190. On April 21, the Siberian procuracy reported that 328 officials, mostly of rural soviets, had been sentenced to imprisonment or, in eleven cases, execution. One, in a drunken state, had murdered a peasant and raped his wife. Hughes, Stalinism in a Russian Province, 187–8 (citing GANO corpus 2, f. 2, op. 2, d. 465, l. 104–9; d. 459, l. 19–20, 32, 40), 190 (d. 460, l. 10, l. 31). In March 1930, the GPU district plenipotentiary in Western Siberia, F. G. Dobygin, had arrested eighty members of the soviet and party active and shot nine of them; he released kulaks from the county jail—they grabbed rifles and led an uprising of four hundred people. Danilov and Krasil’nikov, Spetspereselentsy v Zapadnoi Sibiri, 59 (GANO, f. p-1204, op. 1, d. 8, l. 68).
191. Kin’s original letter was dated April 2, 1930; Stalin’s response to him was returned as undeliverable, and on May 29, Tovstukha inquired of the Kherson party boss whether a Nikolai Kin existed—evidently Kin (whatever his real name) had given a false address. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 184–6 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 753, l. 114–7), 186 (l. 123), 188 (l. 121).
192. The idea of a rail link between Siberia and Russian Turkestan had first been bruited back in 1886; work had commenced in 1927. Carr and Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, I: 904–7; Payne, Stalin’s Railroad.
193. Izvestiia, April 27, 1930; Lyons, Assignment in Utopia, 304–12 (quote at 304).
194. Another of the main arguments of Magnetic Mountain is that authoritarian state power is most effective when it is reproduced in people’s everyday lives and identities.
195. Davies, Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 249–50.
196. Rassweiler, Generation of Power. The local factories slated to use the power supply made less progress. Davies, Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 215.
197. The earliest reports of hunger seem to have emerged from the Russian republic in Jan. 1930, in the Volga Valley, Stalingrad county, where half the harvest failed, according to secret police reports. Peasants there formed groups to demand food from the authorities, who took no special actions, as people consumed food surrogates and children stopped going to school. Kondrashin, Golod v SSSR, I/i: 146 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 778, l. 394–8), 177–80 (d. 852, l. 296–302: July 26, 1930), 189–90 (d. 787, l. 992–3), 197–8 (op. 9, d. 546, l. 302–3: June 6, 1930), 198–9 (RGAE, op. 11, d. 17, l. 139–41: July 8, 1930).
198. Kondrashin et al., Golod v SSSR, I/i: 228–30 (TsA FSB, f. 2m, op. 8, d. 834, l. 985–6), 230 (RGAE, f. 8043, op. 11, d. 17, l. 208–208ob.), 230–9 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 834, l. 1072–6).
199. Schoolteachers in Akmolinsk province of Kazakhstan deserted their schools en masse and signed on for work at the railroad, which had some food to distribute. Kondrashin et al., Golod v SSSR, I/i: 207–8 (GA Kustanaiskoi obl. Respubliki Kazakhstan, f. 54–p, op. 1, d. 784, l. 14), 220–7 (TSA FSB, f. 2m, op. 8, d. 744, l. 570–6), 227–8 (l. 612). Kazakhstan went from 2 percent collectivization of households as of 1928 to 50 percent as of April 1, 1930, by official statistics. Kozybaev et al., Kollektivizatsiia v Kazakhstane, 4.
200. As trade negotiations with Britain continued over Soviet obligations for tsarist and Provisional Government debt, the Soviet envoy to London, Sokolnikov, was receiving wide praise in the British press as one Communist who kept his word. A Russian émigré periodical edited by Paul Miliukov, the former leader of the Constitutional Democrats, praised Sokolnikov as “the sole Soviet administrator who has demonstrated with deeds that he is capable of learning state affairs.” Mischievously, the article posed the question, “Stalin or Sokolnikov?” Miliukov, Poslednie novosti, May 16, 1930; see also Vozrozhdenie, May 17, 1930; Genis, “Upriamyi narkom s il’inki,” 235. Sokolnikov is said to have fretted to his wife, “Stalin will never forgive me this and will necessarily exact revenge.” Serebriakova, “Iz vospominanii,” at 242. On Sept. 17, 1930, Yaroslavsky wrote a denunciation to Orjonikidze (party Control Commission) of Sokolnikov’s alleged expenditure in London of 4,000 gold rubles on sleeping quarters for his mistress. Kvashonkin, Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, 134–5 (RGASPI, f. 85, op. 27, d. 267, l. 1–2). Sokolnikov would serve as envoy to Britain through Sept. 14, 1932. He was replaced by Jan Lachowiecki, from a Russified Polish family, who had taken the name Ivan Maisky, a confidant of Litvinov.
