244. They agreed on better supervision of air force missions and more quality control in industry. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 203–4 (RGASPI, f. 84, op. 2, d. 37, l. 49–50; d. 38, l. 69, 70; f. 558, op. 11, d. 77, l. 121; d. 78, l. 8). Aircraft losses were a long-standing problem. Sevost’ianov et al., “Sovershenno sekretno,” VIII/ii: 1225–6 (TsA FSB, f. 2, op. 8, d. 16, l. 492–4: July 18, 1930). After perusing a copy of the German-language book by Major Helders (Robert Knauss), Air War 1936: The Destruction of Paris (Berlin, 1932), which imagined a future war between Britain and France decided by the “flying fortress,” Stalin wrote to Voroshilov (June 12, 1932) that the “wonderful book” should be published in Russian translation to teach and inspire aviators. Kvashonkin, Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, 175 (RGASPI, f. 74, op. 2, d. 38, l. 64–5). Robert Knauss, Luftkrieg 1936: die Zertrümmerung von Paris (Berlin: Wilhelm Rolf, 1932) was translated: Vozdushnaia voina 1936: razrushenie Parizha, 2nd ed. (Moscow: Voenizdat, 1934); RGASPI, f. 558, op. 3, d. 52.
245. “We made a lot of noise but did not blow up the bridge,” the OGPU’s Terenty Deribas would admit. The politburo (July 16, 1932) reprimanded the OGPU for “poor organization.” The captured Soviet agent confessed. Karakhan denied any involvement to the Japanese ambassador. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 208 (RGASPI, f. 81, op. 3, d. 100, l. 147), 213n13 (f. 17, op. 162, d. 13, l. 12, 33), 227 (f. 558, op. 11, d. 78, l. 43–4, l. 73, 72); DVP SSSR, XVI: 814n44 (July 26, 1932); Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 315 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 13, l. 33), 807n99. The operative transferred was Nikolai Zagvozdin (b. 1898), who would rise to head of the NKVD in Uzbekistan and then Tajikistan—until his arrest (Feb. 9, 1939) and execution (Jan. 19, 1940). In summer 1932, Heinz Neumann (b. 1902), the leader of the German Communist party’s paramilitary wing, which conducted assassinations, was evidently invited to Sochi. An elderly man of Caucasus extraction, according to the memoirs of Neumann’s lover, was among the many guests. “This is comrade X, my assassin,” Stalin supposedly remarked, before explaining, affably, that the old man’s plot to kill him had been foiled by the OGPU. Neumann’s lover recounted: “The assassin had been condemned to death. But he, Stalin, deemed it proper to pardon this old man, who had, after all, simply acted out of nationalist infatuation, and in order for him to feel like the hatchet had been buried once and for all, had invited him to Matsesta as his guest . . . During this lengthy exposition the old man stood before the gaggle of guests with a downcast gaze.” Such anecdotes about Stalin’s perverse sense of humor abound, usually with a single witness. Buber-Neumann, Von Potsdam nach Moskau, 274–5. Heinz Neumann would be executed in Moscow on Nov. 26, 1937.
246. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganovich, 179–80 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 740, l. 69–72; f. 81, op. 3, d. 99, l. 65–8); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 890, l. 8; Molotov, O pod´eme sel’skogo khoziaistva.
247. Stalin had used the word “famine” when characterizing what enemies predicted would happen as a result of Soviet policies, for example, in reference to bourgeois specialists in the original version of his “six conditions” speech in June 1931: RGASPI, f. 85, op. 28, d. 7, II: l. 189–91. In summer 1932, Molotov told the politburo upon return from Ukraine, “We are indeed faced with the spectre of famine, and in rich grain districts to boot.” Ivnitskii, Kollektivizatsiia i razkulachivanie, 203. See also Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 167.
248. Davies and Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger, 90, 476.
249. He also reminded Kaganovich and Molotov that the conference was to have led to “obligatory 100 percent fulfillment of the grain procurements.” The next day Stalin instructed them to “concentrate the most serious attention on Ukraine,” and “take all the measures to break the current mood of officials, isolate the whiners and rotten diplomats (no matter who!) and ensure genuinely Bolshevik decisions.” Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganaovich, 205 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 77, l. 129–30), 210 (RGASPI, f. 81, op. 3, d. 99, l. 45–7; f. 558, op. 11, d. 740, l. 1), 210–3 (l. 2–9).
250. Kostiuk, Stalinist Rule in Ukraine, 19 (citing Visti, July 17, 1932). Kaganovich wrote to Stalin that Kosior held a firm line on fulfilling the plan at the conference, thereby protecting him.
251. Khlevniuk et al., Stalin i Kaganaovich, 219 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 78, l. 16).
