14. Pavliukov, Ezhov, 411–3; Petrov and Jansen, Stalinskii pitomets, 170 (TsA FSB, f. 3os, op. 6, d. 3, l. 83). Yezhov would later claim, “I have known Yevdokimov, it seems, since 1934. I considered him a party man, verified. I visited him at his apartment, he visited me at my dacha.” But “by my own denunciation to the Central Committee he was removed from his post” in the NKVD. “Poslednee slovo N.I. Ezhova na sudebnom protsesse, 3 fevralia 1940 goda”: http://www.perpetrator2004.narod.ru/documents/Yezhov/Yezhov.htm
15. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 311 (TsA FSB, ASD p-4000, t. 7, l. 83–6).
16. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 319.
17. Khlevniuk, 1937-i, 67; Starkov, “Narkom Ezhov,” 21–39 (at 37–8).
18. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1990, no. 1), 69.
19. According to his son, Beria speculated that Stalin had Persian blood and compared him to Shah Abbas I [1571–1629], the ruler of Persia’s Safavid dynasty. (In 1587, a teenage Abbas had shoved aside his weak father, taking over a divided, nearly failed state, then went on to break the power and confiscate the wealth of the provincial chiefs, and fashion an imperial power that stretched from the Caucasus to the Tigris to the Indus and was distinguished by robust diplomatic relations and flourishing arts and architecture.) This might have been a Beria self-image. Beria, My Father, 21, 284.
20. Mikoian, S liubov’iu i pechal’iu, 27–8, 31–3; Mikoian, Svoimi glazami, 33–4, 36–40.
21. Khaustov and Samuelson, Stalin, NKVD, 57–8. Nami Mikoyan’s father would soon be arrested.
22. In Armenia, his replacement had been Khachik Moughdousi [Astvatsaturov], a Beria loyalist.
23. Popov and Oppokov, “Berievshchina” (1990, no. 1), 69. Tsaturov was arrested in Oct. 1937 but would survive.
24. Stepanyan also wrote about the absence of Leninist party democracy under Stalin. Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 40, 49–50 (citing Arianskii filial IML, f. 4033, op. 6, d. 312, l. 1–6); Matossian, Impact of Soviet Policies, 129; Revoliutsionnyi vostok, 1936, no. 4: 50. In April 1936 and again in Sept., Lyudmila Yanushevskaya, the wife of Semyon Sef, head of the party’s culture-propaganda department in Tblisi, told people that Sef, not Beria, was the author of the work. Word reached Yezhov, who launched an investigation with interviews of witnesses. On Aug. 16, 1936, Yezhov wrote on the resolution: “Give me the material.” Another report from a participant, written Oct. 22, 1936, after Yezhov had been named head of the NKVD, was less categorical, as if Yezhov had merely wanted to gather and hold the compromising material on Beria. (Sef and his wife were expelled from the party.) Sokolov, Beriia, 98–105.
25. Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 52 (citing Arianskii filial IML, f. 1, d. 35, l. 98–9).
26. The bodyguards were detained but released after a month and a half. Sokolov, Beriia, 108–20.
27. Antonov-Ovseenko, Beriia, 92–6; Artsuni, “Samoubiistvo A. G. Khandzhiana”; Gazarian, “Etno ne dolzhno povtorit’sia” (no. 2), 65. After Beria’s destruction in 1953, witnesses came forward to charge him with shooting Khanjyan in his (Beria’s) office, then having the body somehow delivered past the bodyguards to Khanjyan’s room. The Armenian head of the typist pool of the South Caucasus secretariat (Sushannik Safaryan) would testify that she was carrying the bureau-meeting typescript to Beria, gently pushed open his office door a bit, caught a glimpse of a man lying on the carpet, and quickly retreated. In 1961, KGB chief Shelepin concluded that Beria had killed Khanjyan in his (Beria’s) office. The idea that the experienced operative Beria—with members of the Moscow Central Control Commission in the next room—would shoot Khanjyan in his own office raises more questions than it answers. “Sovetskie praviteli Armenii”(Jan. 2009): http://www.noev-kovcheg.ru/mag/2009–01/1499.html; Izvestiia, Oct. 28, 1961; Medvedev, Let History Judge, 413, 624–5.
28. http://www.noev-kovcheg.ru/mag/2009–01/1499.html#ixzz23qnzhqky. See also Aganian, Nersik Stepanian, 52–3.
29. Zaria vostoka, July 11, 1936; Pravda [Armenia], July 12, 1936.
30. Tzitzernak, “Aghassi Khanjian.”
31. Zaria vostoka, July 20, 1936.
