146. Popov further distinguished Stalin’s leadership by the claim that in difficult situations, he did not succumb to panic. Popov, “Partiia i vozhd’.” For a broader discussion, see Aron, Sociologie des sociétés industrielles.
147. Graziosi, “Stalin’s Anti-Worker ‘Workerism’ 1924–1931,” 253–4; “Iz perepiski A. M. Gor’kogo,” 183–8 (Nov. 27, 1929), translated in Political Archives of the Soviet Union, 1/2 (1990): 177–80.
148. As Syrtsov had put it, echoing Stalin, “in those places where we broke kulak resistance, a strong flow of grain immediately commenced, as if a cork had been removed.” XVI konferentsiia VKP (b), aprel’ 1929 goda, 322–3.
149. Rationing had emerged haphazardly and varied by locale. By Feb.–March 1930, towns were prioritized based upon size and significance. Local trading agencies welcomed rationing as a better way to obtain supplies they were tasked with getting into workers’ hands; factories welcomed rationing, too, lobbying to raise the status of their enterprises for better rations. Davies, Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 289–300; Carr and Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, I: 700–4.
150. Back at a July 4, 1929, politburo meeting, Molotov had proposed the formation of a USSR land commissariat, and Mykola Skyrnyk, the enlightenment commissar of Ukraine, immediately understood that this would put the country’s land under Union (not republic) ownership and objected, pointing out that such a move would violate the USSR constitution (in terms of republic prerogatives). Stalin, maneuvering, suggested the matter be postponed until a Central Committee plenum, and in the meantime, he prepared a fait accompli. Khlevniuk et al., Stenogrammy zasedanii politbiuro, III: 11.
151. Pravda, Jan. 27, 1930; KPSS v rezoliutsiiakh (9th ed.), V: 39–42, 72–5; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 771, l. 3; Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, II: 35–84 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1876, l. 8; f. 558, op. 11, d. 38, l. 1, 4, 7; RGAE, f. 7486, op. 37, d. 40, l. 5–5ob., 58–53, 174–69, 73–72, 41, 197–87, 211–06, 205, 218, 217–12, 220–220ob.; d. 50, l. 40–39; d. 49, l. 27–24), 85–6; Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, VII/ii: 114.
152. Sochineniia, XII: 141–72. To those who reasoned that given collectivization’s universal nature, kulak exclusion would be unnecessary, he replied, “dekulakization represents a component part of the establishment and development of collective farms,” adding that “when a head has been cut off, no one cries over the hairs” (170). See also Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, 487; Izvestiia, Feb. 2, 1930; and Pravda, April 3, 1930.
153. Solomon, “Rural Scholars,” 148 (quoting S. M. Dubrovsky). Hearsay has Bukharin, Tomsky, and Rykov showing up uninvited on New Year’s Eve 1929–30 at Stalin’s Kremlin apartment, carrying Georgian wine, with Stalin letting them in. Medvedev, Let History Judge, 206 (no citation); Medvedev, Nikolai Bukharin, 25 (no citation).
154. This was Nov. 20, 1929. On Nov. 28, Stalin received Kamenev; on Dec. 11, Zinoviev. Na prieme, 31. Trotsky soon warned in an article dated Feb. 13, 1930, of the danger of kulaks infiltrating collective farms, which might become “a new form of social and political disguise for the kulaks.” But his proposed solution was a vague “industrial and cultural revolution,” not mass deportation. Biulleten’ oppozitsii, 1930, no. 9: 4–5. Tucker, who lacked access to these sources, nonetheless understood that “Stalin placed his own regime before a fait accompli.” Tucker, Stalin in Power, 145.
155. Pravda, Jan. 6, 1930; Kommunisticheskaia partiia sovetskogo soiuza, III: 667; Ivnitskii, “Istoriia podgotovki postanovleniia TsK VKP (b),” 265–88; RGASPI, f. 85, op. 27, d. 385, l. 1–5 (letter to Orjonikidze: Jan. 3, 1930); Vyltsan et al., “Nekotorye voprosy,” 13. Davies, Socialist Offensive, 177–80, 237. For a chronology, see Viola, “Collectivization in the Soviet Union,” 71.
156. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, II: 103–4 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 9, d. 21, l. 393–4).
157. Ivnitskii, Kollektivizatsiia i raskulachivanie, 108–9.
