Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Read online

  A special thank-you to two of the wisest historical minds: my father Dr. Stephen Sebag-Montefiore MD who has been as brilliant in reading the psychology of Stalin as he was with Potemkin; and my mother April Sebag-Montefiore for her flawless gifts of language and psychology.

  In London, I must thank my agent Georgina Capel; Anthony Cheetham; my publisher Ion Trewin; and Lord and Lady Weidenfeld. Thanks for answering questions and helping in small or large ways to: Andy Apostolou, Bernadette Cini, Professor Derek Beales, Vadim Benyatov, Michael Bloch, Dr. David Brandenburger, Winston Churchill, Pavel Chinsky, Dr. Sarah Davies, Ellen, Lady Dahrendorf, Mark Franchetti, Lisa Fine, Sergei Degtiarev Foster, Dr. Dan Healy, Yelena Durden-Smith, Levan and Nino Gachechiladze, Professor J. Arch Getty, Nata Gologre, Jon Halliday, Andrea Dee Harris, Mariana Haseldine, Laurence Kelly, Dmitri Khankin, Anne Applebaum, Joan Bright Astley, Maria Lobanova, V. S. Lopatin, Ambassador of the Republic of Georgia and Mrs. Teimuraz Mamatsashvili, Neil McKendrick, the Master, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, Catherine Merridale, Princess Tatiana Metternich, Edward Lucas, Charles and Patty Palmer-Tomkinson, Martin Poliakoff, Professor Richard Overy, David Pryce-Jones, Alexander Prozverkin, Antony Beevor, Julia Tourchaninova and Ernst Goussinksi, Professor E. A. Rees, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Count Fritz von der Schulenburg, Professor Boris Sokolov, Lady Soames, Geia Sulkanishvili, Lord Thomas of Swynnerton, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, Prince George Vassiltchikov, Dr. D. H. Watson, Adam Zamoyski. I owe much to my Russian tutor, Galina Oleksiuk. Thanks to Jane Birkett, my valiant copy editor, to John Gilkes for the maps, to Douglas Matthews for the index and mountainous thanks to Victoria Webb for the heroic job of collating the proofs. In New York, thanks to my editor, Sonny Mehta, to Vrinda Condillac, Kathy Hourigan, Maria Massey, Soonyoung Kwon, and all the team at Knopf.

  Last but first, I must lovingly thank my wife Santa Montefiore, not only for translating materials on Leopoldo Bravo from the Spanish but above all for tolerating and even sometimes welcoming, for years on end, the brooding presence of Stalin in our lives.

  Illustrations

  1929–1934

  Stalin kisses his daughter Svetlana on holiday, early 1930s.1

  Nadya holds Svetlana.1

  Stalin and his driver in the front, with Nadya in the back of one of the Kremlin limousines.2

  The Stalins on holiday on the Black Sea, with the plodding Molotov and his clever, passionate, Jewish wife, Polina.3

  Stalin carries Svetlana in from the garden at Zubalovo, their country house near Moscow.1

  Stalin chats behind the scenes at a Party Congress in 1927 with allies Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Premier Alexei Rykov.2

  At a Party Congress, Stalin holds court among his grandees.2

  After her tragic death, Nadya lay in state.2

  Nadya’s funeral.2

  Stalin leaving the Kremlin’s Great Palace with two of his closest allies: Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Mikhail “Papa” Kalinin.4

  Lazar Kaganovich, Stalin’s deputy in the 1930s, leads an expedition into the Siberian countryside to search for grain hidden by peasants.2

  The magnates were so close they were like a family: “Uncle Abel” Yenukidze with Voroshilov.2

  Stalin’s holiday in 1933: Stalin and Voroshilov go camping; weeding at his Sochi dacha; setting off on a hunting expedition with Budyonny, Voroshilov and bodyguard; Lavrenti Beria offers to help weed the gardens; Stalin embarking on a fishing and shooting trip on the Black Sea, which was to end in a mysterious assassination attempt.2

  Molotov, Premier during the 1930s, plays tennis with his family.2

  Stalin ruled his empire informally: sitting out in the sun at the Sochi dacha.2

  1934–1941

  Sergei Kirov holidays with Stalin and Svetlana at Sochi.3

  Stalin with Svetlana.3

  Andrei Zhdanov joins the family, probably at the Coldstream dacha. 3

  The Court of the Red Tsar in the mid-1930s.2

  Stalin’s women.2

  Stalin with his grandees and their wives in the former imperial box at the Bolshoi.2

  Stalin (with Beria and Lakoba) visits his ailing mother, Keke, shortly before her death.3

  Beria hosts Voroshilov and Mikoyan in Tiflis for the Rustaveli Festival at the height of the Terror, 1937.2

  Yagoda, Kalinin, Stalin, Molotov and Beria.2

  Marshal Semyon Budyonny poses with Kaganovich and Stalin, among swooning women.2

  Beria and Yezhov—the two most depraved monsters of Stalin’s court. 2

  Yezhov and his wife Yevgenia entertain their powerful friend, Sergo Ordzhonikidze. Yezhov would soon help Stalin harass Sergo to his death.2

  Stalin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan and Voroshilov pose with Sergo Ordzhonikidze’s body.2

  Yezhov and his friend Nikita Khrushchev accompany Molotov, Kaganovich, Stalin, Mikoyan and Kalinin.2

  Stalin takes tea with the novelist Gorky.2

  Poskrebyshev with Bronislava, the pretty, glamorous and well-educated doctor, with whom he fell in love, and her sister.5

  Alexander Poskrebyshev, Stalin’s chef de cabinet for most of his reign. 5

  General Nikolai Vlasik with Stalin’s doomed son Yakov, just before the war.3

  Svetlana in her early teens, sporting her Young Pioneers’ Uniform. 1

  194 1–1945

  Stalin runs the war, assisted by his magnates and generals.6

  In 1945, Stalin with Zhukov, Voroshilov and Bulganin.4

  Stalin as the arbiter of the Grand Alliance, playing Roosevelt against Churchill: at Teheran in 1943.7

  Churchill and Stalin at Yalta, followed by General Vlasik.8

  At the Potsdam Conference, Stalin poses with Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman.4

  Words exchanged between Voroshilov and Churchill at the Teheran Conference. 9

  Beria and Molotov visit the sights in the ruins of Hitler’s Berlin, flanked by secret policemen Kruglov and Serov.10

  Beria and family around 1946.10

  Beria’s house in Moscow, chosen for him by Stalin (now the Tunisian Embassy). 10

  The House on the Embankment, built for the government in the early 1930s. 10

  The Granovsky apartment block close to the Kremlin, where the younger magnates lived in palatial apartments.10

  Stalin’s residences: his main Moscow house, Kuntsevo;8 his favourite holiday house before the war, Sochi;11 the vaulted dining room where he enjoyed long Georgian feasts;11 his specially built paddling pool;11 his post-war holiday headquarters, Coldstream;10 the millionaire’s mansion in Sukhumi;10 and Museri. 10

  General Vasily Stalin: over-promoted, alcoholic, unstable, cruel and terrified. 1

  After the war, General Vasily Stalin persuaded General Vlasik to give him his exquisite town house not far from the Kremlin.10

  At the end of the war, a tired but cheerful Stalin sits between the two rivals, Malenkov and Zhdanov.2

  1945–1953

  After victory, Stalin fell ill with a series of minor strokes or heart attacks.3

  On 12 August 1945, Generalissimo Stalin cheerfully leads his magnates for the parade.8

  Zhdanov and the charlatan Trofim Lysenko.10

  The exhausted Stalin gloomily leads Beria, Mikoyan and Malenkov through the Kremlin to the Mausoleum for the 1946 May Day parade.4

  Stalin leads the mourning at Kalinin’s funeral in 1946.2

  Stalin, Voroshilov and Kaganovich follow Zhdanov’s coffin at his funeral. 2

  In late 1948, Stalin sits with the older generation, Kaganovich, Molotov and Voroshilov, while an intrigue is being prepared behind them among the younger.2

  Mikoyan and others at Stalin’s house in the summer.3

  At his seventieth birthday gala, on stage at the Bolshoi, Stalin stands between Mao Tse-tung and Khrushchev.10

  Stalin’s restless last holiday in 1952: his new house at New Athos; 10 the Likani Palace, which once belonged to Tsar Nicholas II’s brother Grand Duke Michael;10 his remote house at Lake Ritsa, where he spent weeks;10 green metal
boxes containing phones were built by his guards so that Stalin could call for help if he was taken ill on his daily strolls.10

  The sofa at Kuntsevo on which Stalin died on 5 March 1953.10

  The ageing but determined Stalin watches Malenkov give the chief report at his last public appearance at the Nineteenth Congress in 1952.6

  Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Beria, Malenkov, Molotov and Voroshilov face each other over Stalin’s body.4

  Stalin at the 1927 Congress: in his prime.2

  The author and the publishers offer their thanks to the following for their kind permission to reproduce images:

  Alliluyev Family Collection

  RGASPI

  Vlasik Family Collection

  AKG

  Poskrebyshev Family Collection

  David King Collection

  Camera Press

  Stalin Museum, Gori, Republic of Georgia

  Hugh Lunghi Collection

  Photographs by the author/Author’s own collection

  Victoria Ivleva-Yorke

  List of Characters

  Joseph Stalin, born Djugashvili, known as “Soso” and “Koba.” Secretary of

  Bolshevik Party 1922–1953 and Premier 1941–1953. Marshal. Generalissimo

  FAMILY

  Keke Djugashvili, Stalin’s mother

  Kato Svanidze, Stalin’s first wife

  Yakov Djugashvili, son of Stalin’s first marriage to Kato Svanidze. Captured by Germans

  Nadya Alliluyeva, Stalin’s second wife

  Vasily Stalin, Stalin’s son by Nadya Alliluyeva, pilot, General

  Svetlana Stalin, now known as Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter

  Artyom Sergeev, Stalin and Nadya’s adopted son

  Sergei Alliluyev, Nadya’s father

  Olga Alliluyeva, Nadya’s mother

  Pavel Alliluyev, Nadya’s brother, Red Army Commissar married to

  Zhenya Alliluyeva, Nadya’s sister-in-law, actress, mother of Kira

  Alyosha Svanidze, brother of Kato, Georgian, Stalin’s brother-in-law, banking official married to

  Maria Svanidze, diarist, Jewish Georgian opera singer

  Stanislas Redens, Nadya’s brother-in-law, secret policeman, married to

  Anna Redens, Nadya’s elder sister

  ALLIES

  Victor Abakumov, secret policeman, head of Smersh, MGB Minister

  Andrei Andreyev, Politburo member, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, married to

  Dora Khazan, Nadya’s best friend, Deputy Textiles Minister, mother of Natasha Andreyeva

  Lavrenti Beria, “Uncle Lara,” secret policeman, NKVD boss, Politburo member in charge of nuclear bomb, married to

  Nina Beria, scientist, Stalin treated her “like a daughter”; mother of

  Sergo Beria, scientist, married to

  Martha Peshkova Beria, granddaughter of Gorky, daughter-in-law of Beria

  Semyon Budyonny, cavalryman, Marshal, one of the Tsaritsyn Group

  Nikolai Bulganin, “the Plumber,” Chekist, Mayor of Moscow, Politburo member, Defence Minister, heir apparent

  Candide Charkviani, Georgian Party chief and Stalin’s confidant

  Semyon Ignatiev, MGB Minister, master of the Doctors’ Plot

  Lazar Kaganovich, “Iron Lazar” and “the Locomotive,” Jewish Old Bolshevik, Stalin’s deputy early 1930s, Railways chief, Politburo member

  Mikhail Kalinin, “Papa,” the “Village Elder,” Soviet President, peasant/ worker

  Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, then Ukrainian First Secretary, Politburo member

  Sergei Kirov, Leningrad chief, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, Politburo member and Stalin’s close friend

  Valerian Kuibyshev, economic chief and poet, Politburo member

  Alexei (A. A.) Kuznetsov, Zhdanov’s deputy in Leningrad; post–World War II, CC (Central Committee) Secretary and curator of MGB, Stalin’s heir apparent as Secretary

  Nestor Lakoba, Abkhazian boss

  Georgi Malenkov, nicknamed “Melanie” or “Malanya,” CC (Central Committee) Secretary, allied to Beria

  Lev Mekhlis, “the Gloomy Demon” and “Shark,” Jewish, Stalin’s secretary, then Pravda editor, political chief of Red Army

  Akaki Mgeladze, Abkhazian, then Georgian boss; Stalin called him “Wolf”

  Anastas Mikoyan, Armenian Old Bolshevik, Politburo member, Trade and Supply Minister

  Vyacheslav Molotov, known as “Iron-Arse” and “our Vecha,” Politburo member, Premier, Foreign Minister, married to

  Polina Molotova née Karpovskaya, known as Comrade Zhemchuzhina, “the Pearl,” Jewish, Fishery Commissar, perfume boss

  Grigory Ordzhonikidze, known as Comrade Sergo and as “Stalin’s Arse,” Politburo member, Heavy Industry chief

  Karl Pauker, ex-barber of Budapest Opera, Stalin’s bodyguard and head of Security

  Alexander Poskrebyshev, ex-medical orderly, Stalin’s chef de cabinet , married to

  Bronka Metalikova Poskrebysheva, doctor, Jewish

  Mikhail Riumin, “Little Misha,” “the Midget,” MGB Deputy Minister and manager of the Doctors’ Plot

  Nikolai Vlasik, Stalin’s bodyguard and head of Guards Directorate

  Klim Voroshilov, First Marshal, Politburo member, Defence Commissar, veteran of Tsaritsyn, married to

  Ekaterina Voroshilova, diarist

  Nikolai Voznesensky, Leningrad economist, Politburo member, Deputy Premier, Stalin’s anointed heir as Premier

  Genrikh Yagoda, NKVD chief, Jewish, in love with Timosha Gorky

  Abel Yenukidze, “Uncle Abel,” Secretary of Central Executive Committee, Georgian, bon viveur, Nadya’s godfather

  Nikolai Yezhov, “Blackberry” or “Kolya,” NKVD boss, married to

  Yevgenia Yezhova, editor, socialite, Jewess

  Andrei Zhdanov, “the Pianist,” Politburo member, Leningrad boss, CC (Central Committee) Secretary, Naval chief, Stalin’s friend and heir apparent, father of

  Yury Zhdanov, CC (Central Committee) Science Department chief, married Svetlana Stalin

  GENERALS

  Grigory Kulik, Marshal, Artillery chief, womaniser and bungler, veteran of Tsaritsyn

  Boris Shaposhnikov, Marshal, Chief of Staff, Stalin’s favourite staff officer

  Semyon Timoshenko, Marshal, victor of Finland, Defence Commissar, veteran of Tsaritsyn; his daughter married Vasily Stalin

  Alexander Vasilevsky, Marshal, Chief of Staff, priest’s son

  Georgi Zhukov, Marshal, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Stalin’s best general

  ENEMIES AND FORMER ALLIES

  Nikolai Bukharin, “darling of the Party,” “Bukharchik,” theorist, Politburo member, Stalin’s co-ruler 1925–29, friend of Nadya, Rightist, chief defendant in last show trial

  Lev Kamenev, Leftist Politburo member, defeated Trotsky with Stalin, with whom ruled 1924–25, Jewish. Defendant in first show trial

  Alexei Rykov, “Rykvodka.” Rightist Politburo member, Premier and co-ruler with Stalin and Bukharin 1925–28. Defendant in last show trial

  Leon Trotsky, genius of the Revolution, Jewish, War Commissar and creator of Red Army, “operetta commander” in Stalin’s words

  Grigory Zinoviev, Leftist Politburo member, Leningrad boss, Jewish. Triumvirate with Stalin and Kamenev 1924–25. Defendant in first show trial

  “ENGINEERS OF THE HUMAN SOUL”

  Anna Akhmatova, poet; “harlot-nun,” said Zhdanov

  Isaac Babel, author of Red Cavalry and friend of Eisenstein, Mandelstam

  Demian Bedny, “the proletarian poet,” boon companion of Stalin

  Mikhail Bulgakov, novelist and playwright, Stalin saw his Days of the Turbins fifteen times

  Ilya Ehrenburg, Jewish writer and European literary figure

  Sergei Eisenstein, Russia’s greatest film director

  Maxim Gorky, Russia’s most famous novelist, close to Stalin

  Ivan Kozlovsky, Stalin’s court tenor

  Osip Mandelstam, poet; “Isolate but preserve,
” said Stalin

  Boris Pasternak, poet; “cloud dweller,” said Stalin

  Mikhail Sholokhov, novelist of Cossacks and collectivization

  Konstantin Simonov, poet and editor, friend of Vasily Stalin, favourite of Stalin

  Prologue

  The Holiday Dinner 8 NOVEMBER 1932

  At around 7 p.m. on 8 November 1932, Nadya Alliluyeva Stalin, aged thirty-one, the oval-faced and brown-eyed wife of the Bolshevik General Secretary, was dressing for the raucous annual party to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the Revolution. Puritanical, earnest but fragile, Nadya prided herself on her “Bolshevik modesty,” wearing the dullest and most shapeless dresses, draped in plain shawls, with square-necked blouses and no makeup. But tonight, she was making a special effort. In the Stalins’ gloomy apartment in the two-storey seventeenth-century Poteshny Palace, she twirled for her sister, Anna, in a long, unusually fashionable black dress with red roses embroidered around it, imported from Berlin. For once, she had indulged in a “stylish hairdo” instead of her usual severe bun. She playfully placed a scarlet tea rose in her black hair.

  The party, attended by all the Bolshevik magnates, such as Premier Molotov and his slim, clever and flirtatious wife, Polina, Nadya’s best friend, was held annually by the Defence Commissar, Voroshilov: he lived in the long, thin Horse Guards building just five steps across a little lane from the Poteshny. In the tiny, intimate world of the Bolshevik élite, those simple, cheerful soirées usually ended with the potentates and their women dancing Cossack jigs and singing Georgian laments. But that night, the party did not end as usual.

  Simultaneously, a few hundred yards to the east, closer to Lenin’s Mausoleum and Red Square, in his office on the second floor of the triangular eighteenth-century Yellow Palace, Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party and the Vozhd—the leader—of the Soviet Union, now fifty-three, twenty-two years Nadya’s senior, and the father of her two children, was meeting his favoured secret policeman. Genrikh Yagoda, Deputy Chairman of the GPU,1 a ferret-faced Jewish jeweller’s son from Nizhny Novgorod with a “Hitlerish moustache” and a taste for orchids, German pornography and literary friendships, informed Stalin of new plots against him in the Party and more turbulence in the countryside.