138. “O dele tak nazyvaeomom ‘Moskovskom tsentre,’” 80; Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie portsessy, 154.
139. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 955, l. 42 (Dec. 19, 1934). “We lived and live under an unflagging regime of terror and force,” the Nobel Laureate Ivan Pavlov wrote to the Council of People’s Commissars (Dec. 21, 1934). “I more and more see the parallel between our life and the life of ancient Asiatic despotisms . . . Remember that humans, descended from animals, can fall easily, but elevating them is difficult . . . Take pity on the motherland and on us.” Sovetskaia kul’tura, Jan. 14, 1989.
140. Na prieme, 144. Akulov, frozen out by the clans at the OGPU, had been removed as first deputy there in Oct. 1932; he had been named USSR procurator general with the position’s creation on June 20, 1933. Golunskii, Istoriia zakonodatel’stva SSSR, 510–1; Kolpakidi and Seriakov, Shchit i mech, 343. In Feb. 1936, Akulov would fall off a horse, cracking his skull. “Bolezn’ tov. Akulova,” Pravda, Feb. 28, 1936: 6. Akulov would be arrested (July 1937) and executed.
141. Svetlana developed a high temperature (from scarlet fever). Sergeev and Glushik, Besedy o Staline, 144, 147.
142. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 169–71 (Maria Svanidze diary: Dec. 23 and 28, 1934). Svanidze effectively confessed to her diary that she was in love with Stalin, and vied with many women for the now twice-widowed Stalin’s attention: Sashiko and Mariko Svanidze, the sisters of Stalin’s deceased first wife; Anna Alliluyeva; Yevgeniya “Zhenya” Alliluyeva (Stalin’s sister-in-law, married to Pavel Allilyuev, Nadya’s elder brother)—all of whom hoped to become indispensable to “poor Iosif,” as Maria described him. Svanidze imagined that Stalin was having an affair with Zhenya (b. 1898), since he was attentive to her and the two were often missing at the same time. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 157–8.
143. On Dec. 25 at 9:15, Stalin convened a meeting in his office to discuss and edit the indictment; the sentence of execution for all fourteen defendants was printed before the trial commenced. Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 344–52 (RGANI, f. 6, op. 13, d. 34, l. 36; TsA FSB, a.u.d. N-Sh44, t. 1, l. 1–16).
144. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 396–404 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 60, l. 48–56, 33); Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 358–77. Others have Nikolayev supposedly falling to the ground and shouting, “You cannot shoot me. Comrade Stalin promised . . .” Kirilina, Rikoshet, 67.
145. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 303 (Matveyev).
146. Sedov et al., “Spravka”; Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, 302–3; Lenoe, Kirov Murder, 370–1 (RGANI, f. 6, p. 13, d. 24, l. 51–68).
147. Maslov and Chistiakov, “Stalinskie repressii i sovetskaia iutsitsiia,” 105.
148. Lugovskaia, Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl, 140.
149. Stalin had the politburo in May 1934 decree the Stalin Institute, in Tiflis, subordinated as an affiliate to the central Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute. Still, whether he was fully aware of the enormous pile of documents concerning his youth that was being accumulated remains unclear. Kun, Stalin, 3–4.
150. Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 1–57.
151. Lakoba, Stalin i Khashim, 5, 32–5.
152. Hoover Archives, Lakoba papers, 2–22. Sebastian Kirakozov made a painting of Stalin and Hashim. Kravchenko, Stalin v izobrazitel’nom iskusstve, opposite 26.
153. See also the intrigue surrounding Baron Bibineishvili’s biographical celebration of Kamo (1934), the revolutionary bandit: Sukharev, “Litsedeistvo,” 107, citing PA IIP pri TsK KP Gruzii, f. 8, op. 1, d. 22, l. 5; f. 14, op. 9, d. 18, l. 239. Bibineishvili, Kamo.
154. Enukidze, Nashi podpol’nye tipografii Kavkaza.
155. Shaumian, “Stoikii bol’shevik.”
156. Yenukidze wrote a response (Jan. 8, 1935) claiming the mistakes were not his; Stalin marked up and had Yenukidze’s response circulated. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 351–5 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 206, l. 111), 355–61 (d. 728, l. 108–24); Enukidze, Bol’shevistskie nelegal’nye tipografii.
157. Stalin had ordered a film crew out of the 16th party conference in April 1929 for creating a ruckus (“turning the conference into a bazaar”). Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 100 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 132, l. 77).
