81. Yagoda had reported to Stalin (May 2, 1935) that the NKVD had completed interrogations of the librarian Nina Rozenfeld, establishing that the Mukhanova “terrorist group” in the library, to which Rozenfeld was said to belong, had “links” to the Kremlin commandant office and a group of Trotskyite youth and White Guards. “Lev Kamenev,” Yagoda wrote of Nina’s brother, “is not only the inspiration, but the organizer of the terror.” Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 427–8 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 9, l. 241–42). See also Khaustov, “Deiatel’nost’ organov,” 380 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 900, l. 137). As of summer 1935, the Kremlin housed just 374 inhabitants (102 households), not including bodyguards, soldiers, and service personnel.
82. Yagoda had proposed nine death sentences (for “Trotskyites”), eighteen sentences of ten years in camps for key figures, and for the rest, three to five years in camps or exile; three were to be released. Stalin wrote in ten years instead of five for Irina Gogua, and freed three more of the hundred and twelve. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 663–9 (APRF. F, 3, op. 58, d. 237, l. 37–49), 681 (d. 238, l. 1: July 17).
83. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 963, l. 37.
84. The circular threatened local party bosses with expulsions for failures to restore order, giving a deadline of two to three months. Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b): povestki dnia zasedanii, II: 645; Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 240; Pavlov, Kommunistichskaia partiia, 51. In Oct. 1934—before Kirov was murdered by a holder of a party card—the regime had decided on a universal re-registration of party members in 1935. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 963, l. 3.
85. Getty, Origins of the Great Purges, 60–1 (citing Partiinoe stroitel’stvo, 1935, no. 4: 32–6); Pravda, May 16, 1935. Another 340,000 Communists had been expelled in the 1934 purge, which mostly targeted those who had recently joined. Total membership as of January 1, 1935, was 2.35 million. Fainsod, How Russia Is Ruled, 212, 224; Bol’shevik, 1934, no. 15: 9.
86. “We have a lot of Americans,” Yezhov stated during a meeting connected to the party document verification. “Traditionally our people take the view that these are wonderful people. Relations with Germany have worsened, so you need to keep an eye on them, Poles as well, and you need to watch the English . . . Keep in mind, that Americans, as a rule, are almost all spies.” Pavliukov, Ezhov, 159–60 (RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 32, l. 20–1: July 1, 1935).
87. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 86 (RGASPI, f. 671, op. 1, d. 273, l. 700).
88. Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: politicheskie protsessy, 175.
89. Biulleten’ oppozitsiia, no. 1–2 (July 1929): 2; Trotsky, Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1929, 61–2. When Radek asked Stalin (June 4, 1935) whether he should be republishing Trotsky’s writings in the regime’s internal Bulletin of the Foreign Press for high officials, the dictator told him “to liquidate” the publication. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 86 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 420, l. 4ob.). By contrast, when Tal (head of the Central Committee press and publications department) queried the politburo about which émigré subscriptions he should take for the next year, Stalin commanded: “Order the lot!” Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 228 (citing RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d, 273, l. 36: Dec. 1935).
90. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 161–6 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 542, l. 55–86), 177–71 (l. 125–41), 172–3 (l. 175–8).
91. The usual chorus had followed the dictator’s lead and remained reticent. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 161–7 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 542, l. 55–86).
92. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 176 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 547, l. 69), 177 (d. 544, l. 22, l. 70); Pravda, June 8, 1935. The regime abolished the Society of Old Bolsheviks (which had its own publishing house) on May 25, 1935, and the Society of Political Prisoners on June 25.
93. No new charges were brought in the Kirov case, despite Yezhov’s ominous speech, which Stalin alone could have authorized. Pravda (June 16 and 19, 1935) issued follow-up fulminations, by Zhdanov and Khrushchev, over “former princes, ministers, courtiers, Trotskyites, etc. . . . a counterrevolutionary nest.”
