95. According to Otto Shmidt, Stalin, in the course of conversation at the Presidium table, mentioned the names of high officials who had been arrested. Shmidt, “Priemy v kremle,” 273–4; Shevelev, 86.
96. Nezavisimaia gazeta, July 6, 1991.
97. Tepliakov, Mashina terrora, 477–8, 538; Gos. arkhiv Novosibirskoi oblasti (GANO), f. 4, op. 34, d. 26, l. 2; Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 262, 332–3. Yezhov and Frinovsky may have been concerned about Western Siberian party boss Eihe getting out ahead of them in gaining credit for the reinstituting of troikas. On the establishment of a Western Siberian troika as supposedly an initiative of Eihe, see Zhukov, Inoi Stalin, 433–4; Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 469; Kosheleva et al., “Materialy fevral’-martovskogo plenuma TsK VKP (b) 1937 goda” (1993, no. 6), 5; Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 134, 228). Mironov was made chairman of the troika. When his arrest quotas were immediately increased, he tried to have them returned to the originally agreed levels. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, V/i: 430 (telegram Aug. 9, 1937). See also Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 296 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 65, l. 58), 335 (d. 57, l. 68).
98. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 166, d. 575, l. 19–22. The typed version was first brought forth in “Rasstrel po raznariadke, ili kak eto delali bol’sheviki,” Trud, June 4, 1992. See also Danilov et al., Tragediia Sovetskoi derevni, V/i: 258 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 21, l. 89). The troikas instituted as a result of Mironov’s “request” would account for more than 90 percent of the mass sentences for execution in 1937 and 1938. Getty and Naumov, Road to Terror, 470. One available factoid indicates that in the Mordovia autonomous republic (Russian Federation), 96 percent of those who passed through the sentencing troika refused to admit they were wreckers, but it remains unclear if this represented resistance or laziness (or incompetence) on the part of the local NKVD. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 286 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 5, d. 43, l. 113).
99. That day, Stalin had received twelve people in the Little Corner, a mere two of whom were politburo members (Voroshilov and Molotov); the draft decree is in Kaganovich’s handwriting, but he was not recorded in the Little Corner that day. Eight politburo members eventually signed the resolution. Junge et al., Vertikal bol’shogo terrora, 114–6; Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKB (b): povestki dnia zasedanii, II: 876, 887. There would be no politburo meetings from June 19, 1937, to Feb. 23, 1938. Only two additional gatherings were held in 1938 (April 25 and Oct. 10–12), and only two more in 1939 (Jan. 29 and Dec. 17). “Politburo” decisions were taken in the Little Corner by Stalin alone or in limited company, written up by Poskryobyshev and “approved” by telephone vote or with signatures affixed the next time the cronies were summoned to appear. Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 248–9. Stalin occasionally dropped all pretense and merely sent directives as his personal instructions: Khaustov et al., Lub’ianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 329; Khlevniuk, Khoziain, 340.
100. Junge and Binner, Kak terror stal “bol’shim,” 79.
101. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 238–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 174, l. 107). See also Ilič, “Forgotten Five Percent,” 116–39.
102. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 21, l. 95–9; Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 265; Tepliakov, Mashina terrora, 348.
103. To ensure everyone got the message, on July 16 Yezhov convened the regional NKVD chiefs from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belorussia in Moscow. Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 98–101; Leningradskii martirolog, I: 39; Junge et al., Vertikal’ Bol’shogo terrora, 32–3. See also Shreider, NKVD iznutri, 41–3. A separate NKVD conference took place with the NKD chiefs of the Central Asian republics, eastern Siberia, and the Soviet Far East.
104. Iakovenko, Agnessa, 59; Khaustov, “Deiatel’nost’ organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti,” 142–3 (TsA FSB, N-15301, t. 15, l. 387). The chief in Chelyabinsk was Yos-Gersh Blat; in Tataria, Pyotr Rud.
