Young Stalin (68 page)

In Georgia and to a lesser extent Russia, one can still interview rare witnesses: in a Tbilisi old people’s home, I interviewed Mariam Svanidze, a relation of Stalin’s wife Kato, aged 109; I also spoke to other relations such as Ketevan Gelovani, who provided useful memories. Similarly, Stalin’s granddaughter, Galina “Gulia” Djugashvili, supplied helpful pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, as did the daughters of Ordzhonikidze and Litvinov, among others. The most valuable was Guram Ratishvili, the delightful grandson of General Sasha Egnatashvili, who was able at last to fill in the gaps that have appeared in their family story in every Stalin history book (including my own) up to now.

There are also many published memoirs, particularly from the 1920s, which Stalin could not yet control. Thus the memoirs of Kote Tsintsadze, for example, were highly embarrassing. Though they are restrained and circumspect, they did reveal that Stalin ordered killings and bank robberies at a time when he was desperately trying to prove his heroic legitimacy, political and ideological, to succeed Lenin. When he assumed absolute power after 1929, Stalin, together with Beria, managed to pulp many copies of Tsintsadze’s memoirs. Another example is the memoirs of Stalin’s 1917 assistant Pestkovsky: the first rather irreverent version was published in 1922, but when they were republished in 1930 they had been cleansed. The same applies to Yenukidze, Makharadze, Shotman and many others.

But even the official cult literature has its uses. Lakoba’s Smirba book, the collections on the Batumi demonstration and Stalin’s schooldays, and Beria’s “history” book are all works of propaganda, full of lies and exaggerations, but the quotations from the memoirs are accurate though selectively edited. I have tried to cross-check between books and originals.

One has to be just as careful with the anti-Stalin literature of exiles such as Iremashvili, Nikolaevsky, Vulikh, Uratadze, Vereshchak, Arsenidze and many others. Trotsky and Sukhanov are the two that have dominated Western histories of Stalin. They were anti-Stalin, so they were presumed to be right. Now, on closer analysis, one finds often that they contain errors that we can expose and prejudiced guesses that we can discount—but still they remain very useful.

I have been very fortunate to find less well-known exiled sources too, such as Josef Davrichewy, Khariton Chavichvili and David Sagirashvili, all of whom knew Stalin quite well, each leaving prejudiced, sometimes unreliable, but invaluable sources. One senses that these three, though anti-Stalin, tried to be evenhanded. The Okhrana/Gendarme files, some published by the Bolsheviks, some unpublished in archives, and those of the Paris office resting at Stanford, are very valuable but, based as they are on their own dubious surveillance and intelligence, they are often completely wrong.

Some memoirs and biographies have more value than one might expect. John Reed’s
Ten Days That Shook the World
is very sympathetic to the Bolshevik legend and knows little of what was happening within the Party, yet it is a superb piece of reportage. So are David Sagirashvili’s diaries. The earliest Stalin biographies are often surprisingly well informed: Boris Souvarine knew many of the players and had access to those witnesses in exile. More surprising is
Stalin: Career of a Fanatic
by Essad Bey, the first real Stalin biography, used with obvious reservations.

The memoirs of Khrushchev, Molotov, Mikoyan, Yuri Zhdanov (just published) and others are useful—but with reservations.

I have unapologetically used many published works widely and in detail and have tried to be punctilious in attributing the source. But some books are so outstanding that I would like to list them as my basic sources used throughout the book: Alexander Ostrovsky’s
Kto stoyal za spinoi Stalina?
is the best scholarly work on Stalin’s connections with the Okhrana and big business: it is unlikely to be bettered; Stephen Jones’s
Socialism in Georgian Colors
is superb, essential reading; Professor Ronald Suny’s masterly essays
Journeyman for the Revolution
and
Beyond Psychohistory;
Miklos Kun’s
Stalin: An Unknown Portrait
overlaps with both my books on Stalin and is an amazing feat of research and understanding; Robert Conquest’s
Great Terror
and his
Stalin: Breaker of Nations
are seminal works that still define Stalin today; Boris Ilizarov’s
Tainaya zhizn Stalina
is full of the author’s remarkable archival discoveries; on Stalin’s poetry, I depend totally on Donald Rayfield’s authoritative criticism and translation; on the secret police, I have used the excellent Jonathan W. Daly’s
Autocracy under Siege: Security Police and Opposition in Russia, 1866–1905
and
The Watchful State: Security Police and Opposition in Russia, 1906–17
; Anna Geifman’s brilliant introduction,
Russia under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894–1917
, explains the different psychologies of the revolutionary, while her outstanding
Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917
was my basic source on terrorism; Robert Service’s recent biographies on Lenin and Stalin are magisterial yet readable; on Baku, Jorg Baberowski’s groundbreaking, important
Der Feind ist überall: Stalinismus im Kaukasus
is the only work that explains the culture of Caucasian violence. On the Revolutions, I used: Abraham Ascher’s admirable
1905
; Orlando Figes’s magnificent
A People’s Tragedy;
Richard Pipes’s many outstanding works including
The Russian Revolution, The Degaev Affair
and
The Unknown Lenin;
and Alexander Rabinowitch’s excellent
The Bolsheviks Come to Power
.

ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS

RGASPI Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsialno Politicheskoi Istorii, Moscow, Russia

GARF Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Moscow, Russia

GF IML Georgian State Filial of Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Tbilisi, Georgia

ABM Achinsky Oblastnoi Muzei, Achinsk, Russia

MSIR Musei Sovremennoi Istorii Rossii, Moscow, Russia

VOANPI Vologdsky Oblastnoi Arkhiv Noveishei Politicheskoi Istorii, Vologda, Russia

GAVO Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Vologodskoi Oblasti, Vologda, Russia

GIAG Georgian State Historical Archive, Tbilisi, Georgia (Sakartvelos Sakhelmtsipo Saistorio Arkivi)

Archives of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California

GDMS Gosudarstvennyi Dom-Muzei I. V. Stalina, Gori, Georgia

Gosudarstvennyi Istoriko-Memorialny St-Peterburgsky Muzei “Smolny,” St. Petersburg, Russia

Muzei Alliluyeva, St. Petersburg, Russia

GTsMSIR Gosudarstvennyi Tsentralnyi Muzei Sovremennoi Istorii Rossii, Kseshinskaya Mansion, St. Petersburg, Russia

GMIKA Khariton Akhvlediani State Museum, Batumi, Georgia

TsGAA Central State Archive of Adjaria, Batumi, Georgia

DMS Stalin House-Museum (former house of Watchmaker Simhovich), Batumi, Georgia

GK Guram Kahidze’s private museum, Batumi, Georgia

KTA private archive of Konstantin Ter-Akopova, Batumi, Georgia

GIAA Gosudardvennyi Istoricheskiy Arkhiv Azerbaijana, Baku, Azerbaijan

Stockholm City Archives, Sweden

Office of the Governor of Stockholm, Sweden

PRO Public Records Office, London

Lenin Museum, Tampere, Finland

VIDEO

Baku, City of Dreams
, produced, written and directed by Fuad Akhundov

INTRODUCTION

1.
Historians will find out: A. Mgeladze,
Stalin kakim ya ego znal
(henceforth Mgeladze), pp. 240–41. RGASPI 558.11.787.2 Stalin to Zhdanov and Pospelov, 24 Sept. 1940—ban this book. All children alike: E. Radzinsky,
Stalin
, p. 11. All childhoods are the same, burn this: D. Volkogonov,
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy
, p. 241. Boris Ilizarov,
Tainaya zhizn Stalina
(henceforth Ilizarov), p. 99.

PROLOGUE · THE BANK ROBBERY

1.
This account of the Tiflis expropriation is based on the many sources listed in this note. On her role and that of others: GF IML 8.2.2.64, Alexandra Darakhvelidze-Margvelashvili, recorded 21 Feb. 1959. On his role, on cowardly comrades, who did what: GF IML 8.2.1.624.1–26, Bachua Kupriashvili. Kote Tsintsadze,
Rogor vibrd-zolot proletariatis diktaturistvis:chemimogonebani
(henceforth Tsintsadze), pp. 40–49. GF IML 8.5.384.3–10, Autobiographical notes by Kamo; GF IML 8.5.380.5–6, Personal File and Questionnaire, filled in by Kamo on day of his death. GF IML 8.2.1.50.239–55, D. A. Khutulashvili (sister of Kamo). The gang; Eliso hides; Stalin head of that organization: Archives of the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford (henceforth Stanford), Boris Nikolaevsky Collection (henceforth Nikolaevsky), box 207, folder 207–10, letter from Tatiana Vulikh; folder 207–11. Tiflis Committee approves robbery: Razhden Arsenidze, interviews nos. 1–3, 103–4, Nikolaevsky box 667, series 279, folder 4–5, Inter-University Project on History of Menshevik Movement.

On Okhrana investigation/suspicions of coming robbery in Caucasus; 14 and 18 Jan. 1908: Stanford, Paris Okhrana archives, box 209, folder XXB.2, letter on suspects, 13 Feb. 1907. Arrest of Kamo and full biography, 31 Oct./13 Nov. and 27/14 Nov. 1908; and 14 Nov./21 Oct. 1907: Suspect in Tiflis expropriation—Josef/Soso Davrichewy: Stanford, Okhrana box 209, folder XXB.1.

Letter, R. Arsenidze to Boris Nikolaevsky, 8 Jan. 1957, on investigation by Silvester Jibladze and fights with Menshevik about Kvirili expropriation money: Nikolaevsky box 472, folder 2.

Grigory Uratadze,
Vospominaniya
(henceforth Uratadze), pp. 163–66—Stalin, the main financier of the Bolshevik centre, did not participate personally; pp. 71–72 on giving expro money to Shaumian.

On Kamo’s role: I. M. Dubinsky-Mukhadze,
Kamo
, pp. 71–84; David Shub, “Kamo.” Obeying Stalin from Gendarme report, R. Imnaishvili,
Kamo
, section 1, pp. 52–55; the expropriation, p. 59; betrayal of Kamo by Arsen Karsidze, p. 34. Account of expropriation as told by Kamo to his wife: S. F. Medvedeva-Ter-Petrossian, “Tovarish Kamo.” Jacques Baynac,
Kamo
, pp. 90–100. Anna Geifman,
Thou Shalt Kill
, pp. 112–16,212 and 299, including Kamo killing for Stalin. On psychology of Kamo and terrorists: “Introduction” in Anna Geifman (ed.),
Russia under the Last Tsar
, pp. 1–14. Jonathan Daly,
The Watchful State
, p. 67. Radzinsky,
Stalin
, p. 61. Robert C. Williams,
The Other Bolsheviks
(henceforth Williams), pp. 113–15.

Pretty girls, Stalin’s iron discipline: Khariton Chavichvili,
Patrie, prison, exil
, p. 145. Lenin under attack from Mensheviks: Khariton Chavichvili,
Révolutionnaires russes à Genève en 1908
, pp. 80–83. Stalin and Shaumian in London, permission for expropriation, morning meeting, division of spoils: G. S. Akopian,
Stepan Shaumian
, pp. 44, 64. Vahtang Guruli,
Svodnaya Gruzia
no. 152 (225), 24 Sept. 1994, p. 4:SR theory and also Kamo accompanied by daughter of deputy police chief of Shora-pani. On Okhrana informer reports that SRs conducted Tiflis expropriation and money stolen by Kamo, Tiflis Okhrana agents “N” and “Bolshaya” on 2 July and 15 July 1907: Vahtang Guruli,
Josef Stalin Materials for the Biography
, pp. 9–11, in Central Georgian State Historical Archive 95.1.82.15, 21, 23.

Lenin and Krasin create the “Technical Group,” bombs and money: L. B. Krasin, “Bolshevistskaya partiianaya tekhnika,” pp. 8–13.

Lenin and Krasin fight for the money under Menshevik attack: Boris Niko laevsky, “Bolshevistskiy Tsentre,”
Rodina
no. 2, 1992, pp. 33–35, and no. 5, pp. 25–31. Kamo on train with girl, policeman’s daughter: Baron Bibineishvili,
Za chetvet veka
(henceforth Bibineishvili), pp. 92–94.

Memoir of boys working for Stalin and other comrades by D. Chachanidze: GF IML 8.1.2.4. Joint operations and assassinations with Anarchists and no mention of arrest at time of expropriation: Tsintsadze, p. 111. Kamo confides in Davrichewy that Stalin in charge, viceroy furious, Stalin’s operations; Stalin opens era of the holdup, Gori connection, Kamo kills for Stalin: Josef Davrichewy,
Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien avec mon copain Staline
(henceforth Davrichewy), pp. 237–39,174–77, 188–89. Stalin in Tiflis engaged in preparations, in Baku by 17 June, quote from L. D. Trotsky, Stalin on roof by G. Besedovsky, expulsion from Caucasus Regional Committee but supported by Lenin and CC: Alexander Ostrovsky,
Kto stoyal za spinoi Stalina?
(henceforth Ostrovsky), pp. 259–62. The other insider in bank/mail, G. Kasradze introduced to Kamo and Kasradze later interrogated by N. Jordania and admitted role in expropriation thanks to Stalin: GF IML 8.2.1.22.