Stalin and Yagoda immediately received the report of Kirov’s murder. Soon afterwards, Yagoda called Medvedki, head of the Leningrad branch of the Interior Ministry, and said that he would accompany Stalin to Leningrad.
Zaporozhets fulfilled his mission, but his role did not end there. He was the only one in the Leningrad branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who knew the intentions of his “master”: the assassination of Kirov would eventually lead to the trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Zaporozhets understood that Stalin must have come to Leningrad with the intention of “interviewing” Nikolaev in order to determine whether he would be tried in public. Therefore, it was necessary to get Nikolaev to make a useful “confession” as soon as possible. That way, when Stalin arrived, he, Zaporozhets, would be able to present a confession that Nikolaev had understood that he had killed Kirov on the direct orders of Zinoviev and Kamenev.
Zaporozhets went to great lengths to extract this confession from Nikolaev’s day before Stalin’s arrival. But he did not expect that the murderer would be very stubborn. Zaporozhets knew from his years of experience in the Ministry of Internal Affairs that anyone, even if innocent, who was frightened by the arrest and worried about the safety of his relatives outside, would become obedient in the hands of the interrogators and willingly confess to all the charges against him. Moreover, Nikolaev had just committed a heinous crime – the murder of a Politburo member. By this time, Nikolaev had almost lost his memory. He shouted at the guards in his cell that he had no grudge against Kirov and that he had killed out of desperation. Zaporozhets had already heard from his “friends” that Nikolaev was very attached to his wife and children. Therefore, if he refused to confess as demanded, Zaporozhets intended to intimidate him by implicating his relatives. This alone would be enough to make Nikolaev make any confession.
Of course, there was a little trouble in the middle. About two months before the assassination, the “friend” had introduced Zaporozhets as “my friend and worker” to Nikolaev. Now, if Nikolaev recognized that this “worker friend” was actually the second-in-command of the Leningrad branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he would have realized that his “friend” must also be an agent of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He would have compared these facts – the various parts of the elaborate conspiracy – with each other, and the result would have been unimaginable! Sound reasoning should have warned Zaporozhets that it would be better to hand Nikolaev over to other colleagues for interrogation, who would still be able to extract the necessary confessions from the prisoner. However, Zaporozhets did not want to give away the head credit he deserved. He was determined to personally try to obtain from Nikolaev the confessions he needed to slander Zinoviev and Kamenev, and then offer them to Stalin. This desire made him overlook the disadvantage of having met Nikolaev. However, the meeting seemed like a coincidence, so it could be hoped that Nikolaev, frightened by later events, would not recognize Zaporozhets, especially since the latter had now changed into the uniform of an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Zaporozhets, estimating that Nikolaev had completely lost his morale, decided to act immediately and ordered that the prisoner be arraigned in his office.
As soon as he was escorted into his office, Nikolaev immediately recognized the tall leader of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with whom he had made a chance acquaintance, and immediately realized that he was the victim of a political conspiracy. Zaporozhets had miscalculated. The man before him was not at all a coward paralyzed by felony and imprisonment, but still an arrogant and fearless desperado. Nikolaev was outspoken about Zaporozhye; he said he had no desire to oppose Kirov himself, but he was satisfied with the success of his terrorist robbery and believed that he had opened a new era in the struggle against the party bureaucracy and privileged classes.
The outcome of the arraignment is not a laughing matter today. Several screams were heard in Zaporozhets’ office, the door slammed open, and Zaporozhets fled to the reception room, pursued by Nikolaev, chair in hand. The guards swooped in, grabbed Nikolaev, and took him back to his cell.
It wasn’t long before the guards heard a strange noise in Nikolaev’s solitary cell. It turned out that he was banging his head against the wall again and again. He was behind bars, and this was the only way he could get his life over as quickly as possible. Probably, he thought that death would save his whole family from persecution and torture. As a result, he was tied up and taken to another cell with four walls covered with bedding. From then on, guards were posted in the cell, and they were appointed by the Ministry of the Interior. In the early hours of the next morning, Zaporozhets tried to talk to Nikolaev, but to no avail: Nikolaev hated him with a passion. He would not talk to him!
Stalin’s arrival in Leningrad was a major event. He occupied a whole floor of the Smolny Palace. In addition, he had at his disposal more than ten offices in the building of the Interior Ministry. These offices were completely separated from all other rooms.
As soon as Stalin arrived, he started working on the case. The first person he summoned was Medvedsky, the head of the Leningrad branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It goes without saying that this summons was purely a formality. Stalin knew full well that this man knew nothing about the circumstances of Kirov’s murder other than the obvious and superficial facts. Medvedki soon came out. Next summoned was Zaporozhets. Stalin spoke with him alone for more than an hour before ordering Nikolaev’s arraignment.
Stalin interrogated Nikolaev in the presence of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda, the head of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Milonov, and the guards who were escorting Nikolaev. When Nikolaev entered the house, he stood by the door. He had a bandage on his head. Stalin gestured for him to come closer, then looked at him and asked in a gentle, almost affectionate tone.
“Why would you want to kill such a good man?”
Had it not been for the testimony of Mironov, who was present at the time, I would never have believed that Stalin would have asked such a question; it was out of keeping with his usual manner of speaking.
“I am not firing at him, but at the Party!” Nikolayev replied firmly. Despite the fact that he was in front of Stalin, his voice did not tremble at all.
“Where did you get the pistol?” Stalin continued to ask.
“Why are you asking me about this? Will Zaporozhets go!” Another audacious answer.
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