Stalin and His Hangmen (80 page)

40. Sergo Orjonikidze very shortly after his suicide or murder, February 1937. Left to right: his widow Zinaida Orjonikidze, Molotov, Ezhov, Stalin, Zhdanov and Kaganovich.

41. Lavrenti Beria, mid-1920s

42. Beria’s guards, chauffeurs and pimps Nadaraia and Sarkisov

43. Caucasian Party caucus, 1935. Left to right: Pilipe Makharadze, Mir-Jafar Bagirov, Beria

44. Sailing on the Black Sea, 1933. Left to right: (back) Lakoba’s wife Sarie, Nina Beria, Lavrenti Beria, Lakoba’s son Rauf; on right, with her arm on the captain’s shoulder, Stalin’s daughter Svetlana

45. Party conference, 1935: head of Abkhaz Party Nestor Lakoba, Beria, head of Armenian Party Agasi Khanjian

46. Lakoba’s funeral, January 1937. The message on the wreath reads, ‘To our close friend Comrade Nestor from Nina and Lavrenti Beria’. Bottom: Nina and Lavrenti Beria

47. Vasili Blokhin, chief executioner at the Lubianka, 1940s

48. Meeting, 1936. Front row, left to right: Khrushchiov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Stalin; second row, first from left: Georgi Malenkov

49. Head of SMERSH Viktor Abakumov,
c.
1946

50. Abakumov after his arrest, 1951

51. Latvians being deported to Siberia, 1946

52. Show trial of 1938