Stalin and the Kirov Murder

by Robert Conquest

Book Overview

On December 1, 1934, a lone gunman shot and killed Sergei Kirov, Secretary of the Central and Leningrad Party Organization, member of the Moscow Politburo, 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 powerful man in Russian...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195055799
• ISBN13: 9780195055795
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A Convicted Bank Robber Who Used Assassination to Murder Millions of His Own Countrymen

Robert Conquest did a credible job of examination re the Kirov Murder which took place on December 1, 1934. This book, which Robert Conquest readily admitted, is based on incomplete but compelling sources and deserves to be read and carefully studied. Events leading to W.W. I released demons upon Europe, and the Kirov Murder helped unleash unspeakable horror and tragedy in the U.S.S.R. Conquest began this book with a brief summary of Kirov's murder. Conquest also raises troubling questions re this murder such as why Kirov's NKVD body guards were mysteriously absent during the assassination. Conquest asked the same question when he wrote, "Or, to put it another way, who gave him (the assassin) his chance, and why?" Conquest gave a brief pricise of Kirov, the popular Soviet leader in Leningrad. According to Conquest and then contemporary Soviet officials there was a fierce political brawl brewing between older Bolsheviks and Stalin for power. According to Conquest dissention arose over the mass famine deaths in the Ukraine between 1928-1934 and failed Five Year Plans especially The Baltic/White Sea Canal project which achieved little at the expense of thousands of lives. In other words, there were good political reasons for Stalin wanting to get rid of Kirov and the Old Bolsheviks. Readers can glean from this book that Stalin's enemies vastly underestimated Stalin's cunning and ruthlessness. As an aside, Stalin's enemies should have been more alert as they were all partners in crime. Conquest then dealt with the trial of Nicolayev who assassinated Kirov. When Nicolayev was asked why he committed the murder, he is supposed to have answered, "Ask them," meaning members of the Leningrad NKVD (the Soviet Secret Police). According to the record, Nicolayev was silenced. Other witnesses who may have presented embarrassing evidence died in mysterious auto accidents which NKVD men later admitted over twenty years later were staged murders. An interesting side bar that Conquest made is that Nicolayev was twice arrested for carrying a hand gun only to be released without formal charges. A good question is why, prior to murdeing Kirov, was Nicolayev not prosecuted for these law violations. Immediately after Kirov's "trial" Soviet state police investigations expanded which resulted in over 1600 of Lenin's followers facing staged trials and excutions. Some of those accused were charged with being White Guards (supporters of the Czar), Trotsky's supporters, etc. Many of these "trials" were held In Camera or in secret because of fears that public trials would be too embarrassing at the time (1935). As Conquest noted, the trials got little attention from the Soviet Press (Pravda). Yet the number of arrests grew to over a hundred thousand which was mild compared to what was to come. While some of those arrested were tortured and shot or sent to what are known as the Gulag Archepelago (the Siberian concentrqtion camps), a few important defendants were treated ve

throw a stone in the water and the ripples spread outward...

In 1934 Sergei Kirov, friend and colleague of Stalin, member of the Moscow Politburo and Secretary of the Leningrad Party Organization was shot down and killed by a gunman. Stalin, terribly upset by the death of his comrade, organized all the power of the state and Party to hunt down the killers. Of course, as always with Stalin, there was a subplot. Bolshevist leaders from all over the Soviet Empire had voted to replace the frightening Stalin with the supposedly more moderate Kirov. Anyway, Kirov was dead and the raging Stalin set about systematically and cynically to ferret out the antirevolutionary killers. It was much like throwing a stone into the water. There's the initial splash and then rings of wavelets spread out from the center. There are the initial arrests with torture, confessions and executions. The next tier of suspects are arrested with torture, confessions and executions. Then the third tier ad infinitum. Before it is over, more than one million Communist Party members die and the Soviet officer corps--with the death of 50% of the officer class--are dead, lubricating the way for the Nazi invasion. How could it happen? It happened with the death of Kirov. Conquest offers fascinating evidence that Kirov's murder--and the murder of hundreds of thousands--was Stalin's doing. Ron Braithwaite author of novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God", on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

The most significant person killed on Stalin's orders

As a brutal manipulator of people, there are few historical figures that can match Joseph Stalin. However, there was a time when he was not absolute ruler of Russia. There was a key point in the early thirties when the block of remaining old Bolsheviks seemed to be coming together with some of the newer figures to mount attacks on Stalin to reduce his power or even have him removed as leader. This opposition was jelling around Sergei Kirov, the leader of the Leningrad party and a member of the ruling Politburo. In 1934, Kirov was assassinated by a dissident party member, thereby removing the focus of the anti Stalin opposition. In this book, the author describes the events of the crime in great detail, including how, in a very short time, the witnesses also began dying, as well as those who witnessed their dying. After describing the events, Conquest goes to great lengths to present an even-handed reconstruction and finally conclude that the murder and subsequent deaths of all others involved were at the orders of Stalin himself. While you cannot help but admire his principles in avoiding any leap to the result, there is no question Stalin was the force behind the events and that conclusion can be reached well before the author does. In criminal trials, circumstantial evidence can be very convincing and in this case it is overwhelmingly so. The pattern of deaths and forced confessions of high ranking officials is clearly one that could not have been managed by anyone not possessing power on the order of Stalin. Having Kirov murdered was the first step in his final movement to absolute power and he of course succeeded, with consequences that destroyed many people. Stalin was responsible for the death of millions of Soviet citizens at the hands of their fellow citizens, all directly traceable to his policies. However, there is one death that stands out and made more difference than all the others. This is an account of how that death took place, and is an example of how power can be executed by a policy of execution. It is an excellent example of how the Soviet Union was governed under one of the most brutal men the human race has produced.

This is a fascinating glimpse into Stalin's criminal mind

Stalin hatched a devious plot to assassinate his comrade in arms Sergei Kirov. The " Congress of Victors" , that is the Congress of the Communist Party which celebrated the fulfillment of the First 5-year Plan, convened and secretly voted to have Stalin replaced. This was a secret protest vote against the brutality used enforcing Stalin's 5-year plan, which involved the starvation of 7 million in the Ukraine, millions more sent to the gulag to perish in slave labor, as well as millions of deportations of peoples to remote resettlement areas. All the while the Soviet regime was exporting grain in exchange for Western industrial expertise and machinery in order to comply with Stalin's massive heavy industrial buildup. It is for these reasons that the Congress secretly voted for Sergei Kirov to replace Stalin as the leader of the Bolshevik regime. Stalin's leadership was considered disastrous. Kirov was one of the most popular Bolshevik leaders, and therefore wa! ! s the choice of the Congress. Stalin had the vote falsified, and after the Congress adjourned, plotted to avenge himself against the 1000 members of the Congress and against Kirov personally. He plotted with his secret police, and then carried out an incredibly bold assassination of Kirov. He then launched one phony investigation after another in which he blamed the act of terror on different groups. He created an hysterical witchhunt atmosphere, which he used as the basis for his purges and show-trials of the thirties. All in all, there were four different phony explanations that were carefully laid out one after the other over time to explain Kirov's assassination. But the real criminal was none other than Stalin himself. During the purges of the thirties, almost every member of the "Congress of Victors" was murdered, thus earning them the title "Congress of Victims". This book puts the issue of Stalin's guilt, long suspected, beyond doubt, and is also ! ! a fascinating crime story. Robert Conquest is one of the to! p scholars of the Stalinist tyranny. Since the book was written before the fall of communism, the newly opened secret Russian archives will supply fascinating confirmation of this book.