374. He added: “They are for the procurements, but they insist on creating all sorts of unnecessary reserves for animal husbandry, insurance,” which enabled them to steal socialist property. Sochineniia, XIII: 216–33 (at 229–30, 207–8); Kaganovich, “Tseli i zadachi,” 17, citing Stalin; Materialy ob”edinennogo plenuma TsK i TsKK VKP (b), 144. Nikolai Krylenko reported to the plenum that 54,645 people in the RSFSR had been convicted under the law on theft of socialist property, leading to 2,100 executions. He complained of resistance to implementing the law: “One people’s judge straight-out said to me: ‘My hand will not rise to punish a person with ten years for stealing wisps of grain.’” Zelenin, Stalinskaia ‘revoliutsiia sverkhu,’ 73–4, 126–7 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 514, l. 15–21). A Jan. 30, 1933, decree would extend application of the law to accounting fraud as well as wrecking or sabotage. Volin, “Agrarian Collectivism,” 622. In a series of decrees, including on Jan. 19, 1933, the regime attempted to incentivize sowing and attain larger yields by shifting from confiscatory “grain procurement” to “compulsory delivery” in the form of a tax, which was to be levied not on harvest estimates but “from the land actually under cultivation.” All surpluses above the obligations were supposed to remain at the disposal of the collective farmers, but the legalized peasant markets were supposed to be shut down until state taxes had been met. Kollektivizatsiia sel’skogo khoziaistva, 441–5.
375. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 514, vyp. 1, l. 55. Stalin had had Trotsky stripped of his citizenship on Feb. 20, 1932.
376. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 91–4 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 511, l. 12–22: typescript with Rudzutaks’s corrections), 95–7 (l. 215–20: typescript with Bukharin’s corrections), 76–7 (l. 17–9: typescript with Smirnov’s corrections). The plenum confirmed Smirnov’s expulsion from the Central Committee, the expulsions from the party of Eismont and Tolmachev, and the reprimands for Tomsky and Rykov.
377. Davies and Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger, 200 (RGAE, f. 8040, op. 8, d. 20, l. 25–25ob.); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 913, l. 15. The Ukrainian hierarchs, mimicking Stalin from the spring, decided the latest reduction had to be kept secret, lest grain procurement officials get demoralized.
378. Stalin had Levon Mirzoyan, an ethnic Armenian serving as second secretary of the Urals province, replace Goloshchyokin, who was sacked Jan. 21, 1933. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 914, l. 9. At the Jan. 1933 Central Committee plenum, Goloshchyokin had trumpeted Kazakhstan’s supposed successes in collectivization in the face of unmitigated catastrophe. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, III: 625–31 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 514, vyp. I, l. 19ob.–21ob., 43ob.–44ob.); Aldazhumanov et al., Nasil’stvennaia kollektivizatsiia, 202–4; Ryskulov, Sobranie sochinenii, III: 316–8, (APRK, f. 141, op. 1, d. 6403, l. 17).
379. One “Trotskyite,” during his arrest, was pointedly noted to have been on the phone with Radek. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 388–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 139, l. 173–6).
380. From Jan. 1933, even formal politburo meetings would decline. Detailed politburo protocols were still compiled, as if Stalin’s decisions and the ad hoc gatherings in his office constituted an official meeting. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b): povestki dnia zasedanii, II: 386 ff.
381. Khromov, Po stranitsam, 23–4.
382. Special settlements in Kazakhstan and Western Siberia were ordered to prepare to receive up to 500,000 each: In the event, 133,000 were deported to Siberia during 1933, and a similar number to other remote destinations, for a total of 270,000 by year’s end. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChk, 418 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 14, l. 96: March 20, 1933); Ellman, “Role of Leadership Perceptions,” 831; Krasil’nikov, Serp i molokh, 95, 106, 110–26; Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 55–6, 63.
