307. Stalin forwarded the report to Molotov, Voroshilov, Kuibyshev, and Orjonikidze for discussion. The report asserted that Poland and Germany, in parallel, were negotiating a military alliance with Japan and that Romania would join and perhaps even Italy, Austria, and Hungary. “War against the Soviet Union,” the alarmist report concluded, “was never as realistic a possibility as now.” Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 533–41 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 187, l. 28–44). See also Harris, “Encircled by Enemies,” 536. In July 1934, the head of the Polish foreign ministry’s Eastern Department (Colonel Tadeusz Schaetzel) told the Bulgarian chargé d’affaires in Warsaw that Poland “was counting on the circumstance that if a war broke out in the Far East, Russia would be crushed, and then Poland would include in its borders Kiev and part of Ukraine.” Jurkiewicz, Pakt wschodni, 66 (citing Bulgarian foreign ministry archives).
308. Banac, Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 24–5 (June 18, 1934). From late 1934, Dimitrov and Fleischmann would start a household in Moscow as she became his second wife.
309. It met from June 29 through July 1, 1934. KPSS v rezoliutsiiakh (9th ed.), VI: 166.
310. Longerich, Die braunen Battallione, 223; Bessel, Political Violence; Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany.
311. In April 1934, Hindenburg became terminally ill, meaning a presidential succession loomed. On June 11, the Evening Standard in London implied that the German military could take over. On June 17, Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen publicly called for restoration of some freedoms and an end to the SA’s lawlessness. He had failed to coordinate his speech (written for him) with the Reichswehr or the Reich president, but its remarkable content made it seem that he had. Evans, Third Reich in Power, 26–41; Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936, 499–525, 744n57. See also Höhne, Mordasche Röhm, 218–24.
312. Longerich, Die braunen Bataillione, 215–6; von Bedrow, Hitler rast; von Papen, Memoirs, 310–1; Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis of Power, 319–20; von Fallois, Kalkül und Illusion. See also Hancock, “Purge of the SA Reconsidered.” When the SA leader in the Rhineland had received information in late June about an impending crisis, he rightly assumed this meant Göring was preparing a putsch against Röhm. Hüttenberger, Die Gauleiter, 86.
313. Domarus, Hitler: Reden, I: 418 (July 13, 1934). Domarus commented that Hitler projected onto the SA the failings of the Nazi party (400n138, 414n155).
314. The British ambassador dubbed the episode Hitler’s “Sicilian vespers.” Wark, Ultimate Enemy, 82 (citing MI3 summary, July 18, 1934, WO 190/263; Phipps dispatch, Nov. 14, 1934, C7703/20/18, FO 371/17696); Steiner, Triumph of the Dark, 74 (no citation).
315. Carr, Twilight of the Comintern, 123 (citing Rundschau, July 5, 1934: 1541–3). See also Radek in Pravda (July 3, 1934).
316. Nekrich, 1941, 19 (citing a personal conversation in the 1950s with Surits, the envoy in question). Krivitsky, an NKVD operative in Europe at the time (who later defected), would claim from hearsay that Stalin summoned Jan Berzin, head of military intelligence, the very night of the long knives. But Berzin was recorded in Stalin’s office on April 19, 1934, and then not again until 1937. Krivitsky would also assert that “Stalin was profoundly impressed by the manner in which Hitler exterminated his opposition, and studied minutely every secret report from our agents in Germany relating to the events of that night.” Krivitsky, In Stalin’s Secret Service, 1–2, 183; Na prieme, 569.
317. Izvestiia, July 16, 1934.
318. Mikoian, Tak bylo, 534.
319. Kershaw, Nazi Dictatorship, 73.
320. Those killed included the immediate previous chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, the Catholic Action leader, aides to von Papen, and other conservatives. Höhne, Mordsache Röhm, 319–21. Another scholar gives a figure of ninety killed: Gritschneder, “Der Führer hat Sie zum Tode verurteilt . . . ,” 60–2.
321. German National Socialism tipped even more decisively away from its internal factions pushing for full-scale nationalization of banks and industry and for closer ties with the Soviet Union, while the SS felt even less encumbered. Pringle, Master Plan, 41. Von Hindenburg died on Aug. 2, 1934; von Papen resigned as vice chancellor five days later. On Aug. 19, in a 90 percent vote, Hitler became head of state (“Führer and chancellor”).
