90. Gorky had boarded the steamer Karl Liebknecht on Aug. 20, and visited Astrakhan and Stalingrad then Rostov and Tiflis. Troyat, Gorky, 173. Stalin’s doctor Ivan Valedinsky recalled Gorky visiting Stalin in Sochi in 1930. In fact, Gorky visited the USSR in 1928 (May 27–Oct. 12); 1929 (May 31–Oct. 12); and 1931 (May 14–Oct. 18), but not in 1930. Gorky’s one and only post-1917 visit to Sochi was in 1929, but Valedinsky wrote that he himself did not see Stalin in 1929. Either Valedinsky “recalled” the Gorky-Stalin encounter based upon stories he was told the next year, or he confused the years he treated Stalin. Valedinskii, “Organizm Stalina vpolne zdorovyi,” 69.
91. Murin, Stalin v ob”iaitiakh, 22 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 1550, l. 6–7), 22–3 (l. 8), 23 (l. 9). Rumor had it that that Avel Yenukidze, her godfather, had enlisted Orjonikidze, and together they persuaded Stalin to allow Nadya to go back to school.
92. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 23–4 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 1550, l. 10–4).
93. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 25–7 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 1550, l. 16–24: between Sept. 16 and 22, 1929), 27 (l. 25: Sept. 23), 41n14 (d. 74, l. 18), 41n15 (d. 778, l. 18–9), 41n16 (d. 778, l. 20–1: Sept. 27). Stalin would thrice receive Kovalev: Dec. 18 (with Popov and Krumin) and Dec. 30 (alone), 1929, and March 11, 1930 (alone). Na prieme, 31–2.
94. Khromov, Po stranitsam, 34 (citing RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 73, l. 98–9, 103–11).
95. Kosheleva, Pis’ma Stalina Molotovu, 166–7 (Sept. 30, 1929); Lih et al., Stalin’s Letters to Molotov, 181–2; Danilov and Khlevniuk, Kak lomali NEP, V: 10–1 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 768, l. 91, 92). Rykov, as head of the government, chaired the sessions, just as Lenin had.
96. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 27–8 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 1550, l. 27).
97. DBFP, 2nd series, VII: 20–38. After the British had effectively agreed on terms, Stalin noted that politburo members Kalinin and Tomsky were not in Sochi to consult, and that he could not speak in the name of the politburo. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 73, l. 37; d. 74, l. 25 (Tovstukha, Oct. 3). See also Khromov, Po stranitsam, 220 (RGASPI, f. 669, op. 1, d. 8, l. 1a); and RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 73, l. 12, l. 85.
98. Kosheleva, Pis’ma Stalina Molotovu, 166–7, 167–8; Lih et al., Stalin’s Letters to Molotov, 181, 182.
99. Murin, Stalin v ob”iatiakh, 34–5 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 1550, l. 50–1).
100. Sokolov, “Neizvestnyi G. V. Chicherin,” 14 (citing AVP RF, f. 08, op. 12, pap. 74, d. 55, l. 92–3: June 20, 1929).
101. This would be formalized in a politburo directive (Feb. 5, 1930): Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 219–20.
102. The reports of a supposed anti-Soviet bloc recorded frustration by the notional members over refusals to share intelligence. Khaustov et al., Glazami razvedki, 297 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 184, l. 45–45ob.), 298–9 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 9, d. 875, l. 92–4).
103. “We live in very difficult times,” the Soviet writer Leonid Leonov, whom Gorky admired, wrote from Moscow to him (Oct. 21, 1929). “All around us everything crumbles . . . There is no way back now . . . The times are dangerous. About many things one cannot write.” Semashkina and Evstigneeva, Perepiska Gor’kogo, II: 302–3.
104. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, I: 736 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 113, d. 789, l. 14: Oct. 22, 1929), 737 (f. 84, op. 2, d. 12, l. 54: Oct. 26).
105. Davies, Soviet Collective Farm, 81–2 (citing Sel’sko-khoziaistvennaia gazeta, Nov. 28, 1929: Sergei Syrtsov).
106. Theses of the 6th Comintern Congress in 1928 had predicted “the most severe intensification of the capitalist crisis,” which, like earthquake forecasts, had suddenly turned correct. At the congress, the Comintern had also welcomed Latin American delegates for the first time, eliciting a boast about its “discovery of America.” Manuel, Latin America and the Comintern, 65.
