44. Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 68. On Aug. 16, 1934, Stalin had Zinoviev sacked from the journal Bolshevik, as a scapegoat for controversy related to writings of Engels. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 716–7 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 950, l. 87–9), 419 (f. 81, op. 3, d. 100, l. 43–6), 428–9 (f. 558, op. 1, d. 742, l. 15–20), 439–40 (f. 81, op. 3, d. 100, l. 154–60); Tucker, “The Emergence of Stalin’s Foreign Policy,” 564–5. Zinoviev’s sacking spurred an NKVD move to arrest fourteen ex-Zinovievites in Leningrad, but Kirov, according to Medved, overruled the operation as counter to Stalin’s recent stress on “socialist legality.” Sedov et al., “Spravka,” 473; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 146 (citing RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 62, l. 62–76: Fomin deposition, 1956). On Kirov’s continuing confidence in Medved in 1934, see Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 71. Sveshnikov, interviewed in 1960 and 1964, recalled tensions in 1934 between Kirov and Medved. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 146–7 (citing RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 73, l. 102); V. K. Zavalishin, “Vokrug ubiistva Kirova,” Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collection, Hoover Institution Archives, series 236, box 411, file I: 1–55.
45. Markus had taken charge of a clinic (Bolshaya Podyacheskaya, no. 30) for patients with syphilis, mostly prostitutes, whom she strove to reeducate by forcing them to attend political meetings and read about exemplary Bolsheviks. She took the tram to work, dressed simply, and wore no makeup, but two students she had recruited pimped the prostitutes at a nearby bar, causing a scandal. The difficult hospital environment was thought to have exacerbated her health problems and she resigned. Chudov arranged for one of Markus’s sisters, a doctor, to come stay with her in Tolmachevo. Lebina, Povsedevnaia zhizn’, 95–6; Lebina and Shkarovskii, Prostitutsiia v Peterburge, 148–9; Kirilina, Neizvestny Kirov, 324, 405–6 (recollections of Danil Shamko, Feb. 11, 1965). Markus was officially listed as born 1885—Kirov was born in 1886—but she seems to have been at least three to four years older than him. Zen’kovich, Samye sekretnye rodsvtvenniki, 184–5.
46. Tumshis and Papchinskii, 1937, bol’shaia chistka, 37–8.
47. Kirov’s office had been on the long part of the L-shaped corridor, closer to the main stairway, but was moved to the short part. Deviatov et al., “Gibel’ Kirova,” 59; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 125–6, 403–9 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 80, l. 137–9: Gubin to Mironov, Jan. 7, 1935; d. 13, l. 1–18: Pelshe report). Lenoe gives a figure of fifteen guards, citing Pelshe; Deviatov gives a figure of twelve (through Feb. 1934). While in Leningrad, Stalin chose not to stay at Kirov’s place—a building with some 250 apartments—but in a detached house, which prompted Medved to have subordinates scope out a possible detached house as a more secure residence for Kirov. Kirov resisted any move. Rosliakov, Ubiistvo, 37; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 407–8 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 13, l. 279–81, 288–95ob.).
48. Sept. 28–Oct. 8, 1934, the Mongol party had held its first congress since the New Course. Batbayar, “Stalin’s Strategy in Mongolia.”
49. RGANI, f. 89, op. 63, d. 13, l. 1–24. Stalin noted that when property was collective, enrichment signified raising the general well-being; under private property, enrichment meant exploitation by some of others. But Mongolia was a “bourgeois-democratic republic,” even if “of a new type,” so there would be exploitation. “Allowing exploitation, you do not sympathize with it and support it but circumscribe it by means of taxes.” He advised that the better-off should be kept out of the party. Stalin edited the transcript of the conversation. See also “Sovety I. Stalina mongol’skomu premer’u,” Azia i Afrika segodnia, no. 6 (1991): 63–5.
50. Choibalsan belonged to the arrested Lhumbe’s circle, and was evidently incarcerated with the “Japanese spy group,” but soon he himself was torturing the other arrested Mongols on Moscow’s behalf. Okhtin, Moscow’s former envoy to Mongolia, wrote to Choibalsan absolving him of the Lhumbe association yet emphasizing that a lesson had been imparted. Roshchin, Politicheskaia istoriia Mongolii, 285–6, citing L. Bat-Ochir, Choibalsan: namtryn n’ balarkhaig todruulakhui (Ulan Bator: [n.p.], 1996), 105–7. Choibalsan studied for long periods in the USSR (April–Sept. 1933; Feb.–autumn 1934).
51. Khaustov, Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 594–7 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 188, l. 1–7: Jan. 5, 1935). On April 17, 1935, Stalin received a secret report via an agent in New York about a possible U.S.-Japan pact of nonaggression (661–2: l. 71–3).
