Stalin and His Hangmen (87 page)

21.
Timewatch
, BBC2, 9 August 2002. Kremlin doctors such as Vinogradov were so overloaded with duties as professors and editors plus their caseloads of party leaders, many in bad health, that they were unfit to treat patients. Unlike Lenin and Dzierżyński, Stalin and Beria would not consult foreign doctors.

22.
Vinogradov knew the dangers. In 1938 he was summoned by Ezhov as an expert to damn his colleague Dr Pletniov. Ezhov warned him: ‘Bear in mind that every third person is my agent and tells me everything. I advise you to talk less.’

23.
Leonid Mlechin,
KGB: predsedateli organov bezopasnosti
, Moscow, 2001, 364. Mlechin’s account relies on Khrushchiov’s uncorroborated memoirs.
When Ignatiev died in 1983,
Pravda
’s obituary praised his ‘modesty and sensitive attitude to people’.

24.
Kostyrchenko, 2001, 649

25.
The letter was never printed. The text is in Vaksberg, 1993, 295–6.

26.
Ibid. 276–80

27.
‘Politbiuro TsK’ in
Sovet ministrov 1945–1953
, Moscow, 2002, 349–54

28.
Not that Georgians were a favoured nation. Fewer survived interrogation in prison, and fewer males survived the war in Georgia than in other republics.

29.
Ibid. 358–9

30.
See GARF 9401, 2, 99, 386. Vyshinsky dribbled while listening to his telephone and in September 1945 it stopped working. Beria immediately sent two colonels, a captain and a major, who diagnosed moisture in the microphone and replaced it. This was reported in detail to Stalin.

31.
T. V. Volokitina et al. (eds)
Moskva i vostochnaia Evropa 1949–53
, Moscow, 2002, 518

32.
Fifteen years later, when his victims were rehabilitated, R´kosi insisted that the torture had been justified.

33.
Mlechin, 2001, 562

34.
Kaganovich had had a hand in his brother’s suicide in 1941: his telephone call warned Mikhail he was to be arrested.

35.
Stoliarov, 2000, 212–13

36.
Mlechin, 2001, 386

37.
Pavel Sudoplatov (see
Spetsoperatsii
, Moscow, 1997, 547) claims that Beria proposed an amnesty for political prisoners too, but that this was rejected by the Presidium.

38.
See A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov (eds)
GULAG 1918–1960
, Moscow, 2000, 367–72. In February 1954 Khrushchiov and Malenkov handed the GULAG and prisons back to the MVD.

39.
Beria was annoyed when the Lithuanian minister for internal affairs then sent his report to Moscow in Lithuanian.

40.
In May 1953 Beria found that Malenkov had copied for his own speech at the nineteenth party congress a paragraph from a speech by a Tsarist minister of the interior. Beria ignored this damning evidence against Malenkov, but the fact that he knew was brought to Malenkov’s attention, a reason for the end of their alliance. See Sudoplatov, 1997, 554–5.

41.
V. P. Naumov and Iu. Sigachiov,
Lavrenti Beriia 1953
, Moscow, 1999, 69–70

42.
The first publication of the unedited shorthand transcript is in Naumov and Sigachiov, 1999, 87–218.

43.
The investigation dossier in the FSB archives is inaccessible, at least until 2040, when the last woman on whom Beria forced himself will have died.
This account is based on the glimpses that previous researchers have had and from accounts by the investigators. See V. F. Nekrasov (ed.)
Beria: konets kar’ery
, 1991, 300–415.

44.
Moskalenko suppressed evidence linking Beria’s actions to Stalin’s, notably the soundings in 1941–2 through the Bulgarian ambassador for peace with the Germans.

45.
On 29 May 2000 the Russian supreme court reprieved three of the executed men, Dekanozov, Meshik and Vlodzimirsky, and substituted twenty-five-year prison sentences so that their heirs could recover confiscated property. See
Izvestiia
, 30 May 2000, 1.

46.
Naumov and Sigachiov, 1999, 380.

47.
Imre Nagy, the prime minister of Hungary during the 1956 uprising, treacherously hanged on 16 June 1958 on Khrushchiov’s orders, might be counted as the last of Beria’s men to be executed.

48.
The fate of Beria’s men is recounted in Vaksberg, 1995, 112–54.

49.
O. Volin, ‘S Berievtsami vo Vladimirskoi tiur’me’ in
Minuvshee 7
, Moscow, 1992, 357–72. Chichiko Pachulia, Beria’s head of the NKVD in Abkhazia, was released in 1970. He lived in Tbilisi and died suddenly outside his house while taking to the KGB a denunciation of his daughter and grandson for listening to
Voice of America
. See F. Blagoveshchenskii, ‘V gostiakh u P. A. Sharii’ in
Minuvshee 7
472.

50.
K. A. Stoliarov, 2000: 98–100. In 1994 Abakumov and his co-defendants had their crimes reclassified as not treasonable. The death sentences were not quashed but his heirs, forty years later, could recover his confiscated property.

51.
 Ibid. 217–18

52.
 One exception is the unofficial teacher’s handbook of documents on political repression and resistance to totalitarianism, produced by the Sakharov Centre in Moscow:
Kniga dlia uchitelia. Istoriia politicheskikh repressii i soprotivleniia nesvobode v SSSR
, Moscow, Mosgorarkhiv, 2002.

Select Bibliography

This is a selection of works that I have found useful. Sources to which I am heavily indebted are marked with a star. A full bibliography would be the size of a monograph, and is best compiled by searching a website such as www.copac.ac.uk by subject, title and author. Unlike in the text, where Russian names are given in a slightly simplified version of the standard Anglo-American system, here Russian names are presented in an exact transliteration.

Leniniana

Arutiunov, Akim,
Lenin. Lichostnaia i politicheskaia biografiia
, Moscow: Veche, 2002 (2 vols)

Latyshev, A. G.,
Rassekrechennyi Lenin
, Moscow: Mart, 1996

Lenin, V. I.,
Polnoe sobranie sochinenii
, vol. 51

*Lenin, V. I.,
Neizvestnye dokumenty 1891–1922
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2000

Volkogonov, Dmitrii,
Lenin
, Moscow: Novosti, 1999 (2 vols)

Staliniana

Antonov-Ovseenko, A.,
Teatr Iosifa Stalina
, Moscow: AST, 2000

Brackman, Roman,
The Secret File on Joseph Stalin
, London/Portland, Ore.: Frank Cass, 2001

Deutscher, Isaac,
Stalin: A Political Biography
, London: Pelican, 1966

Djilas, Milovan, tr. Michael B. Petrovich,
Conversations with Stalin
, London: Pelican, 1969

*Gromov, Evgenii Sergeevich,
Stalin: vlast’ i iskusstvo
, Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Respublika, 1998

*Ilizarov, B. S.,
Tainaia zhizn’ Stalina
, Moscow: Veche, 2002

*
Istoricheskii arkhiv, 1994–1999
especially
Arkhiv vozhdei: posetiteli kabineta I. V. Stalina v Kremle 1924–1953

Kolesnik, Aleksandr,
Mify i pravda o sem’e Stalina
, Kharkov: Prostor, 1991

Koliosov, D. V.,
I. V. Stalin: pravo na vlast’
, Moscow: Flinta, 2000

Marie, Jean-Jacques,
Staline
, Paris: Fayard, 2001

Medvedev, Zh. A. and R. A.,
Neizvestnyi Stalin
, Moscow: AST, 2002

Mlechin, Leonid,
Smert’ Stalina. Vozhd’ i ego soratniki
, Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2003

*Ostrovskii, Aleksandr,
Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina
, St Petersburg: Neva, 2002

Radzinskii, Edvard,
Stalin
, Moscow: Vagrius, 1997

Rayfield, D., ‘Stalin as Poet’,
PN Review
44, Manchester: 1984, 44–7

Sebag-Montefiore, Simon,
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003

Ulam, Adam B.,
Stalin: The Man and his Era
, London: Tauris, 1989

Veiskopf, Mikhail,
Pisatel’ Stalin
, Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2001

Volkogonov, Dmitrii,
Stalin: triumf i tragediia
, Moscow: Novosti, 1990 (2 vols)

Zakaridze, Nodar,
St’alini da sakartvelo
, Tbilisi: 1997

Biographical Handbooks

*Borodai, A. D., Kuz’mina, A. L., Koroliov, A. A.,
Politbiuro (Prezidium) TsK partii v 1917–1989 gg.: personalii: spravochnoe posobie
, Moscow: Vysshaia Komsomol’skaia Shkola Pri TsK VLKSM, Kafedra Istorii KPSS, 1990

Istoriia politicheskikh repressii i soprotivleniia nesvobode v SSSR
, Moscow: Mosgorarkhiv, 2002

*Ivkin, V. I.,
Gosudarstvennaia vlast’ SSSR… istoriko-biograficheskii spravochnik
, Moscow: ROSSPÈ N, 1999

*Petrov, N. V., Skorkin, K. V.,
Kto rukovodil NKVD 1934–1941: spravochnik
, Moscow: Zven’ia, 1999

Torchinov, V. A., Leontiuk, A. M.,
Vokrug Stalina: istoriko-biograficheskii spravochnik
, St Petersburg: Filfak, 2000

*Zalesskii, K. A.,
Imperiia Stalina: biograficheskii Èntsiklopedicheskii slovar’
, Moscow: Veche, 2000

Documents and Materials

Akademicheskoe delo 1929–1931, vypusk 1: delo S. F. Platonova
, St Petersburg: 1993

*Artizov, Andrei; Naumov, Oleg (eds)
Vlast’ i khudozhestvennaia intelligentsia: dokumenty 1917–1953
, Moscow: MFD, 1999

*
Butovskii poligon, 1937–1938 gg. Kniga pamiati zhertv politicheskikh repressii 1–5
, Moscow: Panorama, Al’zo, 1997–2001 (5 vols)

Cherniaev, V. Iu., (ed.)
Piterskie rabochie i ≪diktatura proletariata≫ oktiabr’ 1917–1929
, St Petersburg: BLITs, 2000

*Danilov, V. P., Khlevniuk, O. V., Vatlin, A. Iu. (eds)
Kak lomali NÈP: stenogrammy plenumov TsK VKP(b) 1928–1929 gg.
, Moscow: MFD, 2000 (5 vols)

Danilov, V. P., Shanin, T. (eds)
Krest’ianskoe dvizhenie v Povolzh’e 1919–1922: dokumenty i materialy
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2002

Esakov, V. D. (ed.)
Akademiia nauk v resheniiakh Politbiuro… 1922–1952
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2000

Fel’shtinskii, Iu. G. (ed.)
VChK-GPU dokumenty i materialy
, Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Gumanitarnoi Literatury, 1995

Garros, Véronique; Korenevskaya, Natalia; Lahusen, Thomas, tr. Carol A. Flath,
Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s
, New York: The New Press, 1995

Gromova, T. V. (ed.)
Vospominaniia krest’ian-tolstovtsev 1910–1930-e gody
, Moscow: Kniga, 1989

Khaustov, V. N.
et al
(eds)
Lubianka. Stalin: VChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD 1922–36
, Moscow: Materik, 2003

*Khlevniuk, O. V.,
Stalinskoe Politbiuro v 30-e gody: sbornik dokumentov
, Moscow: AIRO-XX, 1995

Khrustaliov, V. M. (ed.)
Skorbnyi put’ Romanovykh 1917–1918 gg. Gibel’ tsarskoi sem’i. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2001

Koenker, Diane P., Backman, Ronald D. (eds)
Revelations from the Russian Archives
, Washington: Library of Congress, 1997

*Kokurin, A. I., Petrov, N. V. (eds)
Lubianka. VChK-OGPU-NKVDNKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB 1917–1960 spravochnik
, Moscow: MFD, 1997

*Kokurin, A. I., Petrov, N. V. (eds)
GULAG 1918–1960
, Moscow: MFD, 2000

*Kozlov, V. A., Mironenko, S. V. (eds) ≪
Osobaia papka≫ I. V. Stalina. Iz materialov Sekretariata NKVD-MVD SSSR 1944–1953 gg.
, Moscow: GARF, 1994

Krivosheeva, G. F. (ed.)
Grif sekretnosti sniat: poteri vooruzhionnykh sil SSR
…, Moscow: Voennoe Izdatel’stvo, 1993

*Kvashonkin, A. V.; Khlevniuk, O. V., Kosheliova, L. P., Rogovaia, L. A. (eds)
Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo: perepiska, 1912–1927
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 1996

*Livshin, A. Ia., Orlov, I. B., Khlevniuk, O. V. (eds)
Pis’ma vo vlast’ 1917–1927. Zaiavleniia, zhaloby, donosy
…, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 1998

Livshin, A. Ia. Orlov, I. B., Khlevniuk, O. V. (eds)
Pis’ma vo vlast’ 1928–1939. Zaiavleniia, zhaloby, donosy
…, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2002

Menshevistskii protsess 1931 goda: sbornik dokumentov v 2-kh knigakh
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 1999 (2 vols)

Naumov, V. P., Kosakovskii, A. A. (eds)
Kronstadt 1921
, Moscow: MFD, 1997

Osipov, Iurii Sergeevich (ed.)
Akademiia nauk v resheniiakh Politbiuro TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b)-KPSS, 1922–1991
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2000

*
Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu 1925–1936 gg.: sbornik dokumentov
, Moscow: Rossiia Molodaia, 1995

*Razumov, A. Ia. (ed.)
Leningradskii martirolog
vols 1–4, St Petersburg: 1995–9 Reiman, Mikhail (ed.) ‘Dokumenty kanuna stalinshchiny’ in
Sintaksis 13
, Paris: 1985

*Rogovaia, L. A., Anderson, K. M., Adibekov, Grant Mkrtychevich (eds)
TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b): katalog, I 1919–1929, II 1930–1939, III 1940–1952
, Moscow: ROSSPÈN, 2000–01 (3 vols)

Rupasov, A. I., Ken, Oleg (eds)
Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i otnosheniia SSSR s zapadnymi sosednimi gosudarstvami (konets 1920–1930-kh gg.): problemy, opyt kommentarii
, St Petersburg: Evropeiskii Dom, 2000

Russkaia pravoslavnaia tserkov’ i kommunisticheskoe gosudarstvo 1917–1941: dokumenty i fotomaterialy
, Moscow: Bibleisko-bogoslovskii Institut Sv. Ap. Andreiia, 1996

Shelokhaev, V. V. (ed.)
Kniga dlia uchitelia. Istoriia politicheskikh repressii i soprotivleniia nesvobode v SSSR
, Moscow: Mosgorarkhiv, 2002

Shishkin, V. I. (ed.)
Sibirskaia Vandeiia. Tom I 1919–1920
, Moscow: MFD, 2000