On 2 December 1934, 'Pravda' announced that:
On 3 December 1934, it was announced that:
On the evening of 1 December, a high-level delegation, consisting of three members of the Political Bureau - Stalin, Kliment VOROSHILOV*, Vyacheslav MOLOTOV* - and Andrey ZHDANOV* set out from Moscow to head the investigation into Kirov's murder. Lower-level members of the delegation included Aleksandr KOSAREV*, General Secretary of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol), Genrikh YAGODA* , USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, and Yakov AGRANOV*, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. The delegates from Moscow reached Leningrad
A vital witness in the case was clearly the head of Kirov's personal bodyguard, a man named BORISOV:
During the day (2 December):
Stalin left Leningrad on 4 December to return to Moscow,
On the evening of 1 December 1934, the day of Kirov’s murder:
On 4 December 1934:
(1934) Yakov Agranov, as temporary head of the Leningrad NKVD:
Ivan BAKAYEV*, Zinoviev's former Leningrad security police chief, and Grigory YEVDOKIMOV*, Kirov's predecessor as Leningrad 1st Secretsry, were:
On 28-29 December 1934, the trial took place of Nikolayev, Kotolnyov and 10 other defendants accused of conspiracy to murder Kirov:
In January 1935 it was announced that further investigation had produced:
The defendant Yevdokimov admitted in court:
On 23 January 1935,
The convicted police officials were in fact treated very leniently:
The Yenukidze Affair (see Report No. 12) in the summer of 1935, involved:
Leon TROTSKY and his son Leon SEDOV* were indicted in absentia:
ZINOVIEV: Yes, by our centre.
VYSHINSKY: In that centre there were you, Kamenev, Smirnov, Mrachovsky and Ter-Vaganyan?
ZINOVIEV: Yes.
VYSHINSKY: So you all organised the assassination of Kirov?
ZINOVIEV: Yes".
('Report' (1936): ibid.; p. 44-45).
"VYSIIINSKY: Was the murder of Sergei Mironoviuch Kirov prepared by the centre?
YEVDOKIMOV: Yes.
VYSHINSKY: You personally took part in these preparations?
YEVDOKIMOV: Yes.
VYSHINSKY: Did Zinoviev and Kamenev participate with you in the preparations?
YEVDOKIMOV: Yes".
('Report' (1936): op. cit.; p. 49).
"VYSHINSKY (TO KAMENEV): Did you give instructions to make preparations for the assassination of Kirov?
KAMENEV: Yes, in the autumn. .The terrorist conspiracy was organised by myself, Zinoviev and Trotsky. . .In June 1934 I myself went to Leningrad . . . to prepare an attempt on the life of Kirov parallel with the Nikolayev-Kotolynov group. .
VYSHINSKY: Was Kirov's assassination directly the work of your hands?
KAMENEV: Yes".
('Report' (1936): ibid.; p. 46, 65, 67).
YEVDOKIMOV: Yes, I deceived the court
('Report' (1936): op. cit.; p. 47).
"VYSHINSKY: Are you telling the whole truth now?
ZINOVIEV: Now I am telling the whole truth to the end.
VYSHINSKY: Remember that on January 15-16 1935, at
the session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court, you also asserted
that you were telling the whole truth.
ZINOVIEV: Yes, On January 15-16 I did not tell the whole truth.
VYSHINSKY: You did not tell the truth, but you maintained
that you were telling the truth".
('Report' (1936): op. cit.; p. 72).
BAKAYEV: Yes. . . .
VYSHINSKY: Nikolayev told you that he had decided to assassinate S. M. Kirov, didn't he?
BAKAYEV: He did. .
VYSHINSKY: Did you take part in the assassination of Comrade Kirov?
BAKAYEV: Yes. .
VYSHINSKY: You were the organiser of the assassination of Kirov?
BAKAYEV: Well, yes, but I was not the only one".
('Report' (1936): op. cit.; p. 49, 61, 62).
YEVDOKIMOV: I don't consider it possible to plead for clemency. Our crimes against the proletarian state and against the international revolutionary movement are too great to make it possible for us to expect clemency. . .
BAKAYEV: I am guilty of the assassination of Kirov. I took a direct part in the preparation of other terroristic acts against the leaders of the Party and the government. .
KAMENEV: I, together with Zinoviev and Trotsky, was the organiser and leader of a terrorist plot which planned and prepared a number of terroristic attempts on the lives of the leaders of the government and Party of our country, and which carried out the assassination of Kirov.
ZINOVIEV: I admit that I am fully and completely guilty . . . of having been an organiser of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc second only to Trotsky, the bloc which set itself the aim of assassinating Stalin, Voroshilov and a number of other leaders of the Party and the government. I plead guilty to having been principal organiser of the assassination of Kirov. .
TER-VAGANYAN: I bow my
head in guilt before the Court and say:
whatever your decision may be, however stern your
verdict, I accept it as deserved.
('Report' (1936): ibid.; p. 165-73).
At the second public treason trial in January 1937:
VYSHINSKY: Do I understand you rightly: it was not enough to have killed Comrade Kirov, others must be killed also?
RADEK: Either abandon terrorism altogether, or start seriously organising mass terrorist acts which would give rise to a situation bringing us nearer to power. . Trotsky's directive concerning terrorist acts, group acts, arrived in January 1936. .
VYSHINSKY: In the second half of 1935, . . . were preparations being made in your midst for a group terrorist act?
RADEK: Yes, there were. .
When the question arose against whom terrorism should
be directed.. . .
I . . did not have the slightest doubt that the acts
were to be directed against Stalin and his immediate colleagues, against
Kirov, Molotov, Voroshilov and KAGANOVICH*".
(Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet
Trotskyite Centre; Moscow; 1937; p. 72, 74, 77, 89).
In February 1937:
YAGODA: I gave instructions
VYSHINSKY: To whom?
YAGODA: To Zaporozhets in Leningrad. . . . Zaporozhets came to Moscow and reported that a man had been detained. . . .
VYSHINSKY: In whose brief-case. . .
YAGODA: There was a revolver and a diary. And he released him. . . .
VYSHINSKY: And then you gave instructions not to place obstacles in the way of the murder of Sergei Mironovich Kirov?.
YAGODA: Yes, I did.. . . .
YAGODA: In 1934, in the summer, Yenukidze informed
me that the centre of the 'bloc of Rights and Trotskyites' had adopted
a decision to organise the assasination of Kirov. . . . Yenukidze insisted
that I was not to place any obstacles in the way; the terrorist act, he
said, would be carried out by the Trotskyite-Zinovievite group. Owing to
this, I was compelled to instruct Zaporozhets, who occupied the post of
Assistant Chief of the Regional Administation of the People's Commissariat
of Internal Affairs, not to place any obstacles in the way of the terrorist
act against Kirov. Some time later Zaporozhets informed me that the organs
the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs had detained Nikolayev, in
whose possession a revolver and a chart of the route Kirov usually took
had been found. Nikolayev was released, Soon after that Kirov was assassinated
by this very Nikolayev".
('Report'(1938): ibid.; p. 376, 572-73).
In his secret speech to the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, the revisionist First Secretary of the CPSU Nikita KHRUSHCHEV* recounted a garbled version of the murder of Kirov in such a way as to imply that Stalin had been responsible for organising it:
In October 1961, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev again referred (this time publicly) to 'suspicious' features of the murder of Kirov:
" . . . transparent hints"
(Sevetlana Alliluyeva: 'Twenty
Letters to a Friend'; London; 1968; p.147.
"The Commission's report has
never been made public".
(Alan Bullock: 'Hitler and Stalin:
Parallel Lives'; London; 1991; p. 520).
The Myth of Stalin's Involvement (1953-94)
"Stalin and Kirov were allies
and . . . Kirov's death was not the occasion for any change in policy .
. . .
Virtually no evidence suggests
that Kirov favoured or advocated any specific policy line other than Stalin's
General Line. . . .
Stalin chose Kirov for the sensitive
Leningraad party leadership position and trusted him with delicate 'trouble-shooter'
missions".
(J. Arch Getty: op. cit.; p.
92, 93, 94).
To sum up.
" . . . neither the sources,
circumstances nor consequences of the crime suggest Stalin's complicity.
. . . There is no good reason to believe that Stalin connived at Kirov's
assassination".
(J. Arch Getty: op. cit.; p.
210).
Conclusion
SERGEI KIROV WAS MURDERED BY A GROUP OF REVISIONIST CONSPIRATORS WHO WERE CORRECTLY FOUND GUILTY AT THEIR TRIALS IN 1936-38.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT STALIN WAS INVOLVED IN THE MURDER OR HAD ANY MOTIVE FOR INVOLVEMENT.
Published by: THE MARXIST-LENINIST RESEARCH BUREAU,
ALLILUYEVA, Svetlana: '20 Letters to a Friend'; London; 1967.
ANTONOV-OVSEENKO, Anton: York; 1983. 'The Time of Stalin:
Portrait of a Tyranny'; New York 1983;
BULLOCK, Alan: 'Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'; London; 1991.
CONQUEST, Robert: 'The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties'; London; 1973.
-------: 'Stalin and the Kirov Murder'; London; 1989.
DEGRAS, Jane (Ed.): 'Soviet Documents on Foreign Affairs', Volume 3; London; 1953.
GETTY, J. Arch: 'Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered: 1933-1938'; Cambridge; 1985.
GETTY, J. Arch & MANNING, Roberta T. (Eds.): Perspectives'; Cambridge; 1993.
KHRUSHCHEV, Nikita S.: Secret Speech to 20th Congress of CPSU, in: 'The 'The Dethronement of Stalin'; Manchester; 1956.
-----: Report on the Programme of the CPSU, delivered to the 22nd Congress of the CPSU; London; 1961.
KRASNIKOV, Stepan V.: 'Sergei Mironovich Kirov'; Moscow; 1964.
LARINA, Anna: 'This I cannot forget: The Memoirs of Anna Larina, Nikolai Bukharin's Wife'; London; 1993.
NIKOLAEVSKY, Boris: 'Power and the Soviet Elite: "The Letter of an Old Bolshevik'; New York; 1965.
ORLOV, Alexander: 'The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes'; London; 1954.
---------'The Crime of the Zinoviev Opposition'; Moscow; 1935.
------ Report of the Court Proceedings: The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre'; Moscow; 1936.
-------- Report of the Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Centre; Moscow; 1937.
--------- Report of the Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet 'Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites'; Moscow; 1938.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
AGRANOV, Yakov, Soviet revisionist politician (1893-1939); Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs (1921-34); Deputy Chairman, GPU (1934); expelled from CPSU (1937); arrested, tried and found guilty of subversion (1937); died in imprisonment (1938).
BAKAYEV, Ivan P. , Soviet revisionist politician (1887-1936); found guilty of subversion and sentenced to imprisonment (1935); re-arrested, retried for treason, found guilty, sentenced to death and executed (1936),
BALMASHEV, Stepan V., Russian terrorist (1881-1902); member, Socialist Revolutionary Party; assassinated Tsarist Minister of the Interior Dmitri S. Sitiagin (1853-1902); hanged (1902).
BUKHARIN, Nikolai I., Soviet revisionist politician (1888-1938); editor, 'Communist' and 'Pravda' (1918-31); President, Communist International (1925); editor, 'Izvestia' (1934-37); expelled from CP and arrested (1937); tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1938).
BULANOV, Pavel P., Soviet revisionist politician 1895-1938); secretary to Genrikh Yagoda (1929-37); arrested (1937); tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1938).
KAGANOVICH, Lazar M., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1893-1991); secretary, CC, RCP (1924-25, 1928-30); General Secretary, CP Ukraine (1925-28); member, Political Bureau, AUCP/CPSU (1930-57); 1st Secretary, AUCB, Moscow District (1930-35); USSR People's Commissar of Transport (1935-37, 1938-48); USSR People's Commissar of Heavy Industry (1937-39); USSR People's Commissar of Fuel Industry (1939-40); member, USSR State Defence Committee (1942-43); Minister of Construction Materials Industry (1946); lst Secretary, CP Ukraine (1947-55); director, Sverdlovsk Cement Works (1957-60); expelled from CP (1960),
KAMENEV, Lev B., Soviet revisionist politician (1883-1936); USSR People's Commissar of Foreign Trade (1926-27); expelled CP (1927); readmitted (1928); re-expelled (1932); readmitted (1933); re-expelled (1934); sentenced to imprisonment for subversion (1935); retried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1936).
KHRUSHCHEV, Nikita S., Soviet revisionist politician (1894-1971); lieutenant-general (1943); 1st, Secretary, CP Ukraine (1947-49); 1st Secretary, CP,. Moscow District and Secretary, CP, AUCP (1949-53); 1st Secretary, CPSU (1953-64); USSR Premier (1958-64).
KIROV, Sergei M., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1888-1934); RSFSR Minister to Georgia (1920); Secretary, CC, CP Azerbaijan (1921-26); 1st Secretary Leningrad District Committee, AUCP (1926-34); member, Political Bureau, CC, CPSU (1930-34); Secretary, CC, CPSU (1934); murdered by revisionist conspirators (1934).
KOSAREV, Aleksandr V., Soviet revisionist youth leader (1903-39); Secretary. Moscow Communist Youth League (1926-27); Secretary, CC, CYL (1927-28); General Secretary, CYL (1929 -36);
KOTOLNYOV, Ivan I., Soviet revisionist student (1905-34); arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1934).
LARINA, Anna M., (1914- ); married Nikolai Bukharin (1934).
LIUSHKOV, Genrikh S., Soviet revisionist security official (1900-45); defected to Japanese (1938); executed by Japanese (1945).,
MAISKY, Ivan M., Soviet revisionist diplomat (1884-1975); USSR Minister to Finland (1929-32); USSR Ambassador to Britain (1932-43); USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs (1943-46).
MEDVEDEV, Roy A, Soviet revisionist historian (1925- Deputy Editor--inChief, Publishing House of Educational Literature (1957-61); divisional head, Research Institute of Vocational Literature (1962-71); free-lance writer (1971-).
MOLOTOV, Vyacheslav M., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1890-1986); Secretary, CC, AUCP (1921-30); member, Political Bureau, AUCP (1926-52); USSR Deputy Premier (1930-41); USSR People's Commissar/Minister of Foreign Affairs (1939-49, 1953-56); USSR Deputy Premier (1941-57); member, State Defence Committee (1941-45); USSR Minister of State Control (1956-57); USSR Ambassador to Mongolia (1957-60); Chief USSR Delegate to International Atomic Energy Commission (1960-62); retired (1962); expelled from CP (1964); re-admitted (1984).
MRACHOVSKY, Sergei V., Soviet revisionist politician (1888-1936); expelled from CP (1927); re-admitted (1936); re-expelled (1936); arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1936).
NIKOLAYEV, Leonid V., Soviet revisionist terrorist (1904-35); expelled from and re-admitted to CP (1934); assassinated Sergei Kirov (1934); tried and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1935).
ORLOV, Aleksdandr' (= FELDBIN,Lev L.), Soviet revisionist intelligence officer (1895-1973); defected to USA (1937); died in USA (1973).
PELSHE, Arvid I., Latvian-born Soviet revisionist politician (1899-1983); Secretary, CC, AUCP/CPSU (1941-59); 1st Secretary, CP Latvia (1959-66); Chairman, Party Control Commission (1966-85); member, Political Bureau, CC, CPSU (1966-85).
PYATAKOV, Grigory (Yuri) L., Soviet revisionist politician (1890-1937); USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry (1933-34); expelled from CP (1927); readmitted (1929); re-expelled (1936); tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1937),
RADEK, Karl B., Soviet revisionist politician (1885-1939); Secretary, Communist International (1920-24); expelled from CP (1927); re-admitted (1929); editor, 'Izvestia' (1931-36); re-expelled and arrested (1936); tried for and found guilty of subversion and sentenced to imprisonment (1937); died in prison (1939).
RYKOV, Aleksey I., Soviet revisionist politician (1881-1938); Chairman, RSFSR Supreme Council of National Economy (1918-21); member, Political Bureau, CC, AUCP (1922-30); USSR Premier (1924-30); USSR People's Commissar of Communications (1931-36); expelled from CP (1937); tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1938).
SEDOV, Leon, Soviet revisionist politician (1905-38); son of Leon Trotsky; to Germany (1928); editor, 'Bulletin of the Opposition' (1928-38); to France (1933); died in France (1938).
SHVERNIK, Nikolai M., Soviet revisionist trade union leader and politician (1888-1970); member, Presidium, Central Control Commission, RCP/AUCP (1923-25); Secretary, Leningrad District Committee, AUCP (1925-26); Secretary, Central Comittee, AUCP (1926-27); Chairman, Metal Workers' Union (1929-30); 1st Secretary, All-Union Council of Trade Unions (193044); USSR President (1946-53); member, Political Bureau, CC, CPSU (195253, 1957-66); Chairman, AUCTU (1953-56); Chairman, Party Control Committee (1956-66).
SMIRNOV, Ivan N., Soviet revisionist politician (1881-1936); expelled from CP (1927); readmitted (1930); re-expelled, tried for and found guilty of subversion and sentenced to imprisonment (1933); retried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1936).
TER-VAGANYAN, Vagarshak A, Soviet revisionist politician (1893-1936); arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1936).
VOROSHILOV, Kliment Y., Soviet revisionist miltary officer and politician (1881-1969); Commander, Moscow Military District (1924-35); Chairman, Revolutionary Military Council (1925-34); member, Political Bureau, CC, AUCP (1926-52); USSR People's Commissar of Defence (1925-40); USSR Deputy Premier (1946-53); USSR President (1953-60); retired (1960).
YAGODA, Genrikh G., Soviet revisionist politician (1891-1938); Chairman, GPU (1934); USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs (1934-36); USSR People's Commissar of Communications (1936-37); arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, and executed (1938).
YAKOVLEV, Aleksandr N., Soviet revisionist politician (1923- ); USSR Ambassador to Canada (1973-83); Director, Institute of World Economics and International Relations (1983-86); member, Political Bureau, CPSU (1987-90); retired (1990); resigned from CP (1991).
YEVDOKIMOV, Grigory, Soviet revisionist politician (1894-1936); secretary, Leningrad RCP (1925-27); expelled from CP (1927); readmitted (1928); arrested, tried for and found guilty of subversion and sentenced to imprisonment (1935); retried for and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death (1936).
YENUKIDZE, Avel S., Soviet revisionist civil servant (1877-1937); head, Military Section, All-Russian Central Executive Committee (1917-18); Secretary, All-Russian/USSR Central Executive Committee (1918-35); arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and executed (1937).
ZHDANOV, Andrei A., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1890-1948); Secretary, CPSU (1934-48); member, Political Bureau, CC, AUCP (1938-48); murdered by revisionists (1948).
ZHELIABOV, Andrei I., Russian terrorist (1851-81); member, 'People's Will'; one of organisers of the assassination of Tsar Aleksandr 11 (1855-81).
ZINOVIEV, Grigory Y., Soviet revisionist politician (1883-1936); President,
Executive Committee of Communist International (1919-26); member, Political
Bureau, CC, RCP/AUCP (1921-26); expelled from CP (1927); readmitted (1928);
re-expelled (1932); re-expelled (1932); re-admitted (1933); re-expelled
(1934); arrested (1934); tried for and found guilty of subversion and imprisoned
(1935); re-tried for and found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and
executed (1936).