In the second half of 1937 and in 1938, important officials of the Soviet government (who had never joined any faction opposed to Stalin) who were suppressed were
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Myminrauk
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Finance Grinko, Deputy People’s Commissars Chernov and Yakovlev (arrested one after the other)
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Finance and Trade Weitzel
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications Khalepsky
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Defense Industry Pushimovich
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Justice Krylenko
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of State Farms Kalmanovich
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Education Brenov
People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Water Transport Yang Song
Chairman of the All-Union Central Executive Committee (three terms) Yenukidze, Akulov, and Winshrecht
Governor of the National Bank Mariyasin
Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars Antipov
Deputy People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Serebrovsky
Deputy People’s Commissar of the Ministry of Foreign Trade Eliava
Politburo members Kostur and Luzutak
All these people were loyal to Stalin, and I dare say that they never understood why Stalin arrested them and why their lives had to be taken.
These are only some of the members of the Soviet government and Politburo who were killed. The number of important officials who were suppressed in Ukraine, Belarus and other republics is uncountable. There are countless others. In addition to those who were shot, many others committed suicide, such as Lyubchenko, the chairman of the Ukrainian government, Chervyakov, the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, and many others.
By the end of 1937, the Ministries of People’s Commissars and other national institutions of the USSR were left without leadership. All industrial and mining enterprises were in a state of semi-paralysis. Everywhere there was a demand for new administrative heads, new managers and plant directors. But Stalin did not dare to use the old surviving cadres of the Central Committee, because these people had worked more or less with the purged cadres in the past. Urgent situation forced Stalin to take a way to indiscriminately fill the number of people who under normal circumstances are not even qualified to be general staff, but now suddenly promoted to lead the country’s important institutions, or even to lead a ministry.
As an example, I will cite just one thing I know, which can be called a first-hand account. One evening, two representatives of the Party Central Committee suddenly came to the Moscow Institute of Foreign Trade. They asked the dean and the members of the party committee to recommend two students who were politically reliable and at the same Time qualified for “leadership positions”. After a meeting of the party committee, two people were proposed, one of them was named Chiviarev, the other one’s name I forget. The two representatives asked the dean to send these two students to the Central Organization Department at once. Two days later, when the faculty and students of the institute opened the newspaper they had just received, they were so shocked that they could not believe their eyes: there was a government announcement in the newspaper appointing Chvyarev as the People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade! But this Chiviarev, not long ago, was a very ordinary clerk in the Soviet commercial office in Germany. Another university student also became a member of the government – a People’s Commissar of some other ministry.
It is well known that the Caucasus is the homeland where Stalin grew up. However, the leaders of the republics of the region did not escape Stalin’s bloody repressions. He was familiar with all the leaders there and knew that they were particularly disgusted with him because they knew everything about his past. He had to “get rid” of them before they remembered to write their memoirs. This task fell on the shoulders of Lavrentiy Beria, the former head of the Transcaucasian NKVD and then secretary of the Transcaucasian Party Central Committee.
June 1938. The “duel” between Stalin and the most famous old Bolshevik in Transcaucasia, Buddu Mudivani, which lasted for almost twenty years, finally came to an end. Mudivani was the chairman of the Georgian Soviet government and had known Stalin since childhood. He was one of the first to recognize Stalin’s ambition to usurp power through his power tactics. The “duel” between them began in the early twenties, when Lenin was alive. At that time, Mudivani often quarreled with Stalin, and Lenin almost always sided with Mudivani.
When the interrogators sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to persuade Mudivani to smear himself and slander other Georgian leaders with false confessions, Mudivani’s reply was brilliant, into the bargain.
“You are asking me to believe in Stalin’s promise that he would not harm the old Bolsheviks, aren’t you? For your information, I have known Stalin for thirty years. He won’t be comfortable until he slaughters all of us – from the breast-fed child to the blind old lady!”
Mudivani always refused to slander himself, and finally died at gunpoint.
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