126. The visit took place Aug. 26–Sept. 9, 1933. Pravda underscored that Herriot “categorically contradicted the lies of the bourgeoisie press in connection with a famine in the USSR.” Pravda, Sept. 13, 1934; Werth et al., Black Book of Communism, 159–60; Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 311 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 80, l. 24), 317 (l. 41). Laval’s fellow Radical Party member Pierre Cot, air minister in the government, followed Herriot, arriving in Moscow with an air squadron on Sept. 15, and becoming the first foreign delegation afforded Soviet military honors. Izvestiia, Sept. 15, 24, and 25, 1933. Cot was allowed to observe aviation maneuvers and the secret bomber factory in Fili outside Moscow—the Germans had just evacuated their secret air training station at Lipetsk three days before—and became the object of intense attention by Soviet intelligence. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 598–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 203, l. 19–21). Cot, based on the WWII intercepts, would later be tagged as a Soviet “agent.” Romerstein and Breindel, Venona Secrets, 56–7. Draitser, Stalin’s Romeo Spy, 191. See also Baker, Rezident; and Stavinskii, Zarubiny.
127. Kvashonkin, Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, 198–9 (RGASPI, f. 74, op. 2, d. 45, l. 70–70ob.).
128. Eldev-Ochir, a leftist and scourge of the lamas, had been Mongolian People’s Party leader for a year in 1929–30, during the catastrophe that had compelled the new course correction. In July 1932, he served a second term (for one month), giving way to Lhumbe (b. 1902). On Oct. 8, 1933, the politburo Mongolia commission discussed “the matter of a spy organization,” and Eliava received instructions to root out pro-Japanese elements and prepare for possible war and evacuation. Between July 1933 and June 1934, there would be perhaps 2,000 arrests in a campaign against “left deviationists” and a so-called Lhumbe group accused of spying for the Japanese. At least fifty-six Mongols would be executed, including Lhumbe. On May 23, 1934, the politburo directed Artuzov to “make a complete list of Mongolians who had come to the Soviet Union at various times.” RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 15, l. 100, 125–7; d. 16, l. 63. M. Chibisov, a Soviet proconsul who helped fabricate the Lhumbe Affair, would remark upon departure from Mongolia for Moscow in July 1934: “Stalin has already said that all lamas are counterrevolutionaries. They must be convicted as traitors before the people.” Sandag and Kendall, Poisoned Arrows, 76. See also Baabar, Twentieth-Century Mongolia, 327–33. Karakhan would tell American ambassador Bullitt about the discovery of a Japanese plot to replace the Mongolian government with a pro-Japanese government, and, in a further fabrication, how the Mongols had again asked to be admitted into the USSR as a Union republic but the Soviets declined, demonstrating they were not imperialists. FRUS, 1934, III: 232–3.
129. Stalin suggested cutting by half the 4,000 Soviet personnel in country. He asked the Mongols (in terms of language), “Can you understand Buryats (yes), Qalmyks (somewhat), Tuvins (no)?” The conversation between Dobchin (b. 1896), a deputy prime minister, and Eldev-Ochir (b. 1905), a Central Committee secretary and presidium member, and Sokolnikov/Voroshilov was written down from memory. RGANI, f. 89, op. 63, d. 10, l. 1–7.
130. RGANI, f. 89, op. 63, d. 11, l. 1: Jan. 16, 1935. The politburo had allocated 100,000 rubles for Genden’s delegation: RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 953, l. 58 (Oct. 19, 1934).
131. “‘Zhmu vashemu ruku, dorogoi tovarishch’: perepiska Maksima Gorkogo i Iosifa Stalina” Novy Mir, 1997, no. 9: 169; Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 124–5 (IMLI, arkhiv Gor’kogo: Jan. 8, 1930); Sochineniia, XII: 177. “I am not an expert in literature and, of course, not a critic,” Stalin wrote, also in 1930, while intervening to support a leftist playwright and poet, Alexander Bezymenskii (Stalin did fault Bezymenskii for “some holdovers of Communist Youth League avant-gardism”). Sochineniia, XII: 200–1; Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 180–1. Back in 1925, Stalin had responded to an inquiry from enlightenment commissar Lunacharsky about the Bolshoi Theater’s centenary, “I am not strong in artistic matters, as you yourself know, and I do not dare say anything decisive in this area.” RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 760, 146–8.
132. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 157–9 (RGALI, f. 2750, op. 1, d. 140, 141: Oct. 29 and Nov. 9, 1931); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 858, l. 6. Initially permitted as an experiment, the play was terminated during rehearsals in spring 1932.
