Galina Burdonskaya).
329. Rybin, Stalin v Oktiabre, 20; Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, 103–11. Druzhba narodov, 1997, no. 5: 83 (Lyola Treshtsalina, of the protocol department). Vlasik later told Khrushchev (who was not present at the banquet) that Stalin left for a tryst with Feodosiya Drabkina-Guseva, a woman of Jewish extraction and the wife of the commander Yakov Drabkin (known as Sergei Gusev).
330. Orange peel as the item: Alliluev, Khronika odnoi sem’i, 25 (based on the hearsay of his grandmother Olga Evgeneevna). A piece of bread as the item, according to Molotov: “Stalin made a tiny ball of bread and, in front of everyone, threw it at Yegorov’s wife.” That act, Molotov claims, triggered Nadya’s departure from the banquet. Chuev, Sto sorok, 250. Svetlana’s version largely adheres to Molotov’s, but also has Stalin proposing a toast to “the destruction of enemies of state,” and rudely reprimanding Nadya for not drinking. Polina observed that Nadya was “perfectly calm” at their parting back at her own apartment. Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters, 108–10. Most scholars follow this account: Radzinskii, Stalin, 287–9; Montefiore, Court of the Red Tsar, 3–22; Service, Stalin, 292–3.
331. Chuev, Molotov Remembers, 173–4. Stalin supposedly said, “Let her go.” Shatunovskaia, Zhizn’ v Kremle, 196–7.
332. Svetlana’s account—that Til ran to fetch Bychkova and the two hoisted Nadya’s body onto the bed—is an obvious impossibility because Svetlana, and hence Bychkova, were at the Sokolovka dacha that night. Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters, 109 (citing much later discussions with Bychkova). Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters, 117; Vaslieva, Kremlin Wives, 67.
333. Secret report of Dr. Kushner: “There is a five millimeter hole over the heart—an open hole. Conclusion: Death was immediate from an open wound to the heart.” GARF, f. 7523, op. 149, d. 2, l. 1–6. Montefiore, Court of the Red Tsar, 16.
334. At her seventh birthday, following her mother’s death, Svetlana was said to have asked what present her mother had sent from Germany. If so, this implies she had not seen the open coffin, as she later claimed. Sergeev and Glushik, Besedy o Staline, 37; “Priemysh vozhdia,” Moskovskii komsomolets, Aug. 3, 2004; Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters, 111–3. See also Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter, 54 (citing Artyom Sergeyev in Kreml’-9 writers, Svetlana Stalina: Escape from the Family).
335. Sergeev and Glushik, Besedy o Staline, 39.
336. Chuev, Molotov Remembers, 173–4.
337. For eight days running, Pravda published obituaries attributed to Voroshilov’s wife, Molotov’s wife, Orjonikidze’s wife, Postyshev’s wife, as well as Mikoyan, Kagananovich, and others. The obituary published in Pravda (Nov. 10, 1932) was signed by Yekaterina Voroshilova, Polina Zhemchuzhina, Zinaida Orjonikidze, Dora Khazan, Maria Kaganovich, Tatyana Postysheva, and Aikhen Mikoyan. Izvestiya (Nov. 11) published Demyan Bedny’s poem “Death Has Its Severe Guile.” On Nov. 16, Pravda published a letter of grief from Krupskaya to Stalin.
338. No suicide note has turned up. Alliluyeva, Twenty Letters, 112–3. See also Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter, 50–1 (citing interview with Alexander Alliyuev). The funeral commission consisted of Yenukize (chairman), Pauker, Dora Khazan, Kaganovich, Peterson, and Ruben. GARF, f.7523c, op. 149a, d. 2, l. 10–1.
