Stalin and the Kirov Murder

188 Pages·1989·10.01 MB·English

by  Robert Conquest

STALING KIROV MURDER
« 0 I ( t T ( 0 It 0 II ! S T
On December 1, 1934, a lone gunman
shot and killed Sergei Kirov, Secretary
of the Central and Leningrad Party Or¬
ganization, member of the Moscow Po¬
litburo, and heir apparent to Joseph
Stalin. This assassination was arguably
one of the most significant crimes of the
century. Not only did it seal the fates of
thousands—and, indirectly, millions—of
people spuriously connected to the killer,
but it eliminated the second most pow¬
erful man in Russian politics, giving Sta¬
lin free rein to dominate Soviet policy.
Stalin and the Kirov Murder, written
by the much acclaimed author of The
Harvest of Sorrow, is the first book-
length examination of the case. Robert
Conquest chronicles this story of politi¬
cal misfeasance and cover-up on the eve
of what may be the first disclosure by the
U.S.S.R. of the actual facts of the case.
Though an interrogation was conducted
in 1934, and over the next few years a
purge charged thousands with complic¬
ity in the case, a number of unusual cir¬
cumstances leading up to the murder
were never properly explained. Why, for
instance, was the assassin, who had
twice been arrested in possession of a
weapon, allowed unguarded in the
building where the Leningrad govern¬
ment officials had their offices? As Roy
Medvedev, a Leninist dissident, later
explained, “The investigation was car¬
ried out in complete violation of the law,
of common sense, of the desire to find
and punish the real culprits.”
A later investigation, conducted un¬
der Khruschev, produced 200 volumes
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STALIN
AND THE
KIROV MURDER
By the Same Author
HISTORY AND POLITICS
Power and Policy in the USSR
Common Sense about Russia
Courage of Genius: The Pasternak Affair
Russia after Khrushchev
The Great Terror
The Nation Killers
Where Marx Went Wrong
V. I. Lenin
Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps
Present Danger: Towards a Foreign Policy
We and They: Civic and Despotic Cultures
What to Do When the Russians Come (with Jon Manchip White)
Inside Stalin’s Secret Police: NKVD Politics 1936-39
The Harvest of Sorrow
POETRY
Poems
Between Mars and Venus
Arias From a Love Opera
Coming Across
Forays
New and Collected Poems
VERSE TRANSLATION
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Prussian Nights
FICTION
A World of Difference
The Egyptologists (with Kingsley Amis)
CRITICISM
The Abomination of Moab
STALIN
AND THE
KIROV MURDER
Robert Conquest
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1989
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York Toronto
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1989 by Robert Conquest
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conquest, Robert.
Stalin and the Kirov murder/ Robert Conquest,
p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index.
ISBN 0-19-505579-9
1. Kirov, Sergei Mironovich, 1886-1934—Assassination. 2. Stalin,
Joseph, 1879-1953. 3. Terrorism—Soviet Union. 4. Soviet Union—
Politics and government—1917-1936. I. Title.
DK254.K52C66 1989 947.084'2'0924—dc 19
88-11994 CIP
987654321
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
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