39. Erik van Ree, “Reluctant Terrorists? Transcaucasian Social-Democracy, 1901–1909,” Europe-Asia Studies 40, no. 1 (2008); Suny, Stalin and the Russian Revolutionary Movement, ch. 9.
40. Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, p. 254.
41. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 896, l. 115.
42. For more details on the heist, see Montefiore, Young Stalin. See also Suny, Stalin and the Russian Revolutionary Movement, ch. 11. Miklos Kun has uncovered some evidence that Stalin assisted in the preparations for Kamo’s operation (Stalin, pp. 77–79).
43. Documents from Boris Nicolaevsky’s archive published by Iu. G. Fel’shtinskii and G. I. Cherniavskii in Voprosy istorii, no. 7 (2010): 34, and no. 9 (2010): 11.
44. Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, p. 292.
45. Z. I. Peregudova, Politicheskii sysk Rossii (1880–1917 gg.) (Moscow, 2000), pp. 242–274.
46. Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, pp. 329–330.
47. Cited in Peregudova, Politicheskii sysk Rossii, p. 246.
48. Roman Vatslavovich Malinovsky (1876–1918) was a metalworker, labor union activist, and member of the Bolshevik party who enjoyed Lenin’s special patronage. In 1912 he was elected to the State Duma and in 1913 became chairman of the Duma’s Bolshevik faction. Meanwhile, he served many years as a police double agent. Under threat of exposure, he fled Russia in 1914. In 1918 he returned to Soviet Russia hoping to be pardoned. Instead, he was shot.
49. These letters were opened by the police and therefore survive in police archives. Copies of them are also in the Stalin Collection (Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, pp. 396–398; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1288, ll. 12–14, 18, 28, 32–35).
50. Letter to Roman Malinovsky in late November 1913.
51. Letter to T. A. Slavotinskaia, dated 20 November 1913.
52. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 52, l. 1; Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, pp. 402–403.
53. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5394, ll. 2–3; A. V. Kvashonkin et al., comps., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska. 1912–1927 (Moscow, 1996), p. 19.
54. Ia. M. Sverdlov, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, (Moscow, 1957), vol. 1, p. 227.
55. A. S. Allilueva, Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1946), p. 115.
56. In Sergei Khrushchev, ed., Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, vol. 2: Reformer (University Park, PA, 2006), p. 132. Translation slightly edited.
57. Sverdlov, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, vol. 1, p. 280.
58. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1288, ll. 15–16; B. S. Ilizarov, Tainaia zhizn’ Stalina (Moscow, 2002), pp. 289, 291, 294–297; Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, p. 393.
59. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 773, ll. 79–82; Ilizarov, Tainaia zhizn’ Stalina, pp. 297–298.
60. In any event, Stalin soon ceased to have anything to do with Pereprygina. After he left exile she married and was later widowed with eight children (Ilizarov, Tainaia zhizn’ Stalina, p. 310).
61. Letter to O. Ye. Allilueva dated 25 November 1915. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 55, l. 2; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 21.
62. Trotsky, Stalin, vol. 1, pp. 248–249.
63. Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, pp. 17–20; Ostrovskii, Kto stoial za spinoi Stalina?, pp. 397–401, 412–413, 415.
64. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 54, l. 1.
65. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 49 (Moscow, 1970), pp. 101, 161.
The Bulwarks of Stalin’s Power
1. There is a tradition that views Stalin’s final illness and death as the result of a poisoning organized by Beria. One of the most recent attempts to assess the medical evidence for this view can be found in Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov, Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953 (New York, 2003).
The basic events of Stalin’s last days can be retraced by drawing on multiple sources. In addition to the well-known reminiscences of Khrushchev, who was among the leaders that kept watch over the dying Stalin (Sergei Khrushchev, ed., Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, vol. 1: Commissar [University Park, PA, 2004], pp. 147–149), new sources have appeared, including accounts by Stalin’s bodyguards recorded by Dmitri Volkogonov and Edvard Radzinsky (Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy [New York, 1991], pp. 571–572; Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia’s Secret Archives [New York, 1997], pp. 566–572). Here I make use of all three publications.
2. Here and below, on the topic of the Main Guard Directorate, see RGASPI, f. 17, op. 166, d. 858, ll. 2–20. It is unclear from the documents in question whether this information applies to all of Stalin’s dachas or only to the one in Volynskoe. In any case, the guards and servants were primarily concentrated at the Volynskoe dacha, where Stalin lived.
3. S. V. Deviatov et al., Garazh osobogo naznacheniia. 1921–2011 (Moscow, 2011), pp. 162–163.
4. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 9, l. 54; V. N. Khaustov et al., comps., Lubianka. Stalin i VChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD. Ianvar’ 1922–dekabr’ 1936 (Moscow, 2003), pp. 255–256.
5. According to a report by senior officials of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) to Stalin, the agent was prevented from making an attempt on Stalin’s life by an undercover OGPU agent who had infiltrated the organization and was accompanying the foreign agent. Under interrogation, the foreign agent stated that during an initial attempt he was simply unable to grab his revolver, which was hidden deep under his clothing. The rather large security detail accompanying Stalin prevented him from making a second attempt. (“Zapiska OGPU Stalinu. 18 noiabria 1931 g.,” Istochnik, no. 3 [1996]: 161–162; Khaustov et al., Lubianka. Stalin i VChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD, p. 286.)
6. Gosudarstvennaia okhrana Rossii. 1881–2006 (exhibition catalogue) (Moscow, 2006), pp. 47–49.
7. Sergei Mironovich Kirov (1886–1934) was a Russian revolutionary and Civil War figure. In 1921–1926 he served as party chief in Azerbaijan. His career benefited from his years as one of Stalin’s clients in Transcaucasia and the personal friendship that developed between the two. In 1926, after the crushing of the opposition, Kirov was appointed to replace Zinoviev as head of the Leningrad party organization, a position that led to his elevation to candidate member of the Politburo. On 1 December 1934 he was killed by a lone gunman. It was long believed that Kirov’s murder was arranged by Stalin, but most historians have since rejected this possibility.
8. Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik (1896–1967) was born into a peasant family in Belarus, received an elementary-school education, and later supported himself as an unskilled laborer. He fought in the tsarist army during World War I and later joined the Red Army. In 1919 he went to work for state security, where he rose through the ranks. The numerous vacancies created by the mass arrests of 1937–1938 accelerated Vlasik’s career. In 1952 he was arrested, and two years after Stalin’s death he was sentenced to ten years in exile. He was pardoned in 1956.
9. After a lengthy investigation, the soldier was shot in 1950.
10. S. V. Deviatov et al., Moskovskii Kreml’ v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (Moscow, 2010), pp. 161, 164–167.