Stalin: A Biography

by Robert Service

  14. A. Mikoyan, Tak bylo, p. 369.

  15. See above, pp. 63, 128 and 168–9.

  16. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 214.

  17. Ibid., p. 227.

  18. N. A. Uglanov, ‘Vospominaniya’, Vospominaniya o Vladimire Il’iche Lenine, vol. 7, p. 72.

  19. See R. Service, Lenin: A Biography, pp. 248 and 293–4.

  20. RGASPI, f. 16, op. 3s, d. 20, p. 61.

  21. ‘Vospominaniya M.I. Ul’yanovoi’: ibid., pp. 11–12.

  22. Reports by the head of Lenin’s special guard unit: ibid., op. 2s, d. 39, pp. 26, 45, 55, 61, 76 and 89.

  23. Ibid., f. 17, op. 2, d. 25993.

  24. Ibid.

  25. ITsKKPSS, no. 4 (1991), p. 188. Lenin was willing to allow Kamenev, Zinoviev and Tomski to become ‘candidate members’ only.

  26. Politburo minutes, 10 November 1921: RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 228, item 2.

  27. See above, pp. 179–80.

  28. ITsKKPSS, no. 9 (1989), pp. 195, 197 and 198.

  29. Ibid., pp. 195 and 197.

  30. Ibid., pp. 198–9.

  31. Ibid., p. 200.

  32. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, p. 211.

  33. Ibid., pp. 211–12.

  34. RGASPI, f. 64, op. 2, d. 7, p. 133.

  35. ITsKKPSS, no. 9 (1989), p. 209.

  36. For the argument that Lenin and Stalin in 1922–3 agreed on primary questions see R. Service, Lenin: A Political Life, vol. 3, pp. 298–303.

  18. Nation and Revolution

  1. See above, pp. 63, 128 and 168–9.

  2. S. Pestkovskii, ‘Vospominaniya o rabote v Narkomnatse (1917–1919 gg.)’, p. 128.

  3. Ibid.

  4. E. Olla-Reza, Azarbaidzhan i Arran, pp. 28–31. I am grateful to Ali Granmayeh for his advice on this matter.

  5. GARF, f. R-130, op. 2, d. 2(5): Sovnarkom sessions of 7, 21 and 30 December 1918.

  6. ITsKKPSS, no. 9 (1989), p. 199.

  7. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 15, item 3: joint session of Politburo and Orgburo, 19 July 1919.

  8. Vos’moi s”ezd RKP(b), p. 425.

  9. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 48, p. 1; see also ibid., pp. 3–4.

  10. See G. P. Lezhava, Mezhdu Gruziei i Rossiei, p. 69.

  11. Definitive resolutions of territorial matters sometimes had to await Stalin taking the case to the Politburo: see for example RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 58, item 28.

  12. ITsKKPSS, no. 2 (1990), 164 and no. 7 (1990), p. 163.

  13. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 112, d. 93, p. 30.

  14. Ibid., p. 33.

  15. Quoted by R. Kh. Gutov, Sovmestnaya bor’ba narodov Tereka za Sovetskuyu vlast’, p. 469.

  16. See also above, p. 169.

  17. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 112, d. 43, p. 33.

  18. Desyatyi s”ezd RKP(b), p. 184.

  19. Ibid., pp. 184–5.

  20. See below, p. 231.

  21. Desyatyi s”ezd RKP(b), pp. 201–6 (V. P. Zatonski) and pp. 206–9 (A. I. Mikoyan).

  22. Ibid., p. 213.

  23. See J. Baberowski, Der Feind ist überall, p. 163.

  24. See below, p. 231 for Stalin’s appendicitis.

  25. See G. P. Lezhava, Mezhdu Gruziei i Rossiei, p. 92.

  26. See S. Lakoba, Ocherki politicheskoi istorii Abkhazii, pp. 83–4.

  27. Ibid., pp. 81–3.

  28. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 5, p. 94.

  29. Ibid., p. 95.

  30. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, p. 56. D. M. Lang describes the occasion as having been still more tumultuous but omits reference to a source: see A Modern History of Georgia, p. 239. See also S. V. Kharmandar-yan, Lenin i stanovlenie zakavkazskoi federatsii, p. 104, where he cites the personal files of G. A. Galoyan.

  31. S. V. Kharmandaryan, Lenin i stanovlenie zakavkazskoi federatsii, p. 85.

  32. Tainy natsional’noi politiki RKP(b), especially p. 100.

  33. See R. Service, Lenin: A Political Life, vol. 3, p. 291–3.

  19. Testament

  1. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 268: 13 November 1922.

  2. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, pp. 343–8.

  3. Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 195.

  4. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, p. 345.

  5. Ibid., pp. 344–5.

  6. Ibid., p. 344.

  7. V. P. Danilov, ‘Stalinizm i sovetskoe obshchestvo’, p. 170.

  8. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, p. 346.

  9. ITsKKPSS, no. 4 (1991), p. 188.

  10. I am grateful to Francesco Benvenuti, with whom I have discussed this matter for many years, for his persistence in getting me to clarify the interpretation.

  11. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, p. 356.

  12. Pravda, 25 January 1923.

  13. He told Kaganovich this in 1922: Tak govoril Kaganovich, p. 191.

  14. Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 283.

  15. Dvenadtsatyi s”ezd RKP(b), pp. 164–6.

  16. Ibid., p. 821.

  17. ITsKKPSS, no. 4 (1991), pp. 179–91.

  18. See R. V. Daniels, The Conscience of the Revolution, p. 208.

  19. Sochineniya, vol. 6, p. 14.

  20. RGASPI, f. 16, op. 2s, d. 39, pp. 16–124.

  20. The Opportunities of Struggle

  1. See the letter from Dzierżyń ski quoted by S. Lakoba, Ocherki politicheskoi istorii Abkhazii, p. 103.

  2. Pravda, 30 January 1924.

  3. See N. Tumarkin, Lenin Lives! p. 153.

  4. RGASPI, f. 76, op. 3, d. 287, pp. 7 and 19.

  5. See Lubyanka. Stalin I VChK–GPU-nOGPU–NKVD. Yanvar’ 1922–dekabr’ 1936, pp. 11–12.

  6. See above, p. 188.

  7. RGASPI, f. 12, op. 2, d. 41, p. 2.

  8. Ibid., p. 3.

  9. Ibid., pp. 17, 27 and 38.

  10. Ibid., f. 558, op. 1, d. 3112, p. 1.

  11. Ibid., f. 17, op. 1, d. 471: letter of A. I. Ulyanova to Stalin, 28 December 1932.

  12. Ob osnovakh leninizma in I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 6, p. 71.

  13. Ibid., pp. 135–7.

  14. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45, pp. 593–4.

  15. Rodina, no. 7 (1994), p. 72.

  16. B. Bazhanov, Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin, pp. 34–5.

  17. See above, p. 26.

  18. The exception in this list was Kaganovich, who always used the formal ‘you’ (vy) in conversation and letter, and even in letters would address him as ‘comrade Stalin’: see Stalin i Kaganovich. Perepiska, 1931–1936 gg., passim.

  19. See O. Khlevnyuk, Stalin i Ordzhonikidze, pp. 28 and 34–41; R. Service, The Bolshevik Party in Revolution, pp. 106–8.

  20. Stalin i Kaganovich. Perepiska, 1931–1936 gg., p. 109.

  21. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 256.

  22. Ibid., p. 263.

  23. Tak govoril Kaganovich, p. 35.

  24. See R. Service, The Bolshevik Party in Revolution, p. 196.

  25. L. Trotsky, Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, p. 22. I have adjusted the translation.

  26. W. H. Roobol, Tsereteli: A Democrat in the Russian Revolution, p. 13.

  27. See R. Service, The Bolshevik Party in Revolution, p. 196.

  28. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 3, d. 93: Stalin’s personal copy of E. Kviring, Lenin, Zagovorshchestvo, Oktyabr’ (Kharkov, 1924).

  29. B. Bazhanov, Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin, pp. 39–40.

  30. Ibid., p. 37.

  31. Ibid., p. 57.

  32. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 6, pp. 257–8 and vol. 9, pp. 77 and 79. See E. H. Carr, Socialism in One Country, vol. 2, chaps. 11 and 16.

  33. See R.V. Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, p. 254.

  21. Joseph and Nadya

  1. This attitude endured. Stalin expressed it at length in an improvised speech to Georgi Dimitrov and others in November 1937 at the height of the
Great Terror: see the summary by R. C. Tucker in Stalin in Power, p. 483.

  2. This was Trotski’s recollection of what Kamenev told him about a conversation he had had with Stalin and Dzierzynski in mid-1923: Trotsky’s Diary in Exile, 1935, p. 64.

  3. S. Allilueva, Dvadtsat’ pisem k drugu, p. 90; V. Alliluev, Khronika odnoi sem’i: Alliluevy. Stalin, p. 9.

  4. RGASPI, f. 134, op. 3, d. 36, p. 15. This comment comes in Kollontai’s 1920 diary. There must be some suspicion, however, about the authenticity of some parts of this source: certain entries for some years seem to have been modified in the light of later political developments.

  5. A. S. Allilueva, Vospominaniya, p. 186. See above, p. 186.

  6. RGASPI, f. 589, op. 3, d. 15904, l. 14.

  7. Ibid., f. 2, op. 1, d. 14228. See also the direct-line conversation between Ordzhonikidze and Nadezhda Allilueva, 4 December 1920: ibid., d. 6404.

  8. Ibid., f. 589, op. 3, d. 15904, l. 12.

  9. Sergei Alliluev’s note on 1919: ibid., f. 4, op. 2, d. 46, p. 1.

  10. See for example his telegram of 7 November 1919: ibid., f. 558, op. 1, d. 910, p. 1.

  11. F. Alliluev, ‘Vstrechi s t. Stalinym’: ibid., op. 4, d. 663, p. 39.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid., p. 40.

  14. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, p. 55.

  15. Anecdote recounted to Felix Chuev by Yakov Dzhughashvili’s son Yevgeni: see Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 245.

  16. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 209.

  17. Testimony of A. F. Sergeev to F. Chuev: Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 359.

  18. V. Semichastnyi, Bespokoinoe serdtse, p. 39.

  19. Letter to M. I. Kalinin: RGASPI, f. 78, op. 1, d. 46, p. 2.

  20. Letter of 30 November 1918: ibid., f. 86, op. 1, d. 84.

  21. GARF, f. 3316s/g, op. 64, d. 258, pp. 5 and 7.

  22. V. Alliluev, Khronika odnoi sem’i: Alliluevy. Stalin, p. 131.

  23. S. Allilueva, Dvadtsat’ pisem k drugu.

  24. RGASPI, f. 589, op. 3, d. 15904, pp. 12 and 15.

  25. Ibid., pp. 16 and 19.

  26. See above, p. 188.

  27. RGASPI, f. 5, op. 1, d. 456: 18 October 1922.

  28. Ibid., f. 558, op. 3, d. 4: B. Andreev, Zavoevanie Prirody.

  29. Iosif Stalin v ob”yatiyakh sem’i, p. 7.

  30. See above, chapters 6–7. See also S. Allilueva, Dvadtsat’ pisem k drugu, pp. 24–5.

  31. In strict terms, of course, the dacha was not Stalin’s property but the state’s.

  32. S. Allilueva, Dvadtsat’ pisem k drugu, pp. 26–9; ‘Bosco d’inverno a Zubalov’, Slavia (1997).

  33. See Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 23 for an example.

  34. A. Mikoyan, Tak bylo, p. 351.

  35. Ibid., pp. 351–2; A. Mikoyan, ‘Iz vospominaniya A. I. Mikoyana’, Sovershenno sekretno, no. 10 (1999), p. 25. There is a doubt about the date of this advice: see A. Kirilina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, p. 305.

  36. Letter of Stalin, 30 July 1922: A. Kirillina, Neizvestnyi Kirov, p. 305.

  37. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, pp. 70 and 156.

  38. I. A. Valedinskii, ‘Vospominaniya o vstrechakh s t. I. V. Stalinym’, p. 68.

  39. S. Allilueva, Dvadtsat’ pisem k drugu, p. 19.

  40. I. A. Valedinskii, ‘Vospominaniya o vstrechakh s t. I. V. Stalinym’, p. 69.

  41. Iosif Stalin v ob”yatiyakh sem’i, p. 22 ff.

  42. Ibid., pp. 22–3.

  43. Ibid., p. 19.

  44. B. Bazhanov, Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin, p. 36.

  45. RGASPI, f. 44, op. 1, d. 1, p. 417.

  46. Ibid., p. 418.

  47. Iosif Stalin v ob”yatiyakh sem’i, p. 23.

  48. Ibid., pp. 31 and 35 for letter of 1929 and 1931.

  49. Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 365. The incident probably occurred in 1928.

  50. B. Bazhanov, Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin, p. 38.

  22. Factionalist Against Factions

  1. Chetyrnadtsatyi s”ezd Vsesoyuznoi Kommunisticheskoi Partii (b), pp. 427–31 and 503.

  2. Ibid., p. 508.

  3. Ibid., pp. 274–5.

  4. Ibid., p. 455.

  5. Ibid., p. 52. This number includes probationary members.

  6. RGASPI, f. 44, op. 1, d. 5, pp. 37–8.

  7. Iosif Stalin v ob”yatiyakh sem’i, pp. 30–1.

  8. See Ye. P. Frolov’s recollection as adduced by R. Medvedev, Let History Judge, pp. 224–5.

  9. See above, p. 244.

  10. See R. Service, ‘Joseph Stalin: The Making of a Stalinist’, pp. 22–3.

  11. See G. Gill, The Origins of the Stalinist Political System, pp. 125–34.

  12. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 90.

  13. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 71.

  14. Ibid., pp. 72–3.

  15. Ibid., p. 74.

  16. Ibid., p. 69.

  17. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 90.

  18. Ibid., p. 105.

  19. Stalin v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov i dokumentov epokhi, p. 146.

  20. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 102.

  21. Ibid., pp. 103, 104, 106, 107 and 116–17.

  22. Ibid., p. 107.

  23. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 10, p. 193.

  23. Ending the NEP

  1. See J. Baberowski, Der Feind ist überall, p. 561.

  2. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 667, pp. 10–12.

  3. See J. Hughes, Stalin, Siberia and the Crisis of the NEP, p. 129.

  4. Ibid., p. 138.

  5. See A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, pp. 137–8 and 140–1.

  6. See J. Harris, The Great Urals, p. 69.

  7. See J. Baberowski, Der Feind ist überall, p. 564.

  8. See J. Baberowski, Der Rote Terror, pp. 196–7.

  9. Organisational report of the Central Committee: Pyatnadtsatyi s”ezd Veso-yuznoi Kommunisticheski Partii-(b), pp. 100–3. This number includes probationary members.

  10. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 35.

  11. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 9, pp. 136–8. The significance of these early calls for faster industrialisation was established by R. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, pp. 398–9.

  12. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 11, pp. 1–9.

  13. Pravda, 15 February 1928.

  14. See E. H. Carr and R. W. Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929, vol. 1, part 1, p. 55.

  15. Sovetskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1928–1941, p. 73.

  16. Andrei Sokolov, ‘Before Stalinism: The Defense Industry of Soviet Russia in the 1920s’, pp. 12–14.

  17. Kamenev’s summary of his conversation with N. I. Bukharin and G. Sokolnikov in Razgovory s Bukharinym, p. 32.

  18. See A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, p. 145.

  19. R. W. Davies, The Socialist Offensive, pp. 41–51.

  20. I am grateful to Mark Harrison for sharing with me his knowledge of the final crisis of the NEP.

  21. Razgovory s Bukharinym, p. 30: Kamenev’s summary of conversation with G. Sokolnikov.

  22. Ibid., p. 35: appendix to summary of conversation of L. B. Kamenev, N. I. Bukharin and G. Sokolnikov.

  23. Ibid., pp. 32–3: Kamenev’s summary of conversation with G. Sokolnikov.

  24. Ibid., pp. 30–1.

  25. Pravda, 28 September 1928. See also S. F. Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, pp. 295–6.

  26. Razgovory s Bukharinym, p. 35: summary of conversation of L. B. Kamenev, N. I. Bukharin and G. Sokolnikov.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Razgovory s Bukharinym, p. 35: appendix of summary of conversation of L. B. Kamenev, N. I. Bukharin and G. Sokolnikov.

  29. See above, p. 151.

  24. Terror-Economics

  1. See S. G. Wheatcroft and R. W. Davies, ‘Agriculture’, pp. 120–1.

  2. See M. Lewi
n, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, pp. 344–77.

  3. Pravda, 7 November 1929.

  4. See M. Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, pp. 465–77.

  5. Pravda, 29 November 1929.

  6. See A. Luukkanen, The Religious Policy of the Stalinist State, p. 57.

  7. Lubyanka. Stalin i VChK–GPU–OGPU–NKVD. Yanvar’ 1922–dekabr’ 1936, pp. 269–72.

  8. See Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, pp. 482–509.

  9. See G. A. Krasil’nikov, ‘Rozhdenie Gulaga: diskussii v verkhnikh eshelonakh vlasti’, Istoricheskii arkhiv, no. 4 (1989), p. 143.

  10. Akademicheskoe delo 1929–1931 gg., vol. 1, Delo po obvineniyu akademika S. F. Platonova, p. xlviii.

  11. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 224.

  12. See I. Getzler, Nikolai Sukhanov, pp. 143–87.

  13. B. Nahaylo and V. Swoboda, The Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR.

  14. D. Pospielovsky, The Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviet Regime, vol. 1, p. 175. See also D. Peris, Storming the Heavens: the Soviet League of the Militant Atheists; A. Luukkanen, The Religious Policy of the Stalinist State.

  15. K. Bailes, Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin: Origins of the Soviet Technical Intelligentsia, 1917–1941; N. Lampert, The Technical Intelligentsia and the Soviet State: A Study of Soviet Managers and Technicians, 1928–1935.

  16. See T. H. Rigby, Communist Party Membership, p. 52.

  17. See R. Service, A History of Twentieth-Century Russia, pp. 185–6.

  18. Pravda, 5 February 1931.

  19. Quoted from central party archives by N. N. Maslov, ‘Ob utverzhdenii ideologii stalinizma’, p. 60.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid., p. 61.

  22. Ibid.

  23. R. W. Davies, The Socialist Offensive, pp. 252–68.

  24. Pravda, 2 March 1930.

  25. See A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, p. 171.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid., p. 174.

  28. Pis’ma I. V. Stalina V. M. Molotovu, p. 194: message, no earlier than 6 August 1930.

  29. Ibid., p. 204.

  30. Stalin i Kaganovich. Perepiska. 1931–1936 gg., p. 51.

  31. Pravda, 5 February 1931.