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Transcripts from the Soviet Archives VOLUME XIV SECRET REVIEWS 1934
Special summary of the UNKVD for the Moscow region. on the responses to the report on the murder of Comrade Kirov, as of December 23, 1934 December 23, 1934
Archive: F. 3. Op. 2.D. 942. L. 37‐43. Script
December 23, 1934
Top secret
Personally
To the Peopleʹs Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Comrade Yagoda
We present materials about the reaction of various circles of the population of Moscow to the publication in the press of the NKVD report of the results of the investigation into the murder of Comrade Kirov and about K.‐R. terrorist activities of the remnants of the
Trotskyite‐Zinoviev opposition.
ʺIt was necessary to destroy the traitors earlier ʺ
“Isnʹt this Zinovievʹs group finally finished off. The newspapers write about her vile role in the murder of Kirov. Apparently, she was associated with the White Guards. In this case, it was necessary to shoot all the opportunists so that they could not lead the K.‐R. work ʺ(foreman of shop 3 [avo] yes named after V. Ilyich Nazarov, Len [insky] district [ayo] n).
“For such attacks, those who tried to kill Soviet workers should be shot. I don’t know why Zinoviev has been nursed until now, and in general with this whole group, it was necessary to spank them for a long time” (worker 3 [avo] yes named after Molotov Khokhlov, Len [insky] district [ayo] n)
“Now I am completely convinced that the policy of the party is correct, that all this bastard of the opposition must be shot, otherwise they are sneaking around and trying in every possible way to prevent us. We still have little vigilance, we need prophylaxis, and reptiles can be neutralized only by executions” (construct [op] 3 [avo] yes named after V. Ilyich Khukharev, Len [in] district [ayo] n).
“Are the remnants of the Trotskyists and Zinovievites still not finished off? After all, it turned out that they were involved in Kirovʹs murder. Why did our leaders keep these people around them? It was rightly noted at the Plenum that our vigilance has dropped. It is necessary to study not only groups, but also individuals” (employee of the commercial department 3 [avo] yes No. 1 named after Aviakhim Vinogradov, Krasnopresnensky district [ayo] n).
“This is a serious matter. The Zinovievites and Trotskyists are starting to stir again. It is necessary not to exile them, but to put them in the expense, tk. it is evident that they cannot improve” (the accountant of the same z [avo] da Churkin).
“We need to be less ceremonious with all kinds of oppositionists, otherwise they first hide, and then pop out with their mean attacks. It is necessary to pursue a harder line in relation to the participants of all oppositions, to destroy them so that it does not happen to others” (worker of the Tekstilprom artel Dergachev, Kirov [ayo] n).
“Now it is criminal to talk about any kind of soft attitude towards all oppositionists, since they take the path of murder. They are now more dangerous enemies than the open White Guards” (workshop 3 [avo] yes named after KKE Golikov, member of the CPSU (b), Oct [Yabrskiy] r [ayo] n).
“The enemy responds with blow for blow. After all, Zinoviev at one time asked to be admitted to the party, he was not accepted, but on the contrary, they ruined him. Now they are taking revenge. It means that it is their own fault that they cut off the enemyʹs legs and left his head” (engineer 3 [avo] yes “Red Bogatyr Tsukerman, Sok [olnichny] r [ayo] n).
“It is necessary to drive such reptiles into Solovki. They believed them, reinstated them in the party, and now they are killing the leaders” (Stashok, engineer of the design and assembly bureau 3
[avo] and named after Stalin, Proletarskiy district [ayo] n).
“So thatʹs who the killer of Comrade Kirov, it turns out, is the former party members ‐ the Zinovievites, enemies of the working class. That they could not have been discovered and eliminated before. Now they, of course, will be destroyed, but too late” (worker of the f [abri] ki “Trekhgornaya m [anufaktu] ra” Krasnopresnensky district).
“Our party itself is to blame when it reinstates in its ranks such people as Zinoviev, Bukharin and Rykov, who in their hearts have always been and will be against the general line of the party. You can’t trust any of them” (the tariffication of the building 3 [avo] yes No. 24 Luzhkov, Stalinsky] r [ayo] n).
“Why, until recently, Zinoviev and Kamenev walked free when their followers were killing the leaders” (worker Artamon [ovsky] tram [vayny] depot Panasyuk, Frunz [ensky] district [ayo] n).
ʺIt is necessary to destroy all oppositionistsʺ
“All the Zinovievites must now shoot, there is no need to look at them now. Samikh Zinoviev and Kamenev must also be shot before the others because they knew and prepared everything. And they are also called old party members ʺ(worker of the f [abri] kiʺ Trekhg [ornaya] m [anufaktu] ra ʺStarostin, Krasnopresnenskiy district [ayo] n).
“I would put these Zinovievites in an ice‐hole for such a thing in the winter and would not take them out until spring, that would be a good bonus for them. Look, what heroes are engaged in murder instead of honest work. It is clear that they need to be shot for such a deed” (driver 3 [avo] yes named after V. Ilyich Konstantinov, Len [insky] district [ayo] n).
“The party approached very gently towards the opposition. Zinoviev was expelled from the party several times and then reinstated again. It is necessary to apply the most severe measures to all those who stagger ʺ(worker of printing house No. 39 Kalinin, member [en] of the CPSU (b), Oct [Yabrsky] r [ayo] n).
“Nikolaev and other participants deserve to be destroyed without trial, and if they are to be judged, then to bring Zinoviev to justice. It is not enough to cut down a tree, the roots must also be destroyed” (worker of the Izvestia printing house Bazarov, Oct [Yabrsky] district [ayo] n).
ʺNow you canʹt trust anyoneʺ
“You cannot trust the former opposition Trotskyists. Here the purge of the party has passed, it seems that everyone has been checked, all reliable party members have remained, and now it is necessary to purge the party again, and expel all Trotskyists from the party without exception, and shoot many of them.” n).
“What a vile and disgusting thing they are planning to do. Nikolaev was recently expelled from the party, then reinstated again. It turns out that you cannot trust any communist. Now, of course, they will be destroyed. Probably, Zinoviev and Kamenev themselves got into this case as indirect participants, since murderers are their pupils” (accountant of the “Ogonyok” printing house Golovey, Dzerzhinsky district [ayo] n).
“The opposition Zinovievites brutalized and killed Kirov. This proves once again that no deviator can be trusted in his statements” (student of the Bubnov Medical Institute, Nalitoe, Frun [zenskiy] r [ayo] n).
ʺZinovievites finally turned into counter‐revolutionariesʺ
“Earlier, Zinoviev was praised, he was a student of Lenin, an irreplaceable worker. Now he has turned into a terry counterrevolutionary, otherwise it is impossible to assess his behavior
ʺ(designer 3 [avo] yesʺ GZIP ʺGetz, Krasnopresnensky district [ayo] n).
“The Zinovievites swore allegiance to the party, they were restored, and they secretly tried to spoil. In essence, the disclosed group is still small, there are probably much more of them, and of course there is nothing to babysit with them” (3 [avo] yes named after V. Ilyich Ptitsyn, Len [insky] district [ayo] n).
“So much for the opposition, it has sunk to the point that it even had its own center, and the Leningrad organizations did not reveal this in a timely manner. Zinoviev should be hit for this, as expected” (engineer 3 [avo] yes “Steklomashina” Chaplygin, Len [insky] district [ayo] n).
“What a shame for the former leaders of the opposition, especially for Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. Although they admitted their mistakes many times, they actually took the path of open counterrevolution. They will now have to answer strictly to the party” (engineer 3 [avo] da No. 24 Nikiforov, Stalin district [ayo] n).
“It was just a maneuver that they confessed and repented of their mistakes. They did not give up their vile business and managed to supply their people with party cards for this” (Listener of propaganda] courses MK VKP (b) Makarov, member of VKP (b), Frunzensky [ayo] n).
ʺItʹs a strange thing ‐ their organization has not been revealed before.ʺ
“This struggle will continue for a long time; each trend is fighting for its cause. The Zinovievites do not want to surrender so easily. It’s amazing how they didn’t know about their existence earlier and didn’t open all these groups” (chauffeur f [abri] ki “Trekhgorn [oy] m [anufaktu] ra” Melnikov, Krasnopresnenskiy district [ayo] n).
“Now everyone will be shot, and Zinoviev and Kamenev will probably be sent to visit Trotsky. The main thing is that there are prominent people among this group, like Myasnikov, Mandelstam. It’s bad that they had not been revealed earlier, and everything became known only after they killed Kirov. If there had been more vigilance, it would have been possible to prevent this” (head of the shop of the Ogonyok printing house Lobachev, Dzerzh [insky] district [ayo] n).
“Really, in the USSR we couldnʹt catch such scoundrels, various Zinoviev groups. How long have they been fighting with them, and they all continue to do bad things? We need to take Zinoviev himself by the sides, it will be better” (Ing [Ener] 3 [avo] yes “Metron” Kozakov, Frunz [ener] r [ayo] n).
ʺSo, the opposition still existsʺ
“The Zinoviev organization is still making itself felt, and with the death of Kirov, we will again have to carefully check the ranks of the party. This is a very serious matter, since it has come to the point that the entire leadership of the NKVD has been arrested in Leningrad” (dispatcher of the 1st GPP named after Kaganovich Kolchinsky, Proletar [arsky] district [ayo] n).
“This means that the opposition is still strong, I have never thought until now that the Trotskyists and Zinovievites have their own center. All the same, they won nothing by this murder, they only brought misfortune to their own heads” (head of the warehouse z [avo] yes “Prolet [Arsky] Trud” Frenkel, member of the CPSU (b), Krasnopresnensky district).
“Soon they will take up the Komsomol. There are also many supporters of the Zinoviev opposition among the Komsomol. Especially among the leadership” (worker of “Metrostroy” Peregudov, Sokolnicheskiy r [ayo] n).
ʺInternal party differences have not yet been eliminatedʺ
“The Zinoviev group is probably still strong if it goes to such a thing as terror. After all, she will not do anything with terror, because this method is outdated and unsuitable, Lenin was still talking about it” (the standard‐maker 3 [avo] yes named after Ilyich Razuvaev, Len [insky] district [ayo] n).
“This could have been expected since Zinoviev himself was a Leningrad citizen and crushed the Bolsheviks. This Zinoviev group still lives in many factories and factories; the time will probably come when it will stop them. From the political struggle, all sorts of groups of both Trotsky and Zinoviev are beginning to move to an open struggle by means of terror ʺ(chauffeur f [abri] ki Trekhgorn [aya m [anufaktu] raʺ Kuptsov, Krasnopresnensky district).
“And so, it happened, it was felt that Nikolaev should be a member of the party and some internal party group. This means that the groups are still alive and, possibly, this is the beginning of the deployment of the activities of new groups. After all, Stalin and Voroshilov traveled to Leningrad, probably for a reason, Stalin himself was interested in this issue and is studying the roots of Kirovʹs murder” (working f [abri] ki “Trekhgorn [a] m [anufaktu] ra” Komarov).
“They write that Nikolaev, who killed Kirov, was in Zinovievʹs group. This means that there are party contradictions. It is in vain that they say that the slopes are broken, they are, they will exist for a long time to come” (worker of the equestrian park z [avo] yes
“Krasny Bogatyr” Fuchs, Sokolnichsky district [ayo] n).
ʺWhy didnʹt they write about internal party groups before? ʺ
“Until now, nothing has been written about any groupings, but suddenly Nikolaev appeared ‐ a member of the group. Where did she come from so immediately that no one knew anything about her and nothing was said about her” (worker 3 [avo] yes No. 1 named after Aviakhim Zhavoronkov, Krasnopresnenskiy district [ayo] n).
“I don’t understand who Nikolaev is. Previously, they wrote that he was a White Guard, but now they write that he belongs to the Zinoviev group. So, I don’t understand where this group came from, why is it going against the authorities and what it lacks” (worker F [abri] ki named after Krasin Kolonutov, Leninsky district [ayo] n).
ʺThe Zinovievites have nothing to do with it, they are only portrayed as guiltyʺ
“They write as they want. They wrote that Kirov was killed by someone sent by a class enemy, and now they write that the former Zinoviev opposition. It is inconvenient for them to write that Nikolayev is a member of the party, so they blame the former opposition, from which there is no spirit left” (worker of the Stalin Automobile Plant Novikov, Prolet [arsky] district [ayo] n)
“They proclaim the former Zinoviev opposition to the
Constitutional‐Revolutionary Party, and meanwhile all its leaders have been reinstated in the party and until recently held responsible posts. It seems to me that Kirov was not killed by a former oppositionist, but simply by a party member who did not cope with Kirov” (Petrov, worker of the Stalin Automobile Plant, Prolet [Arsky] district [ayo] n).
“Zinovievʹs group has nothing to do with it, it may not be to blame, but in connection with the murder of Kirov, our government puts innocent people to death. Whoever is really guilty will not get in” (the normative of the 6th workshop 3 [avo] yes No. 1 named after Aviakhim Krasnoshchekov, Krasnopresnensky district [ayo] n).
“The published report that Kirov was killed by the Zinoviev group does not correspond to reality. All this is wrong, and people are wrongly accused. In my opinion, he was killed by the Communists themselves, who have never been in opposition” (worker 3 [avo] da No. 24 Mikheev, Stalin district [ayo] n).
ʺNow they will start persecuting the former Zinovievitesʺ
“No one could think that the murder of Kirov was the work of the Zinovievites. More should have been expected from the White Guard terrorists, but if so, now they will begin to smash the opposition in the same way as the terrorists ʺ(engineer z [avo] yesʺ Kr [asny] Hero ʺKhafalin, Sokol).
“Now, probably, severe measures will be taken not only against terrorists, but also against former Trotskyists and other deviators. It is interesting that the newspaper accuses Zinoviev as an enemy of the party, but calls him and Kamenev comrades. This means that no charges have been brought against them personally in connection with the murder of Kirov” (head of the foundry shop 3 [avo] yes named after Malenkov Kukovin, member of the CPSU (b), Sokolniki district).
“Will Zinoviev himself also be considered implicated in the murder. If so, then his affairs are seams. Since Zinoviev is involved, it means that all his followers will get it. They will not give rest to Trotsky in Constantinople” (employee of the 3rd distance of Metrostroy
Khesin, Sokolniki district).
Pom. Head of the NKVD Directorate for the Moscow Region.
Radzivilovsky
F. 3. Op. 2.D. 942. L. 37‐43. The original.
* On the document there is a note: ʺSent to the Secretary of the MK
Comrade Kaganovich.ʺ