“Who
Killed Kirov – The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery” by Amy
Knight, 1999
Forget
all those random detective series. Like the assassinations of Olaf
Palme, Dag Hammarskjold, Malcolm X, MLK, Paul Wellstone, Huey Long
and the Kennedy's, political assassinations actually mean something
on a broader scale. The killing of Sergei Kirov in December 1934 is
such an event, as it led to the liquidation of the leading elements
of the Bolshevik Party. Associates of Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev
and the “Leningrad Center” were first accused of the
assassination, after which they lost their position in the Party, and
later their heads. It led to the 1930's purge trials, executions and
imprisonment of ten's of thousands of top 'Old Bolshevik' cadre, to
be replaced by hand-picked supporters of the new Party leadership.
I've
been to Kirov's fourth floor apartment museum in the Petrograd District of St. Petersburg
tended by some old ladies. It contained his vast collection of
books, his hunting gear and guns, his expansive work / dining table
and a picture of him, Stalin and Kirov's good friend Sergo
Ordzhonikidze
on one high wall.
Knight used Russian archives that were first made available after
1991. These help reveal who is the most likely candidate for
murderer. Knight is no leftist, but she is a reporter and
researcher. This is her analysis.
There
are several theories on the December 1, 1934 assassination. #1) Disgruntled,
unemployed individual, Leonid Nikolaev. #2) A dastardly plot by the
Zinovievites, Kamenev and later Bukharin. This was the Party line at
the time. #3) An NKVD assassination orchestrated by Stalin. In 1988
the Soviet Union legally rejected the Zinoviev plot thesis though the murder had been in review since 1955. Re #1,
even if it was true, it did not justify the subsequent bloodletting
and destruction of the actual Bolshevik Party, turning it into a
bureaucratic hierarchy. Later Soviet commissions zig-zagged over Stalin's responsibility depending on who was in power, with one in 1960 saying Stalin was behind the murder. Knight examines the possible logic behind
#3.
Caught
in a Vice
Kirov
was a self-educated intellectual, tireless worker, a popular speaker
and personality. He was assigned to police Leningrad by Stalin
against the supporters of Nicolai Bukharin, who wanted to continue
the NEP. Bukharin opposed Stalin's plans for forced
collectivization, grain requisitions, deportations and breaking the
'scissors' with the peasants, as a 'war on the kulaks' was becoming a
war on the peasantry. Kirov himself sympathized with Bukharin's
position and went 'easy' on his Leningrad comrades in 1929, which put
him in disfavor in Moscow. The Leningrad District lagged far behind
other areas in collectivization because Kirov refused to use force.
He held to this idea through 1934.
However
Kirov was also a sometimes Stalinist. He initiated the decimation of
the Leningrad Academy of Sciences, which later led to prison
sentences and executions – though he might not have expected that.
After being assigned to the Politburo he denounced the Bukarinites as
'capitalist restorationists' but still stayed on friendly terms with
them. The brutal construction of the Baltic-White Sea Canal with
prison labor was also carried out under his watch, though one
journalist reported that Kirov was against its use of forced labor.
The secret police OPGU was in direct command. In another instance he
publicly maintained theft from kolkhozs or cooperative stores should
be punished by death, then criticized local police for putting 'half
of Russia in jail.' Similarly, while supporting expelling Martem'ium
Riutin from the Party in 1932 for his group's Left criticisms of Stalin,
in the Politburo he publicly opposed executing him. That, however,
was Stalin's proposal. Kirov began to suffer from various physical
complaints – heart, fatigue, nerves, etc. due to the conflicted
situation in the Party, country and no doubt himself.
So
Kirov was someone who 'wobbled' on the issue of brutality. Stalin's
method of showing 'comradeship' towards people like Bukharin in 1935
only hid his future plans. This might also have been true of Kirov
after he publicly opposed him in the Politburo. Kirov himself heard
a tirade by Stalin at a dinner in 1926, where Stalin maintained that
what Russia's people wanted was a new 'Tsar,' so he was not clueless
about Stalin's goals. Kirov was not the only Party leader who was
ambivalent about the 'great leader.'
Many
old Bolsheviks wanted Stalin gone, especially at the Seventeenth Congress in 1934. Kirov was their suggested replacement at a private
meeting and Stalin found out about it. At the 1934 Seventeenth Congress you will be surprised to learn that actual votes were taken
by delegates for members in the Central Committee. Current U.S.
'Marxist-Leninist' groups won't even vote on who will be their coffee
mule. However in this case some votes were not counted, negative
votes against Stalin disappeared and still Kirov was within one vote
of Stalin. At that same Congress Kirov warned about the threat of
fascism in Germany and Japan and advocated preparing for invasions.
Stalin was mulling a bloc with Hitler, but later endorsed an
anti-fascist 'popular' front. So there were many 'rubs' in Stalin's
relations with Kirov.
|
Kirov was actually shot from behind |
Questions
In
late 1934 Kirov had 9 NKVD bodyguards. On December 1, the day he was
killed, all but one guard were downstairs from his third floor office in the Smolny. The last bodyguard, M.D. Borisov, was down
the hall when Kirov was supposedly shot by Nikolaev. As Knight
notes, facts from official reports and witnesses contrasted and some
'official facts' were inaccurate. There were other people in the
hallway and offices, yet the NKVD did not interview witnesses or
secure the area. One key person disappeared. Stalin, between the
short period of time of hearing of the murder and boarding a train
for Leningrad, had time to draft a new penal code procedure. It was:
10 day investigation; charges conveyed to
defendant 24 hours before trial; case heard without defendant or his
counsel; no clemency appeals allowed; death sentence carried out
immediately. So
it was a form of summary justice. A convenient ruling. He
immediately told witnesses that a 'Zinovievite' was the killer.
This murder
led to almost 2 million executed or sent to labor camps in the Great
Purges.
Leningrad
NKVD officers, especially those guarding Kirov, were lightly punished for negligence, including prior times they questioned
Nikolaev without searching him - though he had a gun on him. Oddly
the 2 bullets and cartridges were not compared to Nicolaev's Nagant
revolver. Somehow Nikolaev got past the third floor guard station, which would have required a party card and an
employee pass, neither of which he had at the time. Prior to this Kirov had
an office right next to the guard desk but his office was moved way down the hall and around a corner. Nor
was it known by anyone except the NKVD that Kirov would be in the
building that day, which was not a regular work day. Nicolaev was immediately taken by the NKVD after
the murder, as he was still alive. He was repeatedly hysterical, then
mute, a 5-foot bag of bones dressed in shabby clothing according to
witnesses. Yet a possibly fabricated written 'plot' plan was found
on him by the NKVD. Not one witness actually saw the death shot, or
said they did.
The
next day Borisov, held by the NKVD along with the other guards, was
told he was going to be interviewed by Stalin and 30 minutes later
was returned dead to the NKVD medical unit. The stories vary - some
said he was thrown from the van; a doctor said he had two contusions
on his skull; another that the driver purposely slammed into a wall;
another that it was 'just an accident' even though the guard in the
back of the van was not hurt.
The
'Plot' Sickens
From
there, people associated with Nikolaev were arrested as part of a
terrorist cell called the 'Leningrad Center,' especially if they were
Zinovievites or had prior contact with Trotskyists. Nikolaev had been
a Party member and had worked in the Peasant's Inspectorate but was
thrown out and lost his job. The NKVD used forced confessions
with fabrications or torture to patch together a plot. After
Stalin's arrival, their plot line changed from 'lone nut' to
conspiracy triggerman. An hour after sentencing 14 defendants were
shot. Family members were either executed later or sent to labor
camps.
|
Zinoviev prison photo |
The
dragnet spread to a 'terrorist' “Moscow Center” as Zinoviev and
Kamenev were arrested and tried in 1935. At first there was no
evidence, but the NKVD got someone to rat, fabricated confessions and
suddenly there was a 'case.' The group was accused of “political
and moral responsibility for the murder of Kirov.” If this
seems laughable, it's not. Stalin considered the group 'White
Guards' but only had them jailed for 5-10 years at this point. He
then wrote that all left oppositionists had to be put behind bars.
The terror had begun.
One
Leningrad NKVD officer, Medved, after talking with Stalin, told his
brother-in-law that Stalin knew 'Yagoda and Zaporozhets' were
behind the killing – both top NKVD officers. The NKVD officers
initially 'punished' by prison in Kolyma had it easy – good
positions, quarters and were able to bring family - as if their
sentencing was for show. Ultimately Knight concludes that what
happened in that corridor that day is suspect on many levels –
another shooter, the NKVD using Nicolaev and getting him in the
corridor, the delay of his guard Borisov, the shabby investigation,
missing evidence, dead witnesses. She contends: “The crucial
issue is whether Stalin had a reason for ordering the murder of
Kirov.” The answer to that question is obvious because of
their many political differences – yes.
Already in
late December, 1934 books started appearing lionizing Kirov as
a secular saint, serving Stalin's purpose in the purges.
Ordzhonikidze, Kirov's good friend, was most shattered by the
killing and aftermath. Any opposition to Stalin's opinion was now
punishable by death or gulag. He could not help friends caught up in
the dragnet. One of his best Party friends committed suicide over the
oppression. He followed in 1937 after many disagreements
with Stalin's method of executing so-called industrial 'wreckers' and shot himself.
Kirov's wife received condolences from
Bukharin. Bukharin followed many others' fates in 1938 by being
executed after a fake trial. The rest of the book discusses the
reaction of the workers in Leningrad, their disbelief in the official
story, and Stalin's war on Leningrad as a nest of subversives,
arresting or exiling 90,000 people. Many of Kirov's Leningrad Party
allies were demoted, then denounced as enemies. Knight reports that
later Bukharin realized Stalin was behind the murder, retailed in
conversations in Paris with an exiled friend. When his name was associated with the 'plotters' and Trotsky as the 'master-string puller,' he knew where things were headed. Stalinist NKVD Chief Yagoda was also executed along with Bukharin, Rykov and others for being part of a "Zinovievite-Trotskyite" terrorist group.
A
true and riveting tale only sketched here. If
all these facts remind you of other political assassinations,
congratulations. A patsy, bad police work, missing facts, a
government's suspicious narrative, a captive press, witness killings,
a moved office, corrupt cops, a useful outcome – its all there.
Prior
blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to
investigate our 17 year archive, using these terms: “JFK,
Malcolm X, MLK, Wellstone, Huey Long, Olaf Palme or “Petrograd
District – Monday,” “Radek,” “Fear” (Rybakov); “Beethoven
and Shostakovich” (Woods); “Lenin's Last Struggle” (Lewin);
“The Struggle for Power” (Vilkova); “Soviet Fates and Lost
Alternatives” (Cohen); “Dear Comrades,” “The Ghost of Stalin”
(Sartre); “Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth?” “Did Someone Say
Totalitarianism? (Zizek); “October” (Mieville).
May
Day Books as many volumes on the USSR.
And
I got it at the Public Library!
Red
Frog / April 19, 2024