61. The official post-Soviet history of intelligence justifies Stalin’s assassination of Trotsky by referring to the latter’s responsibility for the fever pitch of anti-Sovietism abroad, the supposed role of Trotskyites in destabilizing the Spanish Republic, and the threat of the Fourth International. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 90. The forged Litvinov “diaries” that were handed to Carr and published in 1955 observed of Spain: “There was some confusion there. The Trotskyites have started a strong propaganda campaign against Iosif Vissarionovich calling him liquidator and traitor to the Spanish revolution, abettor of Hitler and Mussolini.” Litvinov, Notes for a Journal, 208, 211. The forger appears to have been Besedovsky, who figures prominently in them. Wolfe, “Adventures in Forged Sovietica”; Wolfe, “Case of the Litvinov Diary”; Wolfe, Strange Communists, 207–22. See also Agursky, “Soviet Disinformation,” 21. Litvinov’s actual diary is thought to have been destroyed by his American wife, Ivy’s, closest confidant, Joseph Freeman. Danielson, “Elusive Litvinov Memoirs.”
62. Pravda’s editorial (June 7, 1936) echoing Postyshev’s stance decried blanket accusations against the “majority of engineering and technical personnel.” Postyshev himself was criticized at the June 1936 plenum for a “high-handed” approach to the expulsions of rank and file party members.
63. Sovet pri narodnom komissare tiazheloi promyshlennosti SSSR, 25–29 iuniia 1936 g.: stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1936), 390; Khlevniuk, 1937–i, 116–20, 122; Khlevniuk, Stalin i Ordzhonikidze, 60–3; Benvenuti, “Stakhanovism and Stalinism,” 42–9; Davies, “Soviet Economy,” 20–1; Pravda, July 5, 1936. Zhdanov noted in a speech (July 16, 1936) that “it is not possible to declare that all engineers and technicians who do not lead the Stakhanovite movement are saboteurs.” Priestland, Politics of Mobilization, 347 (citing RGASPI, f. 77, op. 1, d. 600, l. 19).
64. Rybin, Kto otravil Stalina?, 23–4 (citing conversations with V. Tukov, one of Orjonikidze’s guards, responsible for his train carriage when he visited factories around the country).
65. Za industrializatsiiu, Feb. 20, 1937: 5 (S. Birman); Ordzhonikidze, O Sergo Ordzhonikidze, 259 (quoting I. I. Gudov); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 978, l. 75.
66. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 627 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 743, l. 53).
67. “Zakrytoe pis’mo Tsk VKP (b),” 100–15; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 250–7. Stalin’s motives have been a matter of guesswork: Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 203–6. Getty and Naumov speculate that the secret circular was actually Yezhov’s initiative, in a careerist move. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 578. Agranov divulged to a meeting of the NKVD “active” that the original trial of Zinovievites, in 1935, had resulted not from operational work, but from a command from the country’s leadership. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 90 (March 1937).
68. Harris, Great Urals, 178–9.
69. Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 144–8 (citing Sotsialisticheskii transport, 1936, no. 5: 8, 150, 158–9); Pravda, July 31 and Aug. 2, 1936.
70. Izvestiia, Aug. 26, 27, 1936; Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 150.
71. Izvestiia, Feb. 20, 1937.
72. Radek, “Dikhanie voiny.”
73. Vostryshev, Moskva Stalinskaia, 348.
74. “I am full of doubts,” Gide said in Pasternak’s oral account. “What I have seen in your country is not at all what I anticipated. Here state power is unbelievable. . . . While I was in France, it seemed that here there was personal freedom, but in reality I do not see it. This concerns me greatly, and I want to write about it in an essay and I came here to consult with you about it.” RGASPI, f. 57, op., 1, d. 64, l. 58–61 (Report to Molchanov). Christopher J. Barnes, Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography, vol. 2 (New York: Cambridge University, 1998), 127–32. Gide took off for Soviet Georgia and Crimea, and would depart the USSR almost without notice.
75. Mikhail Kol’tsov, “Ispanskii dnevnik: kniga pervaia,” Novyi mir, 1938, no. 4: 5–125 (at 5), reprinted in Kol’tsov, Ispanskii dnevnik, 11–2.
