17. Protocols of Politburo meetings; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, dd. 1–125.
18. Letter from Stalin to Lenin and Trotsky, 22 June 1918; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5403, l. 1; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 40.
19. Letter from Stalin to Lenin, 7 July 1918; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 248, l. 1; I. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 4 (Moscow, 1954), pp. 120–121.
20. Telegram from Stalin to Trotsky and Lenin, 11 July 1918; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 1812, ll. 1–2; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 42.
21. Letter from Stalin to Lenin, 3 October 1918; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5410, l. 1; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 52.
22. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5718, ll. 177, 178, 191, 195, 197.
23. Ibid., ll. 196–198.
24. Speech by Voroshilov at the Eighth Party Congress in March 1919; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 11 (1989): 160.
25. Letter from Stalin to Lenin, 31 August 1918; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5408, l. 4; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 46.
26. I. S. Rat’kovskii, Krasnyi terror i deiatel’nost’ VChK v 1918 godu (St. Petersburg, 2006), pp. 151, 170.
27. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 11 (1989): 157, 168.
28. Cited in Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 54.
29. Ibid., pp. 52–53.
30. I. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 4 (Moscow, 1947), p. 271.
31. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 50 (Moscow, 1970), p. 389.
32. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 1815, ll. 2–4; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, pp. 142–143.
33. RGASPI, f. 558. op. 1, d. 5521, l. 2. Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 148.
34. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 4137, l. 1; d. 1943, l. 1; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 155.
35. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 1961, ll. 1–2; Stalin, Works, vol. 4, p. 358.
36. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 4681, l. 1.
37. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 4458, ll. 1–3; Stalin, Works, vol. 4, pp. 360–362.
38. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 126, l. 4.
39. Ibid., op. 1, d. 5213, l. 1; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 156.
40. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 106, l. 5.
41. Ibid., ll. 3, 4.
42. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 3 (1991): 167.
43. Deviataia konferentsiia RKP(b). Protokoly (Moscow, 1972), pp. 60–61, 76–77; Iu. N. Amiantov et al., comps., V. I. Lenin. Neizvestnye dokumenty. 1891–1922 (Moscow, 1999), pp. 382, 390.
44. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 5541, ll. 1–2; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, pp. 160–161.
45. Stalin’s involvement in organizing the so-called Ukrainian Labor Army during the winter and spring of 1920 was an attempt to militarize labor by using the army as a labor force, primarily in the coal mines of Ukraine.
46. Meeting of a section of the Twelfth RKP(b) Congress on the nationalities question, 25 April 1923; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 4 (1991): 170. For a detailed account of Stalin’s work in the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities, see Jeremy Smith, “Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities,” in Stalin: A New History, ed. Sarah Davies and James Harris (New York, 2005), pp. 45–62, and V. Denningkhaus [Victor Dönninghaus], V teni “bol’shogo brata.” Zapadnye natsional’nye men’shinstva v SSSR. 1917–1938 gg. (Moscow, 2011), pp. 84–91.
47. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 234, l. 2.
48. Ibid., d. 310, l. 2.
49. Politburo resolution, 19 October 1922; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 318, l. 4.
50. Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (1886–1937) was one of Stalin’s closest friends and comrades-in-arms. In the 1920s he was a top party leader in Transcaucasia before being transferred to Moscow to take up the important post of chairman of the Party Control Commission. In this capacity he helped in Stalin’s climb to power. In the 1930s Ordzhonikidze was put in charge of Soviet heavy industry. He tried to oppose Stalin’s repression of key personnel, leading to conflict between the two men. In February 1937 Ordzhonikidze committed suicide. How he died became widely known only after Stalin’s death. See Oleg V. Khlevniuk, In Stalin’s Shadow: The Career of “Sergo” Ordzhonikidze (New York, 1995).
51. Letters from Nazaretian to Ordzhonikidze, 14 June and after 9 August 1922; RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1c, d. 13, ll. 6, 10; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, pp. 256, 257, 262, 263.
52. Letters from Nazaretian to Ordzhonikidze, 12 July and after 9 August 1922; RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1c, d. 13, ll. 7, 10; Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, pp. 259, 263.
53. Letter from Nazaretian to Ordzhonikidze after 9 August 1922; RGASPI, f. 85, op. 1c, d. 13, l. 10. Kvashonkin et al., Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo, p. 263.
54. Reminiscence by N. A. Uglanov, written in January 1925, at a time when Stalin had not yet established his sole power; Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 4 (1989): 196.
55. Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (1888–1938) was a Bolshevik leader and theoretician. He took Stalin’s side in the confrontation with Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, but after Stalin was victorious over these oppositionists, Bukharin himself became Stalin’s victim. Bukharin advocated a more moderate course and a gradual transition out of the NEP. Stalin labeled Bukharin and his supporters as “right deviationists.” The expulsion of the rightists from the party’s leadership helped Stalin solidify his dictatorship. Bukharin was arrested in 1937 and shot the following year. (See Stephen F. Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938 [New York, 1973]; Paul R. Gregory, Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina [Stanford, CA, 2010]).
56. Cited in Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 12 (1989): 198. For another version of Ulianova’s reminiscence, see Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 3 (1991): 188.
57. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 4 (1989); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 303, l. 5.
58. Cited in Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 12 (1989): 198. Maria Ulianova’s memoirs were found among her papers after her death. They were obviously not intended for publication. Their candor and confessional nature add to their credibility as a source.
59. Izvestiia TsK KPSS, no. 9 (1989): 191–216.
60. Ibid., p. 209.
61. Ibid., no. 12 (1989): 191.
62. Ibid., pp. 189, 191.
63. Cited in ibid., pp. 198–199.
64. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 45 (Moscow, 1970), p. 345.
65. Ibid., p. 346.
66. Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926) was active in the revolutionary movement in Russia and spent many years in exile, prison, and labor camps. After the revolution he headed the Emergency Commission or Cheka, the Bolsheviks’ notorious state security organization. In the 1920s, while still head of the political police, he also ran the commissariats of transport and industry. He was still active at the time of his death from heart failure.
67. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 54 (Moscow, 1975), p. 329.
68. Ibid., pp. 329–330.
69. Robert C. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929: A Study in History and Personality (New York, 1973), p. 277.