123. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 352–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 254, l. 173–88: September 14, 1937); Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 291; Sudoplatov, Tainaia zhizn’, I: 366–93; Gur’ianov, Repressii protiv poliakov, 16–20. Stalin’s vindictiveness against “foreigners” was not unique. “Stop playing internationalism, all these Poles, Koreans, Latvians, Germans, etc. should be beaten, these are all mercenary nations, subject to termination,” one provincial party boss stated at a local NKVD conference. “All nationals should be caught, forced to their knees, and exterminated like mad dogs.” Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 114 (quoting Sergei Sobolev, Krasnoyarsk). On Sept. 15, 1938, the regime ended the “album procedure” and allowed troikas for the national operation; two months later, it ended the troikas.
124. Okhotin and Roginskii, “Iz istorii ‘nemetskoi operatisii’ NKVD,” 66. Mass operations were also ordered against the returning Harbin émigrés (Sept. 20, 1937), among others. Zaitsev, Sbornik zakonodatel’nykh i normativnykh aktov, 430–7.
125. “All Germans working on our military, semimilitary and chemical factories, on electric stations and building sites, in all regions are all to be arrested,” Stalin instructed (July 20, 1937). Yezhov, five days later, issued this as an operational order (no. 00439). Perhaps 4,000 German citizens were resident in the Soviet Union; around 800 were arrested and deported to Germany. APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 254a, l. 82; Okhotin and Roginskii, “Iz istorii ‘nemetskoi operatisii’ NKVD,” 35–7; Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 144–5.
126. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 251 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 253, l. 141). The author of the report, Alexander Minayev, was arrested on Nov. 6, 1938, and executed on February 25, 1939. Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, 298–9.
127. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 662 n86; Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 156 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 987, l. 79). Rudzutaks, even under severe torture, refused to admit any guilt. Chuev, Sto sorok, 410–2. According to Irina Gogua, the arrested Kremlin librarian, Rudzutaks kept the issue of the Menshevik Socialist Herald with Martov’s obituary behind books on his home bookshelf.
128. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 333–4 (citing GARf, f. 8131, op. 37, d. 86, l. 138–48). Nasedkin is listed in the Little Corner on Nov. 23, 1937. Na prieme, 225. Often, NKVD interrogators began by asking why the prisoner had been arrested, as if it were up to the prisoner to establish his or her own guilt.
129. Alliluyeva, Only One Year, 388.
130. Chuev, Sto sorok, 409.
131. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 65 (no citation). The attaché’s country is not identified.
132. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i glavnoe upravlenie, 60 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 983, l. 46: Jan. 9, 1937), 66; Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 509n2 (f. 17, op. 163, d. 1143, l. 73).
133. The sole German-speaking operative in the Soviet intelligence station in Paris was recalled to Moscow in 1937. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 66 (no citation). The person is not identified.
134. Yezhov informed Stalin that a housekeeper reported that Berzin had been close to Trotsky, who had promised him a future post. The housekeeper also supposedly said that Berzin had a great deal of White Guard literature in his personal library, in Russian and foreign languages, including works by Trotsky. (Berzin was head of military intelligence.) Stalin tasked Yezhov with going after military intelligence in the military districts as well, especially Ukraine, Belorussia, and Leningrad (“Did they not link the Trotskyites with Poland, like our Far Eastern intelligence linked the Trotskyites to Japan?”). Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 221 (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 316, l. 86). Berzin was removed Aug. 1, 1937, and soon arrested for Trotskyism; he would be executed on July 29, 1938, at Kommunarka. In the meantime, on Sept. 8, 1937, Yezhov implanted a counterintelligence NKVD man as acting military intelligence chief, Semyon G. Gendin, telling his staff that he himself would run military intelligence.
135. Instead, the regime examined trunks, which had been lying around for some time, and found writings of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and other such former politburo officials. Kochik, “Sovetskaia voennaia razvedka” (no. 9–12), 101–2.
136. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 21, l. 133 (Semyon Gendin).
137. Lota, “Alta” protiv “Barbaraossy,” 56 (no citation). Several dozen more were sacked but not arrested.
