233. In early April, Potyomkin sent two notes, both handwritten, to Surits warning of “the very hard line” being adopted in Moscow vis-à-vis cadres. “The slightest lapse is not only recorded but also provokes a swift and violent reaction.” He had Surits send his subordinate to Moscow. Dullin, Men of Influence, 216 (citing AVP RF, f. 11, op. 4, pap. 32, d. 179: April 4 and 19, 1939). Surits was represented by Krapivintsev, who worked under him as embassy counselor in Paris. Na prieme, 257–8. This was only Maisky’s second visit to Stalin’s office, the first having been June 1, 1938, with Litvinov.
234. For the grim documentary trail of Litvinov’s memorandums to Stalin, see DVP SSSR, XXII/i: 208–9 (AVP RF, f. 06, op. 1, pap. 2, d. 11, l. 159: March 20, 1939), 209–11 (l.154–8: March 20), 220–1 (l. 167–8: March 23), 230 (l. 172: March 27), 246 (l. 186: April 3), 269–70 (l. 209: April 13), 275–7 (l. 213–7: April 15), 277–8 (l. 218–9: April 15), 283 (l. 220–1: April 17); Resis, “Fall of Litvinov.”
235. Sheinis, Maksim Maksimovich Litvinov, 360–3; Dullin, Des hommes d’influence, 310–3; Dullin, Men of Influence, 230–1. Sheinis suggests that the meeting described by Maisky took place on April 27, but Litvinov does not appear in the Kremlin office logbook that day. Na prieme, 257–8.
236. Mel’tiukhov, 17 September 1939, 232; Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia, 284.
237. The July 29, 1936, secret circular to the entire provincial party and state apparatus had omitted Molotov’s name on the list of the assassination targets of the Zinoviev-Trotskyite Center, and at the public trial that Aug., the defendants never mentioned him as a target, possibly a show of Stalin’s displeasure. But if so, Molotov’s purgatory had not lasted long: on Sept. 21, 1936, a two-year-old attempt on Molotov’s life had been included in the “testimony” taken in preparation for the second Moscow trial. And from the day of Stalin’s return to Moscow (Oct. 25), Molotov was regularly in the Little Corner again. “The thought alone that it was possible,” Pravda (Nov. 23, 1936) would intone of an assassination of Molotov, “is capable of making every citizen of the Soviet Union shudder.” Stalin’s decision to ratchet up the psychological pressure on Ordjonikidze might have been a factor in Molotov’s abrupt return to favor. See also Iakovlev et al., Reabilitatsiia: Politicheskie protsessy, 231–2; Orlov, Tainaia istoriia, 154–9; Conquest, Reassessment, 90–1; Pravda, Oct. 26, 1961; Watson, Molotov, 130. The incident in question had occurred on a visit to the Siberian coal town of Prokopevsk when Molotov’s local driver had veered off an inclined road and came to a stop in a ditch (called “a ravine”). At the time, the driver had received merely a party reprimand, which Molotov had interceded to get rescinded. But in 1936, the driver was retrospectively charged with terrorism, and confessed. Molotov and Chuev wrongly recalled the incident as having occurred in 1932. Chuev, Sto sorok, 302.
238. Biulleten’ oppozitsii, no. 50 (1936): 15, no. 52–53 (1936): 47, no. 58–59 (1936): 18–19; Chuev, Sto sorok, 302. For Lev Sedov’s response to the Novosibirsk trial, see Biulleten’ oppozitsii, no. 54–55 (1937): 4. Molotov was included as a target in the Jan. 1937 trial, alongside Stalin, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Orjonikidze, Yezhov, Zhdanov, and four provincial party bosses, one of whom was Beria.
239. Rudzutaks, a deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars under Molotov, told the latter to his face that he had been tortured. “I think that he was not a conscious participant” in a conspiracy, Molotov admitted later in life. “A former [tsarist] prisoner, he had been at hard labor for four years . . . I formed the impression when he was my deputy, he had begun to self-indulge a bit . . . He enjoyed the life of a philistine—he would sit around, dine with friends, spend time with companions . . . It is difficult to say what brought about his downfall, but I think he shared the type of company where non-party elements were present, or god knows what other kinds.” Another close Molotov comrade, Alexander Arosyev, the hack writer and head of the all-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad, was also executed. “The most devoted person,” Molotov recalled. “It seems he was not discriminating in his acquaintances. It was impossible to mix him up in anti-Soviet affairs. But he had ties . . .” Chuev, Sto sorok, 410–1, 422–3. See also David-Fox, “Stalinist Westernizer?”
240. Chadaev in Kumanev, Riadom so Stalinym, 421–2. Molotov’s Poskryobyshev was I. I. Lapshov.
241. XVIII s”ezd VKP (b), 493.
242. Watson, “Politburo and Foreign Policy,” 141; Watson, Molotov, 147.
