9. Haslam, “Soviet-German Relations,” 789, citing Sotsialistichekii vestnik, Jan. 25, 1934, and Kommunisticheskaia revoliutsiia, 1934, no. 8: 43–4.
10. Back on Nov. 5, 1927, Stalin had told a delegation of foreign workers that “the Soviet Union is not prepared to become a part of that camouflage for imperialist machinations represented by the League of Nations. The League is a ‘house of assignations’ for the imperialists who arrange their business there behind the scenes.” Sochineniia, X: 206–7 Carr, Twilight of the Comintern, 104–16; Izvestiia, Jan. 4, 1934.
11. Pravda, Sept. 17 and 20, 1934; DVP SSSR, XVII: 589; DDF, 1e série, VI: 683–4. Left unsaid was that Geneva would be a gold mine of information: more than 600 people worked at the League, of varied nationalities, and many were willing to talk to the builders of a new socialist world. Zhukovskaia, “SSSR i liga natsii.”
12. DVPSSSR, XVII: 606 (Litvinov on Beck, Sept. 22, 1934), 608 (Litvinov on Bartou, Sept. 25); Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 318 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 17: Sept. 23), 318–9 (l. 75–6: Nov. 2, 1934); DDF, 1e série, VII: 254–5.
13. Milićević, King Dies in Marseilles; Paul-Boncour, Entre deux guerres, II: 21–7. On the supposed involvement of Nazi Germany, see Thorndike et al., Unternehmen Teutonenschwert, 21–43; Volkov, Operatsiia “Tevtonskii mech”; and Volkov, Germano-iugoslavskie otnosheniia, 64.
14. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 86, l. 89, 26. Voroshilov received a secret intelligence brief (Oct. 23, 1934) remarking on the increasing closeness of Japan, Poland, Finland, and Latvia to Nazi Germany. “War,” the analysts wrote, “might not happen for several years and at the same time it could break out quickly and unexpectedly.” P. N. Bobylev et al., Voennyi sovet pri narodnom komissare oborony SSSR, dekabr’ 1934 g., 5 (RGVA, f. 4, op. 14, d. 1136, l. 90–5).
15. Dallin and Firsov, Dimitrov and Stalin, 18–22 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 73, d. 1, l. 4–7; f. 558, op. 1, d. 3162, l. 1–2: Oct. 25, 1934); Leibzon and Shirina, Povorot v politike Kominterna, 97 (TsPA pri TsK na VKP [Sofia], f. 146, op. 4, d. 639, l. 7–8).
16. Multiday discussions took place (Dec. 9–19, 1934) in the Comintern. Carr, Twilight of the Comintern, 144–5, citing Thorez, Fils du peuple (Paris: Éditions sociales, 1960), 102.
17. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 566 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 246, l. 1: Sept. 2, 1934); Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 70; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 31; Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 19, 58–66.
18. Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 229–30 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 74, 80, 82, 86; GARF, f. R-5446, op. 27, d. 73, l. 3); Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 511 (f. 558, op. 11, d. 86, l. 41: Oct. 9, 1934; l. 23: Oct. 9), 512 (l. 55: Oct. 10).
19. Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 226–8 (citing APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 72, l. 180–7, 253–4; RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 80, l. 4, 33–40, 91; f. 17, op. 162, d. 17, l. 2–3, 42, 57, op. 163, d. 1046, l. 21–3; GARF, f. R-5446, op. 27, d. 81, l. 428–9); Viktorov, Bez grifa “sekretno,” 139–40; Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 130–4. With the kulak crushed, Kaganovich had explained to the Moscow party organization (Sept. 21, 1934), it was necessary “to conduct our measures, repressions, the struggle with enemies within the law . . . educating our population within the frame of socialist legal consciousness.” Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 222 (RGASPI, f. 87, op. 3, d. 164, l. 39).
20. “Reconciliation inside the party could not have appealed to him,” Tucker surmised of Stalin at this time. Tucker, Stalin in Power, 243.
21. Whereas the OGPU had made 505,000 arrests in 1933, including 283,000 for counterrevolution, in 1934 the OGPU-NKVD would make 205,000, including 90,000 for counterrevolution. Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 229 (GARF, f. R-9401, op. 1, d. 4157, l. 202); Werth and Mironenko, Istoriia stalinskogo gulaga, I: 609; Khlevniuk, Master of the House, 123.
22. As an overstated U.S. headline, which was translated for the internally circulated regime summaries of the foreign press, had it, “Red Russia was becoming pink.” Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 106 (Baltimore Sun). Utyosov (who had been born Lazar Weisbein) discovered jazz on a trip to Paris.
23. Stalin’s first post-holiday meeting is recorded as Oct. 31. Na prieme, 139.
24. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 288–9.
