117. Narodno-khoziaistvennyi plan 1936, 269, 280. In July 1936, the investment plan introduced for 1937 would, again, be relatively moderate. Davies and Khlevnyuk, “Stakhanovism.”
118. Following much back-and-forth, the agreed amount was 112.75 billion in July, but the battles were refought and the numbers rose again to 133 billion. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro: mekhanizmy, 136–7 (RGAE, f. 4372, op. 92, d. 17, l. 366; d. 18, l. 76–8); Davies, Crisis and Progress, 292–301. Stalin wrote to Molotov (Sept. 12, 1933), “I agree that capital investment should not be fixed at more than 21 billion rubles for ’34, and that the growth of industrial output should not be more than 15 percent. That will be better.” Kosheleva, Pis’ma Stalina Molotovu, 248–9.
119. DVP SSSR, XVIII: 646–7n157 (Litvinov to Potyomkin, June 26, 1935); Abramov, “Osobaia missiia Davida Kandelaki,” 147 (citing AVP RF, f. 010, op. 10, nap. 51, d. 45, l. 136). Schacht advised Kandelaki to have the Soviet ambassador approach the foreign ministry. DGFP, series D, IV: 453–4. Kandelaki was received by Stalin on July 5 and July 7, 1935. Na prieme, 169.
120. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional pered VII Vsemirnym kongressom: materialy (Moscow: Partizdat, 1935), 116.
121. Dimitrov, “Nastuplenie fashizma,” 12–1; Dimitroff, Against Fascism and War, 14. Manuilsky spoke of the victories of socialist construction in the USSR, Thorez about how the USSR’s very existence had radicalized capitalism’s crisis and contradictions, and Togliatti about Soviet foreign policy (“Can one imagine a more remarkable achievement than a great capitalist country having to sign a mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union, involving defense against an aggressor and a willingness to defend peace and the borders of the homeland of the dictatorship of the proletariat?”). This was the only Comintern Congress for which a complete stenographic record was not published. Carr, Twilight of the Comintern, 403–27. See also Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 52–9.
122. There was speculation that the photograph in Pravda of Stalin and the delegates was faked. Peschanski, Marcel Cachin, IV: 111 (July 26, 1935).
123. Clark, “Germanophone Exiles.” At a meeting with the scholars at the Institute of World Economics and World Politics, Yezhov “said that he does not trust political émigrés and those who have been abroad.” By Sept. 1935, he would come to the (inevitable) conclusion that spies were rampant among the political émigrés. Solov’ev, “Tetradi krasnogo professora 1912–1941 gg.,” IV: 178. See also Zhuravlev and Tiazhel’nikova, “Inostrannye kolonii,” 181. On Feb. 28, 1936, a politburo decree would restrict the movement and further arrivals of political émigrés. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 79, l. 98–100; Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 738–41 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 248, l. 115–8: March 9), 823n171. In 1935–6, of the 9,965 arrests for espionage, 7,100 were accused of espionage on behalf of Germany (1,322), Japan (2,275), or Poland (3,528). Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 46 (TsA FSB, f. 8 os, op. 1, d. 79). 317).
124. One person died before sentencing. “O tak nazyvaeomom ‘Kremlevskom dele’”; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 163, d. 1062, l. 167–9; Zhukov, Inoi Stalin, 133–72. Abroad, a Ukrainian-language newspaper published in the then Romania-controlled city of Cernăuți (Chernivtsi/Czernowitz) imagined with the Kremlin Affair that Soviet elites could not be bought off with a return to bourgeois private property or reinvigorated with an influx of youth. “Dictatorship in Soviet Russia is seriously reeling,” the article fantasized. “Stalin already is no longer master of the secret police . . . Stalin—whose name makes 160 million quake with fear—is already staggering.” “Propast’ radianskogo soiuzu i nezaleshna Ukraina!” Chas, July 6, 1935, courtesy of Cristina Florea.
125. Bediya did not write the text; he oversaw the working group (P. Butyrina, G. Khachapuridze, V. Mertskhulava), whose draft Merkulov edited. Sukharev, “Litsedeistvo,” 112 (citing PA IIP pri TsK KPSS, f. 8, op. 1, d. 39, l. 1; f. 8, op. 2, chast’ 1, d. 32, l. 117; f. 8, op. 1, d. 39., l. 3, 11–12). See also Beria’s remarks (Jan. 1934): VII s”ezd Kommunisticheskikh organizatsii Zakavkaz’ia, 29–30. Dawn of the East also published “responses” confirming the narrative. Bediya would be arrested on Oct. 20, 1937; Beria would have him admit Beria’s authorship in his presence. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1989, no. 7), 82–7; “Plenum TsK KPSS, iiul’ 1953 goda: stenograficheskii otchet,” 181.
