(Moscow, 1998), pp. 42, 45. The papers were removed when Malenkov’s assistant was arrested.
6
. The decisions were recorded in the minutes of the 5 March 1953 joint meeting of the Central Committee plenum, the Council of Ministers, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
Istochnik,
no. 1 (1994): 107–111.
7
. K. M. Simonov,
Glazami cheloveka moego pokoleniia
(Moscow, 1989), pp. 257–258.
8
. Ibid., p. 260.
9
. Svetlana Alliluyeva,
Twenty Letters to a Friend,
trans. Priscilla Johnson McMillan (New York, 1967), p. 10.
10
. Chernobaev,
Na prieme u Stalina,
p. 553.
11
. From Shepilov’s memoirs; cited in
Voprosy istorii,
no. 3 (1998): 15.
12
. A. N. Artizov et al., comps.,
Reabilitatsiia: Kak eto bylo,
vol. 1 (Moscow, 2000), p. 19.
13
. V. Naumov and Iu. Sigachev, comps.,
Lavrentii Beriia. 1953. Stenogramma iul’skogo plenuma TsK KPSS i drugie dokumenty
(Moscow, 1999), pp. 28–29.
14
. Oleg Khlevniuk, “The Economy of the OGPU, NKVD and MVD of the USSR, 1930–1953: The Scale, Structure and Trends of Development,” in
The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag,
ed. Paul R. Gregory and Valery Lazarev (Stanford, CA, 2003), pp. 54–55.
15
. According to official statistics, between 1 January and 1 October 1953 the number of cows increased from 24.3 million to 26 million, and almost 1 million of that increase took place outside of the collective and state farm system. During that same period the number of pigs increased from 28.5 to 47.6 million, including an increase of 12 million in private herds;
Narodnoe khoziastvo SSSR. Statisticheskii sbornik
(Moscow, 1956), pp. 119–120. Even with the consideration of possible seasonal fluctuations, these numbers are significant and surely attributable to lower taxes and higher procurement prices.
16
. A. V. Torkunov,
Zagadochnaia voina: Koreiskii konflikt 1950–1953
(Moscow, 2000), pp. 272–279.
17
. This directive was largely in response to the large number of defections from East Germany to the West. See Naumov and Sigachev,
Lavrentii Beriia,
pp. 55–59.
The Funeral
1
. Speech by Khrushchev at a dinner in the Bulgarian city of Varna during an official visit on 16 May 1962; cited in
Istochnik,
no. 6 (2003): 130.
2
. Letter dated 10 March 1953 from a group of citizens to the Central Committee and the Supreme Soviet; GARF, f. R-7523, op. 52, d. 18, ll. 94–95.
3
. Anonymous letter addressed to Georgy Malenkov, dated 6 March 1953; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1486, l. 157.
4
. Ibid., d. 1487, l. 55.
5
. Ibid., ll. 66–71.
6
. Cited in V. A. Kozlov,
Neizvestnaia Rossiia XX vek,
vol. 2 (Moscow, 1992), pp. 254–258.
7
. Cited in V. A. Kozlov and S. V. Mironenko,
58–10. Nadzornye proizvodstva Prokuratury SSSR po delam ob antisovetskoi agitatsii i propagande. Annotirovannyi katalog. Mart 1953–1991
(Moscow, 1999), pp. 13, 21, 23, 32.
8
. There is a long list of published documents and studies on the public mood and mechanisms used to shape it and on social adaptation and the particular mindset that Stalinism strove to shape. Studies vary in terms of their authors’ viewpoints and the aspect of reality they emphasize. See, for example, the following: Sheila Fitzpatrick:
The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia
(Ithaca, NY, 1992), and
Tear off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia
(Princeton, 2005); Stephen Kotkin,
Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995); Sarah Davies,
Popular Opinion in Stalin’s Russia: Terror, Propaganda and Dissent, 1934–1941
(Cambridge, 1997); Elena Zubkova,
Russia after the War: Hopes, Illusions, and Disappointments, 1945–1957
(New York, 1998); Jochen Hellbeck,
Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary under Stalin
(Cambridge, MA, 2006).
9
. Yoram Gorlizki, “Political Reform and Local Party Interventions under Khrushchev,” in
Reforming Justice in Russia, 1864–1996,
ed. Peter H. Solomon (New York and London, 1997), pp. 259–260.
10
. Letter from Stakhanov to Stalin in May 1945; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 891, l. 128. For a similar letter sent to Molotov before the war, see GARF, f. R-5446, op. 82, d. 108, l. 145; d. 120, l. 74.
11
. According to official statistics, at the start of 1953 more than 40 percent of the country’s population lived in cities. It should be kept in mind, however, that this figure included residents of small cities and settlements where the standard of living was close to that of the peasants.
12
. In 1952, out of the 443,000 tons of meat sold through state and cooperative outlets across the USSR, 110,000 were sent to Moscow and 57,400 were sent to Leningrad; GARF, f. R-5446, op. 87, d. 1162, l. 171.
13
. A. I. Mikoian,
Tak bylo. Razmyshleniia o minuvshem
(Moscow, 1999), p. 355.
14
. Amir Weiner,
Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution
(Princeton, 2000).
15
. Golfo Alexopoulos,
Stalin’s Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926–1936
(Ithaca, NY, and London, 2003).
16
. Lynne Viola,
Peasant Rebels under Stalin: Collectivization and the Culture of Peasant Resistance
(New York and Oxford, 1996); Lynne Viola, ed.,
Contending with Stalinism: Soviet Power and Popular Resistance in the 1930s
(Ithaca, NY, 2002); Jeffrey J. Rossman,
Worker Resistance under Stalin: Class and Revolution on the Shop Floor
(Cambridge, MA, and London, 2005).
17
. In recent years historians have produced several valuable studies on this problem. See, for example, the following: Sheila Fitzpatrick,
Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s
(New York, 1999); Elena Osokina,
Our Daily Bread: Socialist Distribution and the Art of Survival in Stalin’s Russia, 1927–1941
(New York and London, 2001); Donald Filtzer,
The Hazards of Urban Life in Late Stalinist Russia: Health, Hygiene, and Living Standards, 1943–1953
(Cambridge, 2010).
18
. Calculations based on E. Iu. Zubkova et al., comps.,
Sovetskaia zhizn’. 1945–1953
(Moscow, 2003), pp. 102–103; O. V. Khlevniuk et al., comps.,
Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, 1945–1953
(Moscow, 2002), pp. 388–389. For comparison, see A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov,
GULAG. 1917–1960
(Moscow, 2000), pp. 543–551.
19
. This letter was given to Malenkov to read; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 901, l. 37.
20
. Zubkova et al.,
Sovetskaia zhizn’,
p. 107.
21
. Cited in ibid., p. 263.
22
. Figures for state and private urban housing are from RGAE, f. 1562, op. 41, d. 56, ll. 30–33. Figures for the urban population as of early 1953 are from V. P. Popov,
Ekonomicheskaia politika Sovetskogo gosudarstva. 1946–1953 gg.
(Moscow and Tambov, 2000), p. 16.
23
. RGAE, f. 1562, op. 41, d. 56, ll. 30–33. The inventory of publicly owned residential buildings included the best-built ones, which belonged to local government councils (soviets) and agencies. A significant proportion of urban housing was in private hands. These buildings were in much worse shape.
24
. Zubkova et al.,
Sovetskaia zhizn’,
p. 179.
25
. N. Vert and S. V. Mironenko, eds.,
Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga. Konets 1920-kh–pervaia polovina 1950-kh godov,
vol. 1:
Massovye repressii v SSSR
(Moscow, 2004), pp. 623–624.
26
. B. V. Zhiromskaia, I. N. Kiselev, and Iu. A. Poliakov,
Polveka pod grifom “sekretno”: Vsesoiuznaia perepis’ naseleniia 1937 goda
(Moscow, 1996), pp. 98, 100.
27
. Terry Martin,
The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939
(Ithaca, NY, and London, 2001).
28
. See one recent study: Timothy Snyder,
Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin
(New York, 2010).
29
. For documents and letters characterizing inter-ethnic conflicts during the final period of Stalin’s rule, see L. P. Kosheleva et al., comps.,
Sovetskaia natsional’naia politika. Ideologiia i praktiki realizatsii
(Moscow, 2013).
30
. Geoffrey Hosking,
Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union
(Cambridge, MA, and London, 2006).
31
. E. Khodzha [Enver Hoxha],
So Stalinym. Vospominaniia
(Tirana, 1984), p. 90.
32
. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1479, ll. 14–18.
33
. A. Berelovich and V. Danilov, eds.,
Sovetskaia derevnia glazami VChK-OGPU-NKVD: 1918–1939 gg.,
vols. 1–4 (Moscow, 1998–2012); G. N. Sevost’ianov et al., eds.,
“Sovershenno sekretno”: Lubianka–Stalinu o polozhenii v strane (1922–1934),
vols. 1–9 (Moscow, 2001–2013).
34
. GARF, f. R-9401, op. 12, d. 100, ll. 91–92.
35
. When the apparat of the Special Sector was being reorganized in 1939, provisions were made for the creation of fifteen staff positions for people reading letters addressed to Stalin. Their duties included familiarizing themselves with the letters and sorting them (APRF, f. 3, op. 22, d. 65, l. 37). If we assume that each reader spent an average of ten minutes per letter, in working an eight-hour day, all fifteen readers would be able to review 720 letters per day or approximately 260,000 per year. Probably the number was higher. Experienced readers would process letters quickly, especially as many letters were short. Furthermore, using a shift system, the apparat worked essentially around the clock, and shifts were not strictly limited to eight hours.
36
. APRF, f. 3, op. 22, d. 65, l. 51. The Special Sector’s Fifth Section also took care of Stalin’s library.
37
. The letters shown to the Special Sector leadership during 1945–1953 have been preserved. See RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, dd. 888–904.
38
. Letters selected to be shown to Stalin were accompanied by a list entitled “Letters and Petitions Received Addressed to Com. Stalin.” In addition to the letters presented to Stalin, this list included certain letters sent for review by other Soviet leaders. Apparently these were letters it was felt Stalin did not need to see but about which he would be interested in knowing. Stalin’s personal archive contains a rather complete set of such lists of letters only for 1945–1952 (but lacks those received while he was vacationing in the south); RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, dd. 862–882.
39
. Jan Plamper,
The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power
(New Haven, 2012).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When Jonathan Brent and Vadim Staklo—then the editorial director and project manager for Yale University Press’s Annals of Communism series respectively—suggested that I write a biography of Stalin, I was more puzzled than glad. But now that the book has been completed, I am truly thankful to them.
Few know more about the Stalin era than my friends Yoram Gorlizki, Andrea Graziosi, Jan Plamper, and David Shearer, and I am grateful to them for reading the manuscript and making valuable comments. This work also greatly benefited from the skillful editing of William Frucht, the press’s executive editor, the keen eye and remarkable memory of the manuscript’s copy editor, Bojana Ristich, and the expertise of production editor Margaret Otzel. A critical role was played by the book’s translator, Nora Favorov, my most attentive and demanding reader.
This biography is the culmination of long years of studying Soviet history. These years brought collaboration and friendship with many knowledgeable colleagues. My interactions with all of them have helped prepare me to produce this work.
To start with those no longer living, I learned a great deal from Moshe Lewin, Viktor Petrovich Danilov, Victor Zaslavsky, and Derek Watson—all prominent historians and wonderful human beings.
Next, this book would not have been possible without decades of work alongside my friends and fellow archival researchers. At RGASPI, I have been fortunate to work with Andrei Sorokin, Lyudmila Kosheleva, Marina Astakhova, Galina Gorskaia, and Elena Kirillova. My work at GARF would have been impossible without the constant support of Sergei Mironenko, Larisa Rogovaya, Larisa Malashenko, Dina Nokhotovich, Sofia Somonova, Galina Kuznetsova, and Tatiana Zhukova. Together we compiled a number of collections of historical documents.