Who Killed Kirov?: The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery

350 Pages·2000·6.455 MB·English

by  Amy Knight

■■■
?
K I R O V
Also by Amy Knight
Spies Without Cloaks: The KG B's Successors
Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant
The KGB: Police and Politics in the Soviet Union
• • •
0
I
K R V
I
The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery
■
Amy Kn ght
lIDl Hill and Wang
A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
New York
Hilland Wang
A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, New York 10003
Copyright © 1999 by Arny Knight
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Lisa Stokes
First edition, 1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knight, Arny W., 1946-
Who killed Kirov? : the Kremlin's greatest mystery/ Arny Knight.-
1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8090-6404-9 (alk. paper)
1. Kirov, Sergei Mironovich, 1886-1934. 2. Revolutionaries
Soviet Union-Biography. 3. Soviet Union-Politics and
government-1917-1936. I. Title.
-~.K5K581999
(?_:1-7.0~1'092
[B]-DC21 98-48989
To Viola Brudno

Contents
Preface
X1
Maps
The Russian Empire on the Eve ofWorld War I
XVI
The Soviet Union, 1924-36
XVll
one
A December Tragedy 3
two
The Boy from Urzhum 22
three
The Triumph of Bolshevism 51
four
Building Soviet Power 82
f i Ve
Leader of Leningrad 111
six
Kirov and Stalin's Revolution 142
seven
1934: Kirov's End 169
vm Contents
eight
Into the Whirlwind 200
nine
Stalin Consolidates Power: 1935-38 231
ten
The Kirov Legacy 261
appendix I
Chronology of Key Events in the Life of Sergei Kirov 271
appendix II
Governing Hierarchy of the Soviet Union 273
appendix Ill
Selected Glossary of Names 275
Notes 281
Index 321
Illustrations
1. Sergei with his sisters, Anna and Elizaveta, and his grandmother, Melaniia
Avdeevna, Urzhum, 1904. (Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)
2. Police photograph of Sergei, 1907. (Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Peters
burg)
3. Mariia L'vovna Markus at the editorial offices of the paper Terek,
Vladikavkaz, 1910. (Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)
4. Kirov and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, 1920. (Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St.
Petersburg)
5. Kirov and Stalin on the platform of Moscow Station, Leningrad, April 1926.
(Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)
6. Site of the Kirovs' home in Leningrad. (Author's photograph)
7. Stalin and Kirov with Leningrad party officials at the Smolnyi, April 1926.
(Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)
8. Kirov with a delegation of metalworkers at his office in the Smolnyi, July
1929. (Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)
9. Kirov and Maxim Gorky among factory workers, Leningrad, July 1929.
(Courtesy of Kirov Museum, St. Petersburg)