201. On the eve of the Polish-German coup de main, the USSR had signed a modest, provisional trade agreement with France. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 307 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 15, l. 166: Jan. 11, 1934); DDF, 1e série, V: 436–7. See also Carley, “Five Kopecks.” In early 1934, France and the USSR also exchanged aviation attachés, as Cot’s mission bore delayed fruit, and in Aug. 1934 the Soviets reciprocated Cot’s visit with an aviation squadron that landed in France. Scott, Alliance Against Hitler, 119–21.
202. Piłsudski received the interlocutor in question, Hermann Rauschning, head of state in Danzig, in Warsaw on Dec. 11, 1933. Weinberg, Foreign Policy, I: 72 (citing German foreign ministry memo IV Po 9133, T-120, 3024/6601/E 495072–77: Dec. 14, 1933). On Nov. 23, 1934, Rauschning would resign his Nazi party membership and later emigrate.
203. Ken, Mobilizatsionnoe planirovanie, 269; Ken, Collective Security or Isolation, 121–2, 146–7; Morozov, Pol’sko-Chekhoslovatskie otnosheniia, 9, 27, 504; DVP SSSR, XVII: 133–4; Izvestiia, April 20, 1934.
204. Dokumenty i materialy po istorii sovetsko-pol’skikh otnoshenii, VI: 167–73; DDF, 1e série, V: 783–5. Beck admitted that Piłsudski convened discussions of possible preemptive war against Germany, but claimed the idea was put to rest in spring 1934. Beck, Final Report, 51–3.
205. Sochineniia, XIII: 321–2, 329–30. Stalin also conceded that “it must be said of state farms that they have failed to achieve what is required of them.” He deemed them too specialized and too cumbersome to administer properly, without admitting this had been his vision. XVII s”ezd, 23. In 1933, state farms had supplied only a few million of the 20 million tons of grain procured by the state. Davies and Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger, 332–47.
206. Davies et al., Years of Progress, 11–4; XVII s”ezd, 435–6, 439–41, 443–55, 668; Zaleski, Stalinist Planning, 132. A politburo decree of Jan. 20, 1934, committed state supplies of seeds and equipment for workers to garden on household plots in their free time, legally and without being taxed. Antipova et al., Golod v SSSR, 509–11 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 937, l. 1, 8, 52, 68–9).
207. XVII s”ezd, 525. The views of actual farmers were far from the discussion. “Under the current regime it is necessary to tie a noose around one’s neck, or to cheat the state,” I. Gribanov told a group of collective farmers in 1934, according to a police summary. Kedrov, Lapti Stalinizma, 151 (citing GAAO, otdel DSPI, f. 290, op. 2, d. 337, l. 16–8).
208. XVII s”ezd, 236–9.
209. XVII s”ezd, 251–9; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 271, l. 529–33 (Chagin). Kirov, exhausted, had been compelled to spend Nov. 23 to Dec. 29, 1933, at a sanatorium in Tolmachevo, outside Leningrad, but insisted on a direct telephone line to Smolny and daily postal deliveries, with his wife serving as his secretary. He complained to his physician (G. F. Lang) of heart palpitations, pains, insomnia, and occasional trouble walking, and submitted to a regimen of saltwater baths. Pazi, Nash Mironych, 412–8, 448; Sinel’nikov, Kirov, 357–8; Krasnikov, Kirov v Leningrade, 179–83; Knight, Who Killed Kirov?, 167–8.
210. XVII s”ezd, 269. “Whereas at the 15th Congress it was still necessary to prove the correctness of the party line and to fight certain anti-Leninist groupings, and at the 16th Congress to finish off the last supporters of these groupings,” Stalin had noted in his congress report, “at the present congress there is nothing to prove and, it seems, nobody to beat.” XVII s”ezd, 28. Manuilsky also made no reply to the discussion of his report on the Comintern.
211. At the 15th Congress (1927), forty-three did not. At the 1939 congress vote, forty-four bulletins would go unused. RGASPI, f. 56, op. 1, d. 61, l. 39; op. 2, d. 36, l. 23; f. 58, op. 1, d. 37, l. 31–3; op. 2 d. 46, l. 9; Pavliukov, Ezhov, 99–106 (citing f. 477, op. 1, d. 41, l. 4). Delegates had to insert their folded ballots into urns specifically for their delegation.
212. Mikhailov and Naumov, “Skol’ko delegatov XVII s”ezda partii golosovalo protiv Stalina?”; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 613 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 23, l. 43–43ob.: Napoleon V. Andreosyan [sic] deposition). According to Mikoyan, Andreasyan told him that his delegation alone recorded twenty-five votes against Stalin. Mikoian, Tak Bylo, 592–3.
