213. Sotsialisticheskii vestnik, Feb. 25, 1934; Medvedev, Let History Judge, 331–4.
214. Pravda, Feb. 7, 1964. V. Verkhovykh would later claim that “in conversation with Kosior the latter told me: ‘Some of us spoke with Kirov in order to get him to agree to become general secretary.’ Kirov refused, saying: ‘It’s necessary to wait, all will settle down.’” Mikhailov and Naumov, “Skol’ko delegatov XVII s”ezda partii golosovalo protiv Stalina?” 114. Khrushchev, who at the time of the 17th Congress was close to Stalin, would recall (or imagine) that Sheboldayev had approached Kirov on behalf of a group of colluding provincial bosses, but that Kirov went straight to Stalin, which implanted permanent suspicions of Kirov in Stalin’s mind. (Khrushchev acknowledged that he “personally did not have direct interaction with” Kirov.) Mikoyan claims that, in Stalin’s office on the evening of Dec. 2 (the meeting was actually the 3rd), when he questioned why Yagoda was not being held accountable, Stalin defended him—raising suspicions that Stalin had organized the assassination through Yagoda. Mikoyan has the events taking place at the Winter Palace, not Tauride, and has Medved, not Zaporozhets, absent from Leningrad. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 97–9; Khrushchev, Memoirs, I: 91–3; Mikoian, “V pervyi raz bez Lenina,” 6; Mikoian, Tak bylo, 316–8. It has also been asserted that the Caucasus delegations lobbied Mikoyan and Orjonikidze to have Kirov (an honorary Caucasus figure) replace Stalin as general secretary, with Stalin moving over to head the government in place of Molotov. Bondarenko and Efimov, Utaennye stranitsy sovetskoi istorii, 70.
215. Kirilina, Rikoshet, 76–80; Benvenuti, “Kirov in Soviet Politics.” Kirov’s public profile paled in comparison to those of Kaganovich, Orjonikidze, or Molotov, let alone Stalin. Kirov rarely attended politburo meetings, which took place in Moscow, and sometimes did not even vote on politburo matters by telephone poll. See also Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 122; Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 215–6.
216. Khrushchev, Vospominaniia, I: 93; Khrushchev, Memoirs, I: 86.
217. Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 122–3.
218. XVII s”ezd, 303. See also Tucker, Stalin in Power, 247.
219. XVII s”ezd, 573–6; Furer, Novaia Gorlovka. In response to disarray in Ukraine’s strategic coal industry, Kaganovich had visited the mining town of Gorlovka, then the Donbass capital, in spring 1933. Among the many measures forced through, Furer became Gorlovka party boss and worked like a demon to lift the miners out of mud huts and barracks, paving streets, building housing, sidewalks, tram lines, a hospital, schools, and a stadium with lights for night matches, a first for the USSR (it opened in Sept. 1933 and was named for living Ukraine OGPU chief Balytsky). Furer would last in Gorlovka until Dec. 1934, when Kaganovich would summon him to head the agitation and propaganda department in the Moscow province-city party committee. Kuromiya, “The Commander and the Rank and File,” 154–5; XVII s”ezd, 162–3; www.gorlovka360.dn.ua/sport-i-zdorovie/stadion-shahter-virtualnyiy-tur.
220. Chuev, Sto sorok, 307–8, 478; Chuev, Molotov, 375–6; Krasnikov, Kirov v Leningrade, 187–8; Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 28–9. There is some ambiguity as to whether the Kirov incident took place in a narrow circle or at the Central Committee plenum.
221. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 121–2. Kirov would end up spending more time in Moscow: he would be recorded in Stalin’s office for 63 hours in 1934, compared with 10 in 1933, 28 in 1932, and 23 in 1931. Na prieme.
222. Zhdanov replaced the now Ukraine-based Postyshev, whom Stalin promoted to candidate member of the politburo even as he relieved him of the Central Committee secretary position. Kaganovich remained Stalin’s top deputy in the party, receiving all the documentation concerning party affairs, economic management, and foreign affairs. On Jan. 17, 1934, Stalin had required that all hiring and firing in the Central Committee apparatus have either his own or Kaganovich’s authorization. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 5; Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 195–6; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 77, l. 3.
