Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 полностью

36. Kovaleva et al., Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, 1957, 490 (Voroshilov). The following dialogue was recorded on May 13, 1933, between Colonel Robins and Stalin:

“ROBINS: I consider it a great honor to have an opportunity of paying you a visit.

STALIN: There is nothing particular in that. You are exaggerating.

ROBINS (laughs): What is most interesting to me is that throughout Russia I have found the names Lenin-Stalin, Lenin-Stalin, Lenin-Stalin, linked together.

STALIN: That, too, is an exaggeration. How can I be compared to Lenin?” Sochineniia, XIII: 260–73 (at 260).

37. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1187, l. 49–50.

38. Mikoian, Tak bylo, 318; Chuev, Molotov Remembers, 181; van Ree, Political Thought, 161–8.

39. On Stalin’s “immodest modesty,” see Plamper, Stalin Cult, 123–4.

40. Chuev, Molotov Remembers, 166.

41. When asked, “To what tribe or clan do you belong?,” many Central Asians were said not to understand the question. Zhdanko, “Natsional’no-gosudarstvennoye razmezhevaniye,” 23.

42. Stalin publicly affirmed multiple times that ethnic identities would be a part of the Soviet phenomenon for a long time, perhaps disappearing only when a socialist economy encompassed the entire globe. He envisioned the formation of “socialist nations” (also called Soviet nations) free of class contradictions. See his March 1929 long letter on the national question, which would not be published until 1946: Sochineniia, XI: 336, 347–9. The basic thrust of the letter had appeared in his discussion with Ukrainian writers on Feb. 12, 1929. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 4490. Pipes, Formation, 40; d’Encausse, Great Challenge, 38; Martin, Affirmative Action Empire, 238–48; van Ree, “Stalin and the National Question,” at 230.

43. Stalin had never been among those Bolsheviks, such as Lenin, who warned of the dangers of Russian nationalism. What would turn out to be final party congress resolution calling for an end to Great Russian chauvinism would pass in 1930. Pravda, June 29, 1930, reprinted in Sochineniia, XII: 369.

44. In an incisive portrait published in 1927, Mark Landau, a popular émigré historical novelist known by his pen name of Aldanov, called Stalin “a standout person, inarguably, the most standout in the entire Leninist guard. Stalin spills blood more freely than any living being, with the exception of Trotsky and Zinoviev. But I cannot deny him, in clear conscience, properties of rare strength of will and courage.” He added: “I wait with ‘captivating interest’ what Stalin will do in this difficult exam in this difficult historical role.” “Stalin,” Poslednie novosti, Dec. 18 and 20, 1927, reprinted in Aldanov, Sovremenniki, 111–40 (at 118–9, 137), and in Aldanov, Bol’shaia Lubianka, 203–21 (at 207–8, 219–20).

CHAPTER 1. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

1. “O tak nazyvaemom ‘vsesoiuzom trotskistskom tsentre,’” 84.

2. Dubinskaia-Dzhalilova and Chernev, “‘Zhmu vashu ruku, dorogoi tovarishch,’” 183 (APRF. F. 45, op. 1, d. 31, l. 10–101ob.).

3. Hindus, Humanity Uprooted, 166–7. Hindus, an émigré, had returned as a magazine writer to his native village (Bolshoye Bykovo) in Kherson province. His father had been a better-off peasant. Mugleston, “Hindus.”

4. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 3, d. 211, s. 64. See also Sochinenia, X: 241. Originally published in 1895, the year of Engels’s death, the essay in question had seemed to soften his earlier insistence on revolutionary class struggle, but this was partly the work of an editor. Engels, “The Tactics of Social Democracy”; Tucker, Marx-Engels Reader, xxxvi–xxxvii, 556–73. Marx, in a speech (Sept. 8, 1872) in Amsterdam, had allowed for a peaceful road to socialism in the United States and Britain. Tucker, Marx-Engels Reader, 522–4.

5. Kingston-Mann, In Search of the True West.

6. The Soviet regime was located on four squares and one embankment: Red Square with the triangular Kremlin, inside of which stood the triangular Catherine the Great Imperial Senate, where the government or Council of People’s Commissars had its main offices; Old Square, north of the Kremlin, where the central party apparatus had its offices in an old merchant emporium; Dzierżyński Square, where the secret police were located in an old insurance building and, not far away, sat the foreign affairs commissariat; Nogin Square (essentially an extension of Old Square), where the heavy industry commissariat stood; and the Frunze embankment, where the defense commissariat and general staff were housed.