Stalin (63 page)

(New York, 2005). Many works on the Terror and the Gulag have added to our understanding of Stalin’s personal role in organizing mass repression: Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov,

(New York, 2003); V. N. Khaustov and L. Samuel’son,

(Moscow, 2009); Jörg Baberowski,

(Munich, 2012). Despite copious literature on World War II, Stalin’s role as supreme commander in chief has yet to be adequately investigated. An analogous lacuna exists in regard to the Cold War and Stalin’s handling of foreign policy.

3

. Dmitri Volkogonov,

(New York, 1991); Edvard Radzinsky,

(New York, 1997); Simon Sebag Montefiore:

(London, 2003), and

(London, 2007).

4

. Collections of letters have been published as part of the Annals of Communism Series: Lars T. Lih, Oleg V. Naumov, and Oleg Khlevniuk, eds.,

(New Haven, 1995), and R. W. Davies et al., eds.,

(New Haven and London, 2003).

5

. A. A. Chernobaev, ed.,

(Moscow, 2008).

6

. S. V. Deviatov et al.,

(Moscow, 2010), pp. 113–114.

7

. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1–11. (An

[op.] is the equivalent of a drawer in a filing cabinet.) Opis’ 11 comprises Stalin’s personal archive, brought to RGASPI from the Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation (the former Politburo Archive).

8

. “Thematic” folders

are subject-specific folders of documents that were submitted to the Politburo and Stalin; they comprise the main historical component of the Presidential Archive.

9

. Sergei Khrushchev, ed.:

vol. 1:

(University Park, PA, 2004);

vol. 2:

(University Park, PA, 2006); and

vol. 3:

(University Park, PA, 2007); A. I. Mikoian,

(Moscow, 1999); Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan,

(Madison, CT, 1988).

10

. In a splendid review published soon after Mikoyan’s memoirs came out in Russian, Michael Ellman convincingly argued that Mikoyan’s text had been altered (Michael Ellman, “The Road from Il’ich to Il’ich,”

60, no. 1 [2001]: 141). In a response, Mikoyan’s son Sergo categorically stated, “I did not ‘correct’ my father’s stories” (

60, no. 4 [2001]: 917). This vague formulation came with an important subtext. Sergo Mikoyan was not saying that he did not alter the dictated manuscript, leaving open the possibility that he did supplement the initial transcript of his father’s dictation with subsequent accounts by the elder Mikoyan that were not “correct.” Clearly, any such additions should have been made explicit or, better yet, placed in a footnote.

11

. See, for example, Sergo Beria,

(London, 2001).

12

. E. Yu. Zubkova, “O ‘detskoi’ literature i drugikh problemakh nashei istoricheskoi pamiati,” in

ed. G. A. Bordiugov (Moscow, 1996), pp. 155–178.

1

. Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov (1902–1988) was a party bureaucrat who worked for many years in the Central Committee apparat. In the late 1930s, he was elevated by Stalin to the highest echelons of power, buoyed by the waves of mass repression. During the dictator’s last years, Malenkov served as his deputy within the government and the Central Committee Secretariat. After Stalin’s death he was appointed chairman of the Soviet government, an appointment that seemed to label him as Stalin’s unofficial heir. However, Malenkov lost out to Khrushchev in the battle for supreme power and was forced into humiliatingly low-level posts before spending his remaining years in retirement. Other unsuccessful rivals for power had the relative democratization of the USSR to thank for their fates. Under Stalin, disgraced politicians generally paid with their lives.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899–1953) began his career in state security. In the early 1930s, Stalin put Beria in charge of Georgia and in 1938 brought him to Moscow and appointed him people’s commissar for internal affairs (head of the NKVD, the main agency of state security); as such, he was assigned to purge the ranks of the secret police and wind down the Great Terror. In subsequent years, Beria became one of Stalin’s closest associates. He was his deputy within the government and oversaw the Soviet nuclear project, as well as other important divisions of the Soviet system, including the Gulag. After Stalin’s death, Beria brought all “punitive organs” under his own control. This move alarmed the other Soviet leaders. They closed ranks and had Beria arrested, accused of countless crimes, and shot. Legends circulated that Beria had had special influence over Stalin and that many of the crimes of the Stalinist regime were his handiwork. In fact, Beria was just one of the men who implemented Stalin’s orders and did not play a notably independent role in carrying out the mass repression. See Amy Knight,

(Princeton, NJ, 1993).

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894–1971) came to Moscow from Ukraine to study at the Industrial Academy, where he got to know Stalin’s wife, Nadezhda Allilueva. This acquaintance provided the first impetus to his career, and he began to advance through the ranks of the Moscow party committee. In the late 1930s, new opportunities for advancement came as other officials succumbed to the mass repression. He was appointed party secretary for Ukraine, one of the most important Soviet republics. After the war, Stalin placed him in charge of the party organization in Moscow. In the wake of Stalin’s death, Khrushchev became head of the Central Committee apparat. This post enabled him to outmaneuver Stalin’s other political heirs and become the new Soviet leader. However, Khrushchev was not Stalin. His democratic reforms (the Khrushchev Thaw), his condemnation of Stalin’s Cult of Personality, and his advocacy of freedom for Gulag prisoners, along with numerous tactical blunders, led to a plot against him. In late 1964, he was deprived of his post by purely legal means, but not of his life. He lived out his days as a pensioner. While in retirement, he dictated his well-known memoirs. See William Taubman,

(New York, 2003).

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin (1895–1975) was among those who rose through the ranks to fill the vacancies created in the Soviet apparat by the Great Terror. Stalin began to promote Bulganin at the end of the war. As a counterweight to career military men, the civil servant Bulganin was placed in senior posts in the defense commissariat and eventually appointed defense minister. Contemporary accounts portray Bulganin as an expressionless functionary who simply followed orders. After Stalin’s death, Bulganin chaired the Council of Ministers, succeeding the disgraced Malenkov. However, he picked the losing side during Khrushchev’s rise to power and was sent into retirement.

2

. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890–1986) was one of Stalin’s closest comrades-in-arms, their relationship dating back to prerevolutionary times. From then on, Molotov served as Stalin’s faithful supporter and played a key role during Stalin’s struggle for supreme power. In return, Molotov was appointed to top government posts. In 1930–1941, he chaired the Soviet government (the Council of People’s Commissars). When Stalin himself took over this post in 1941, Molotov was made his deputy. For many years Molotov was in charge of foreign affairs. Within the country and the party, he was seen as Stalin’s heir. For this reason, toward the end of his life, Stalin began to clamp down on Molotov and, in late 1952, eventually expelled him from the ruling circle. Nevertheless, Molotov remained loyal to Stalin even after his death. This loyalty was one source of tension between Molotov and Khrushchev, who encouraged criticism of the Cult of Personality. Molotov lost out to Khrushchev during the decisive clash of 1957. He held a succession of minor posts before being forced into retirement. See Derek Watson,

(Basingstoke, UK, 1996).

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (1895–1978) was one of the revolutionary and party activists from Transcaucasia who, thanks to Stalin, wound up making a brilliant career in Moscow. For several decades, Mikoyan was in charge of Soviet trade and the food and consumer-goods industry. In late 1952, Mikoyan fell into disgrace, together with Molotov. After Stalin’s death, he restored his position and gave his allegiance to Khrushchev. He played an important role in resolving the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. After Khrushchev’s removal, Mikoyan’s career went into decline. Nevertheless, he is considered a model Soviet political survivor, renowned for his adaptability.

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (1881–1969) was one of Stalin’s closest friends during the 1918–1920 Civil War. In the mid-1920s, Stalin placed him in charge of the Red Army, a post for which Voroshilov was clearly not well suited. Shortly before the 1941 German invasion, Stalin was forced to replace him. During World War II, Voroshilov formally remained among the country’s top leadership; however, he held secondary posts. After Stalin’s death, Voroshilov was appointed to the figurehead post of president of the USSR. He supported Molotov and the other Soviet leaders who opposed Khrushchev in 1957 and soon thereafter went into retirement.

3

. Yoram Gorlizki, “Ordinary Stalinism: The Council of Ministers and the Soviet Neo-patrimonial State, 1946–1953,”

74, no. 4 (2002): 699–736.

4

. Interview with Admiral I. S. Isakov in K. Simonov,

(Moscow, 1989), p. 433.

5

. A. A. Chernobaev, ed.,

(Moscow, 2008), p. 7.

6

. V. Bogomolova et al., comps.,

(Moscow, 2009), pp. 310–313.

7

. After Shumiatsky’s arrest in 1938, these records were given to Stalin and placed in his personal archive. They have been published in K. M. Anderson et al., comps.,

(Moscow, 2005), pp. 919–1053.

8

. Nadezhda Sergeevna Allilueva (1901–1932) grew up in the family of a proletarian revolutionary with whom Stalin had long been acquainted. She and Stalin were married in 1919. Allilueva worked in Lenin’s secretariat and in the editorial offices of a Moscow journal before enrolling in the Moscow Industrial Academy. Further details can be found in the section on Stalin’s family preceding

chapter 6

below.

9

. This and subsequent information about Stalin’s dacha comes from

(exhibition catalogue) (Moscow, 2003), and S. V. Deviatov, A. Shefov, and Iu. Iur’ev,

(Moscow, 2011).

10

. Svetlana Alliluyeva,

trans. Priscilla Johnson McMillian (New York, 1967), p. 21.

11

. Deviatov, Shefov, and Iur’ev,

p. 287. Lozgachev has provided information relating to the postwar years, but there is evidence suggesting that Stalin took an active interest in the productivity of the dacha lands in earlier years as well.

12

. Lazar Kaganovich mentions the existence of such a notebook in F. I. Chuev,

(Moscow, 2001), p. 137.

13

. Letter to Lazar Kaganovich, 24 September 1931. Cited in R. W. Davies, et al., eds.,

(New Haven and London, 2003), p. 98.

14

. In Sergei Khrushchev, ed.,

vol. 2:

(University Park, PA, 2006), p. 117.

15

. In Sergei Khrushchev, ed.,

vol. 1:

(University Park, PA, 2004), p. 290.