17. Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 160 (RGASPI, f. 5, op. 2, d. 263, l. 1; d. 265, l. 1–2), 162–7. Stalin was first assigned responsibility for the agitprop department on August 22, 1921; then, on September 13, 1921, the politburo resolved that he should spend three quarters of his time on party work, one quarter on Rabkrin. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 193, l. 2; d. 201, l. 5–6. See also Chuev, Sto sorok, 181, 229–30.
18. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 78, l. 7; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 267; Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 170–1; Chuev, Sto sorok, 181. For fantasies about other supposed candidates for general secretary (Ivan Smirnov, Janis Rudzutaks, Mikhail Frunze), see Pavlova, Stalinizm, 56. See also Trotskii, Stalin, II: 173–4.
19. Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 172–7.
20. Chuev, Sto sorok, 181; Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 170–1 (citing RGASPI, f. 48, op. 1, d. 21, l. 1–469); Sakharov, Na rasput’e, 95–6 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 78, l. 2, 6–7ob.; and PSS, XLV: 139). After the names of Molotov and Kuibyshev Lenin wrote “secretary.” Stalin came in tenth place in the voting for the 27, in terms of how many negative votes he received. The votes for the new Central Committee at the 11th Congress were indicative: for Lenin, 477 out of 478; for Trotsky, the same number (the last time that would happen); for Stalin, 463; for Kamenev, 454; and for Zinoviev, 448. Thus, it was not true that Kamenev or Zinoviev had higher standing in the party than Stalin.
21. XI s”ezd VKP (b), 84–5, 143; PSS, XLV: 122.
22. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 241, l. 2. In February 1922, the Profintern (trade union international) acquired a “general secretary” (Rudzutaks). RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 361, l. 15. Lenin had rebuffed Zinoviev’s request to relocate the Comintern to Petrograd; the appointment of Kuusinen (in Moscow) was a compromise.
23. Someone, evidently Lenin, blocked a suggestion at the April 3 Central Committee plenum to create a permanent Central Committee chairman (predsedatel’) above the general secretary. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 78, l. 2, 6.
24. Three days after formalizing Stalin’s appointment as general secretary, Lenin ordered a full case of German Somnacetin and Veronal from the Kremlin apothecary. Lenin, V. I. Lenin, 529 (RGASPI, f. 2, op. 1, d. 23036).
25. Volkogonov, Lenin: Life and Legacy, 412–3. Plans to find Lenin a retreat somewhere in the mountains, whether in the Caucasus or the Urals, had come to naught. Lenin, V. I. Lenin, 379, 537; Leninskii sbornik, XXXVI: 468–9; PSS, LIV: 229–30; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 2: 133–4 (RGASPI, f. 16, op. 3, d. 20); PSS, LIV: 241–2; Tsvigun, V. I. Lenin i VChK [1987], 536. Suddenly, the old Caucasus bandit Kamo (Ter-Petrosyan) popped up, vowing to protect and serve Lenin in the region. PSS, LIV: 230–1.
26. Klemperer told the New York Times that Lenin “was sick, but not seriously so,” without revealing his diagnosis. New York Times, April 4, 1922. The commissar of health wrote in the newspaper that the bullets aimed at Lenin had been dipped in curare, a poison in which Native Americans were known to have dipped their arrows—and which, if true, would have killed him back in 1918. Tumarkin, Lenin Lives!, 114 (citing Bednota, April 22, 1922: Semashko). Word of Lenin’s “poisoning,” whether from Klemperer’s bogus diagnosis or Semashko’s bogus assertions, ricocheted abroad: Rul’, March 26, March 29, June 13, June 15, June 18, June 21, July 19, August 1, and August 2, 1922.
27. Pravda, April 28, 1922.
28. Lenin’s note concerned the need to set up some model sanitoriums within 500 miles of Moscow. Lenin added as if conspiratorially (“P.S. Secret”) a directive to attend to food supply and transport for Zubalovo, where Stalin and Kamenev had state dachas and where one for Lenin was under construction. Volkogonov, Lenin: politicheskii portret, II: 34 (APRF, f. 45, op. 1, d. 694, l. 2). Kamenev and Dzierzynski were also said to have dachas in Zubalovo.
29. Vospominaniia o Vladimir Il’iche Lenine [1956–61], II: 342 (V. Z. Rozanov, “Zapiski vracha”).
30. The official account of Lenin’s activities lists the stroke as May 25–27: Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 349. See also Vospominaniia o Vladimire Il’iche Lenine [1979], III: 320; Molodaia gvardiia, 1924, no. 2–3: at 113; Fotieva, Iz zhizni, 178–9; Ogonek, 1990, no. 4: 6; PSS, LIV: 203; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 1: 215; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 2: 130–6; Trotsky, My Life [1930], 475.
31. Chuev, Sto sorok, 193.
32. For instance, in late 1921 Lenin wrote of Kamenev, “Poor fellow, weak, frightened, intimidated”—and Lenin had a relatively higher opinion of Kamenev and “loved him more” than Zinoviev (as Molotov recalled). Pipes, Unknown Lenin, 138 (December 1, 1921); Chuev, Sto sorok, 183. See also Volkogonov, Lenin: politicheskii portret, II: 61. In a preface to a collection of his writings, Lenin had inserted damning material against Zinoviev; only right before publication did he excise it (Stalin had urged Lenin to keep it in). Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 143–6.
33. Lidiya Fotiyeva took over Lenin’s personal secretariat in August 1918; by 1920, it had seven staff total (including her): five aides and two clerks. Fotiyeva’s two key underlings were Glasser and Volodicheva. Others included N. S. Krasina and N. S. Lepeshinskaya. Stalin’s wife Nadya Alliluyeva, for a time, was responsible for Lenin’s archive and the most secret documents. Rigby, Lenin’s Government, 103–5; Kolesnik, Khronika zhizni sem’i Stalina, 28; Rosenfeldt, The “Special” World, I: 123. Gorbunov (who had replaced Bonch-Bruevich) would stay on as head of the Council of People’s Commissars business directorate and private secretary under Rykov.
34. “I am a bad judge of people, I don’t understand them,” Lenin supposedly told a member of his staff, who remarked that Lenin “tried to consult with long-time comrades, with Nadezhda Konstantinova and with Maria Ilichina.” Yakov Shatunovsky, quoted in Shatunovskaia, Zhizn’ v Kremle, 36–7. “In a society where personal attachments were an integral part of social organization, Lenin’s detachment was culturally revolutionary.” Jowitt, New World Disorder, 7.
35. Mal’kov, Zapiski, 150–2, 154, 181; Bonch-Bruevich, Tri pokusheniie na V. I. Lenina, 102; McNeal, Bride of the Revolution, 185–6. It was during the fall 1918 respite among the linden trees at Gorki that Lenin wrote his slashing rebuttal to Kautsky.
36. When guests were not expected the family ate in the kitchen. The dining room door opened to Lenin’s room, which contained a writing desk in front of the window—which looked out onto Senate Square—a table, and a small bed. Vera Dridzo, Krupskaya’s secretary, was one of the few people to take meals at the apartment with the family. Dridzo, Nadezhda Konstantinova Krupskaia.
37. Zdesenko, Gorki Leninskie, 115, 144 (photo of the Rolls-Royce, with tractor treads for snow).
38. Trotsky, in cahoots with Zinoviev and Kamenev, would later claim that Stalin had schemed to isolate Lenin (an interpretation adopted by many scholars). In fact, the politburo as a whole, Trotsky included, voted for all the arrangements for Lenin’s stays at Gorki.
39. Stalin’s visits in 1922 occurred on May 30, July 10, July 30, August 5, August 9, August 15, August 19, August 23, August 30, September 12, September 19, and September 26. Ul’ianova, “Ob otnoshenii V. I. Lenina I. V. Stalina,” 198; Ul’ianova, “O Vladimire Il’iche,” no. 4: 187. Kamenev visited four times: July 14, August 3, August 27, and September 13; Bukharin visited four times: July 16, September 20, September 23, and September 25; and Zinoviev visited twice, August 1 and September 2. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 12: 200–1.
40. Valentinov, Novaia eknomicheskaia politika, 46–53.
41. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 3: 183–7; Volkogonov, Lenin: Life and Legacy, 411–2 (citing APRF, f. 3, op. 22, d. 307, l. 136–7).
42. Izvestiia, TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 3: 185.
43. “You’re being sly?” Lenin said, according to Maria’s account. “When did you ever know me to be sly?” Stalin retorted, in her account. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 12: 197–8.
44. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 3: 198.
45. Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 132–3; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1991, no. 3: 121 (politburo collective letter of December 31, 1923); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 209, l. 9–11 (January 1, 1926, plenum). “M. I. Ul’ianova ob otnoshenii V. I. Lenina i I. V. Stalina,” Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 12: 196–9 (at 197); RGASPI, f. 14, op. 1, d. 398, l. 1–8. Emelyan Yaroslavsky, the Stalin loyalist, recalled that Lenin “had become fatally tired” of Trotsky and his relentless public polemics over doctrine and policy. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 4: 189.
46. Pipes, Unknown Lenin, 124 (March 13, 1921).
47. On June 16, 1921, the politburo took up the question of Trotsky’s transfer to Ukraine as food supply commissar. Trotsky refused to accept the politburo’s decision, which accelerated the summoning of a Central Committee plenum to discuss the issue. Trotsky, in the meantime, telephoned Cristian Rakovski, party boss of Ukraine, who supposedly told him that all measures to bring grain into Ukraine were already under way. Documents that Lenin was receiving contradicted this picture, however. Lenin and Trotsky met between July 16 and July 23 for a series of extended discussions. On July 27, 1921, Lenin, again receiving Trotsky, backed down. The two reached some sort of compromise regarding Trotsky’s behavior. Trotsky remained in charge of the Soviet military. Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 135–42 (citing Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1990, no. 7: 187; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 190, l. 4; Voprosy istorii, 1989, no. 8: 138–9; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XI: 105–6; Leninskii sbornik, XXXIX: 359; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 71, l. 5, 24; f. 2, op. 1, d. 200015, l. 1–1ob, 5, 24–5; and PSS, LIV: 148).
48. Chuev, Sto sorok, 193. See also Ulam, Stalin, 207–9; and Service, Stalin, 189–90.
49. Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 357; Fotieva, Iz zhizni, 183–4. On June 13, 1922, Lenin was evidently well enough to be moved from the compound’s auxiliary building (fligel’) to the main manor house, but the next day he had a spasm of the blood vessels in his head, and told Kozhevnikov, “So, that’s it. It’ll be a stroke.” Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 353–4; Volkogonov, Lenin, 414. On June 18, Pravda published a bulletin indicating he was feeling fine, albeit chafing under the physicians’ restrictive regime.
50. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 2: 198–200; Volkogonov, Lenin: politicheskii portret, II: 23–5.
51. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 12: 197–8; Volkogonov, Trotskii, II: 23.
52. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 2397, l. 1.
53. PSS, LIV, 273; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 359. The July 18 letter to Stalin has an enigmatic opening: “I thought through your answer very thoroughly and I do not agree with you.” What this concerns remains unclear.
54. Lenin, V. I. Lenin, 547; Volkogonov, Lenin: Life and Legacy, 257 (citing RGASPI. f. 2, op. 1, d. 25996, l. 1).
55. Volkogonov, Lenin: Life and Legacy, 416 (citing APRF, f. 3, op. 22, d. 307, l. 23). Those in attendance were Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Tomsky, Molotov, Zinoviev, Rykov, Radek, Buhkharin, and Chubar.
56. Mikoyan, “Na Severnom Kavkaze,” 202. See also Pravda, August 6, 1922.
57. Fotieva, Iz zhizni, 285–6.
58. Lenin, V. I. Lenin 548–9 (RGASPI, f. 2, op. 1, d. 26002); RGASPI, f. 5, op. 2, d. 275, l. 4–6; XII s”ezd RKP (b), 198; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 816, l. 37–43, 49. Kamenev, head of the Moscow soviet and of the Moscow party organization, was already, informally, the principal substitute for Lenin in the government. Rigby, Lenin’s Government, 201.
59. RGASPI, f. 5, op. 2, d. 275, l. 4–6; Fel’shtinskii, Kommunisticheskaia oppozitsiia v SSSR, I: 11.
60. Volkogonov surmises that Lenin expected and hoped Trotsky would decline, especially given that Lenin chose not to get a politburo decision and enforce party discipline on Trotsky after his refusal (in this instance). Volkogonov, Trotskii, II: 23–4. Sakharov, otherwise a careful scholar, also speculates that Lenin wanted Trotsky to refuse, which is not documented. Sakharov, Na rasput’e, 98; Sakharov, Politicheskoe zaveshchanie, 190–1.
61. Lenin, V. I. Lenin, 548–9; Pipes, Unknown Lenin, 171, 174 (Lenin letter to Stalin with markings, a facsimile, 172–3); Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, 464, 466–7.
62. Deutscher, Prophet Unarmed, 30–1.
63. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 312, l. 4; f. 5, op. 2, d. 275, l. 4–6.
64. Stalin would soon make Trotsky’s refusal public at the 12th Congress: XII s”ezd RKP (b), 198.
65. Sochineniia, V: 134–6.
66. Karaganov, Lenin, I: 382; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 371.
67. Lenin indulged requests to allow a photographer (P. A. Otsup) to record the event with a group picture for posterity, albeit only after the agenda had been completed. Karaganov, Lenin, I: 400–2; Vospominaniia o Vladimire Il’iche Lenine, IV: 446; Pravda, October 4, 1922.
68. Naumov, “1923 god,” 36; Volkogonov, Lenin: Life and Legacy, 257 (citing RGASPI, f. 2, op. 2, d. 1239, l. 1); Volkogonov, Lenin: politicheskii portret, II: 24. Lenin’s response is undated; Naumov speculates it was produced after October 2, 1922, when Lenin returned to Moscow.
69. PSS, XLV: 245–51; Izvestiia, November 1, 1922; Fotieva, Iz zhizni, 231–2. On November 1, 1922, Lenin held a meeting in his Kremlin office with a triumvirate: Stalin (party apparatus), Kamenev (government), and Zinoviev (Comintern). Leninskii sbornik, XXIX: 435; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 454.
70. PSS, XLV: 270. At the official anniversary celebration in the Bolshoi, an aluminum likeness of Marx and Engels made by a Moscow factory was presented as a gift for Lenin. Izvestiia, November 9, 1922; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 466–7.
71. PSS, XLV: 278–94; Leninskii sbornik, XXXIX: 440; Vospominaniia o Vladimire Il’iche Lenine [1979], V: 452, 459–61, 462–3, 468–9, 472–3; Voprosy istorii KPSS, no. 9: 41–3.
72. Pavliuchenkov, “Orden mechenostsev,” 195–6 (citing RGASPI, f. 4, op. 2, d. 1197, l. 1); PSS, XLV: 30–9; Leninskii sbornik, XXXIX: 440; Vospominaniia o Vladimire Il’iche Lenine [1979], IV: 452–3; Kvashonkin, Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, 268–9 (RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1/S, d. 13, l. 8–9: Nazaretyan to Orjonikidze, Nov. 27, 1922).
73. Chervinskaia, Lenin, u rulia strany Sovetov, II: 240–1 (B. M. Bolin).
74. Rosmer, Moscou sous Lenine, 231. See also Lewin, Lenin’s Last Struggle, 33–4.
75. Pravda, November 21, 1922; PSS, XLV: 300–1; Lenin, V. I. Lenin, 566–73 (full transcript).
76. PSS, XLV: 457.
77. Pravda, January 21, 1927; Golikov, Vladimir Il’ich Lenin, XII: 509; PSS, XLV: 463; Bessonova, Biblioteka V. I. Lenina, 56; Fotieva, Iz zhizni, 240; Izvestiia, December 1, 1922.
78. Boffa, The Stalin Phenomenon.
79. Chuev, Sto sorok, 381.
80. Sering, Die Umwalzung der osteuropaischen Agrarverfassung, 5–6 (italics mine).
CHAPTER 10: DICTATOR
1. Chuev, Tak govoril Kaganovich, 190–1; Chuev, Kaganovich, 263.
2. He went on to note that “this year’s harvest is patchy and, as a whole, well below expectations: it is probable that even the estimates of a couple of months ago will prove too high. Prospects for next year are not brilliant.” Bourne and Watt, British Documents on Foreign Affairs, VII: 376 (undated, date deduced from content).
3. L. D. Trotskii, “Kak moglo eto sluchit’sia?” in Trotskii, Chto i kak proizoshlo, 25–36 (at 25); Trotsky, Stalin, 393. See also Trotsky, My Life, 512. Eugene Lyons, the sympathetic left-leaning American correspondent, would grant Stalin possession only of “the tawdry talents of the ward-politician raised to the dimension of near-genius,” not understanding that this was a very high compliment. Lyons, Stalin, 159.
4. E. O Preobrazhenskii, “Stranitsa iz ego zhizni,” Pravda, March 18, 1919: 2. See also Duval, “The Bolshevik Secretariat”; Duval, �
��Yakov M. Sverdlov.”
5. On the various demands from regional party committees to the center, see Service, Bolshevik Party in Revolution, 277–95.
6. On March 18, 1919, the day of the interment of Sverdlov’s ashes in the Kremlin Wall, Lenin said at a meeting in the Metropole Hotel, “The work which he performed alone in the sphere of organization, the selection of people, their appointment to responsible posts according to all varied specializations—that work will now be possible only if each of the large-scale branches that comrade Sverdlov oversaw by himself will be handled by whole groups of people, proceeding in his footsteps, coming near to doing what this one man did alone.” PSS, XXXVIII: 79. See also Lenin’s obituary for Sverdlov: Pravda, March 20, 1919.
7. Trotsky claimed credit for Kalinin’s nomination. Trotskii, Portrety revoliutsionerov, 182 (Trotsky letter to Lunacharsky, April 14, 1926). The Congress of Soviets, which convened once a year, possessed even less authority than had the tsarist Duma. The best analysis of the real structure of the new authority can be found in Vishniak, Le regime sovietiste. In theory, the Council of People’s Commissars answered to the central executive committee of the Soviet, which, formally, possessed the right to form the Council of People’s Commissars and its commissariats (July 1918 constitution, article 35). The Council of People’s Commissars was tasked with issuing decrees and regulations (articles 37, 38), but the central executive committee was supposed to approve such decrees; the Council of People’s Commissars was also supposed to report, weekly, on its activities to the CEC (Avdeev, Revoliutsiia 1917 goda, VI: 167). In practice, the Council of People’s Commmissars behaved as a sovereign entity. Sverdlov, indiscreetly but accurately, had once revealed at a meeting of the central executive committee that the Council of People’s Commissars was “not only an executive body as has been claimed; it is legislative, executive and administrative.” Zasedanie vserossiiskogo tsentral’nogo ispolnitel’nogo komiteta 4-go sozyva, 66–77. Mikhail Vladimirsky was acting chairman of the CEC March 16–30, 1919.
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