Stalin полностью

100. Mezhdunarodnyi kongress pisatelei; Klein, Paris 1935; Teroni and Klein, Pour le défense de la culture. A joint report to Stalin by Shcherbakov and Koltsov deemed this “the biggest event in the sphere of the consolidation of antifascist forces,” but added that “not a little difficulty in our work was caused by the ambiguous behavior of Ehrenburg,” whom they accused of wanting to “appear neutral,” rather than influencing the French or defending Soviet interests. Ehrenburg in a report that reached Stalin called Koltsov a journalist rather than a writer. Stalin, for his part, advised Kaganovich not to allow Soviet Communists to “finish off” Ehrenburg. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 382–6 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 710, l. 25–9: July 20, 1935), 387–9 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 710, l. 30–4: July 21).

101. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 255 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 964, l. 14: May 19, 1935). The timing with the congress in Paris might have been a coincidence; Rolland had delayed the trip for reasons of health.

102. Remark dating to 1928, as cited in Drabovitch, Les Intellectuels français et le bolchévisme, 151–2. An internal Soviet evaluation (1934) of Rolland cited his “individualistic humanism” and pacifism as detriments. David-Fox, Showcasing the Great Experiment, 243 (citing RGALI, f. 631, op. 14, d. 716).

103. Yagoda had commissioned a twenty-volume Russian translation of Rolland’s collected works and assigned oversight of the task to the Russian-French Maria Kudryashova; Rolland had married her, and she accompanied him as interpreter. “Stalin did not look anything like his portraits,” Rolland wrote in his diary. “He is neither large nor stocky, as he is imagined . . . His characteristic coarse dark hair is beginning to turn gray and lighten . . . But as before he has a direct and vigorous visage and enigmatic smile, which is (or can be) cordial, impenetrable, indifferent, good-natured, implacable, amused and mocking. In all situations, a perfect self-control. He speaks without raising his voice, with a timber a bit nasal and guttural at times (a Georgian accent, I’m told), with long pauses, to think things through. He listens still better than he talks, noting the principal points of what I said, scribbling with blue and red pencil on a piece of paper while I spoke. (I greatly regret not having asked him for that sheet.)” Rolland, Voyage à Moscou, 126–34; “Moskovskii dnevnik Romena Rollanda,” 217.

104. Stalin did not let on that he had personally edited the draft of the law. “Moskovskii dnevnik Romena Rollanda,” 221–2. That night, after returning to the Savoy hotel with his wife, Rolland was approached by Antonio Gramsci’s two sons, aged nine and eleven, who thanked him for all he had done for their father (imprisoned in Mussolini’s Italy). On the law, see Izvestiia, April 8, 1935; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 962, l. 32, 57; Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 145–6 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 163, d. 1059, l. 23–4, 27); Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 144–5 RGASPI, f. 78, op. 1, d. 550, l. 7, 7a: (Voroshilov, March 18, 1935). See also Suvenirov, Tragediia RKKA, 325.

105. Besides a certain hero-worship, Rolland’s purpose had included inquiring about the fate of the writer Viktor Kibalchich, known as Viktor Serge, who had been born in Brussels to Russian Jewish political émigrés from tsarism, emigrated after the revolution to the Soviet Union, and had been arrested in Leningrad (March 9, 1933) and internally exiled for “Trotskyite” propaganda. (Rolland would leave without being satisfied.) Serge’s case had been forced into the discussion at the international gathering in Paris. Vinogradov, Genrikh Iagoda, 428–31 (TsA FSB, f. N-13614, tom 2); Mikhailov, M. Gor’kii i R Rollan, 313–5; Bialik, Gor’kii i ego epokha, III: 190–2 (Gorky to Yagoda, July 29, 1935), 191–2 (Gorky to Yagoda, March 7, 1936), 206; Comédie, August 30, 1933; Flores, L’immaginare dell’URSS, 235–42; Stern, Western Intellectuals, 27–8; Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, 317–8.