Did Pidarkov listen to Ordzhonikidze? I think he did. Pidarkov knew Ordzhonikidze well enough to know that, unlike Stalin, he valued friendship, at least when his friend was not yet a threat to his power. Pidakov also knew that Ordzhonikidze, who had only attended a medical training course, could not lead the industrial construction without his assistance. Therefore, even for purely personal purposes, Ordzhonikidze should fight to save Pidarkov’s life so that he could have a good advisor and assistant in the future. Pidarkov could not have foreseen that Ordzhonikidze was actually acting as Stalin’s lobbyist and accomplice. On this point, even Ordzhonikidze himself may not have realized. Everyone knew that Ordzhonikidze was one of the most influential Politburo members, and Stalin could ask for his obedience and cooperation in deciding state affairs, but he could not necessarily force him to play such a shameful role as a lobbyist and spy. In short, Pidakov had every reason to think that he was in a better position than the other defendants, because the man who sheltered him was Stalin’s closest friend and fellow countryman.
Apparently, this is how Pidarkov believed Ordzhonikidze. He signed a false confession which was to the effect that in December 1935, taking advantage of a business trip to Berlin, he wrote a letter to Trotsky, who was living in Norway, asking him to give instructions concerning economic assistance to the Soviet domestic conspiracy. Togetsky wrote back quickly and informed him that. The Trotskyists had reached a secret agreement with the German Nazi government. The agreement stipulated that Germany must attack the Soviet Union and would in return help Trotsky return to the Soviet Union to seize power, and that Trotsky would cede Ukraine to Germany after seizing power and grant some other economic benefits. In his letter, Trotsky also demanded that Pidakov’s counter-revolutionary underground intensify its sabotage activities in the industrial sector in order to fulfill the obligations undertaken in the agreement, and so on.
In the Kremlin, Stalin listened carefully to the “confessions” of Pidakov. After listening, he suddenly asked: Wouldn’t it be better if the indictment stated that Pidakov received instructions directly from Trotsky, not through correspondence, but during a meeting with him? Thus a myth emerged that Pidarkov had flown to Norway to meet with Trotsky in person. To make this claim even more convincing, Stalin instructed Slutsky, the head of the Foreign Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to draw a map of the alleged route of Pidakov’s journey from Berlin to Norway and to indicate on it the train schedule from Berlin to Oslo.
In February 1937, in the hospital of Professor Berger in Paris. I met Slutsky. It was he who told me all about the subsequent meeting in the Kremlin to discuss the Pidakov case.
At the meeting, Slutsky reported to Stalin that from the materials he had gathered, it was necessary to abandon the claim that Pidakov had gone to Norway in person. For Pidarkov would have to travel by shuttle bus from Berlin to Oslo and back, and the time needed to travel from Oslo to the town of Viksar, where Trotsky lived, for an interview would take at least two days and nights. No one would believe that Pidarkov was not in Berlin during such a long period of time, knowing that the materials of the Soviet Commercial Office in Berlin clearly state that during that period Pidarkov was in Berlin every day to lead negotiations with representatives of German companies, and signed contracts almost every day.
Stalin was dissatisfied with Slutsky’s report and did not wait for him to finish telling the whole “story” of this myth before he retorted: “Yes, you have a point, because you based it on the train schedule. But why couldn’t Pidarkov have gone to Oslo by plane? A round trip by plane would probably take only one night, right?”
Slutsky hastened to point out that the plane could carry only a few passengers (note that this so-called flight took place in 1935) and that each passenger had to be registered in the airline’s logbook. But Stalin’s mind was made up, and he ordered: “Specify that Pidakov was on a special plane. For such a hook, the German authorities would of course be happy to provide the plane!”
Slutsky liked to brag and often boasted that he had the honor of meeting Stalin. About this meeting, according to him, he told me only one person, asking me to keep it absolutely secret. But a few days later I heard that he had also told the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs intelligence station in France, under the condition of “absolute secrecy,” and that a member of the Foreign Service was also present.
According to Stalin’s instructions, Pidakov’s “confession” was modified accordingly. The so-called secret letter from Trotsky was deleted. The alleged interview with Trotsky by Pidakov was fleshed out. According to the story later presented in court, Pidarkov took off from Berlin in mid-December 1935 in a special plane, landed at an airport near Oslo, had his passport checked by Norwegian officials, and then drove to Viksar, where he met with Trotsky to discuss plans to overthrow the Stalinist regime and seize power in the Soviet Union with the help of German troops.
This time, the trial organizers learned a painful lesson from the last “Hotel Bristoli”, which did not exist. Pidarkov was warned not to give “superfluous details”. As long as the name under which Pidarkov flew to Norway and whether he had a human visa, there should be no other trouble. It is perfectly plausible that Pidarkov flew back and forth to Oslo in one night. As to whether a plane actually flew over Norway in the December night, it would be impossible for anyone specializing in faultfinding to find out.
What awaited Stalin, however, was a blow to the head.
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