I opened the briefcase and read to him the confessions of Reinhold and several other prisoners in custody.
“Please tell me, Mironov, you must have studied party history and know how the Bolsheviks viewed individual terrorist activities, but do you still really believe that nonsense?”
I replied that I only had some evidence, and that my job was to find out whether the witnesses were telling the truth.
“I ask only one thing of you,” said Kamenev, “I demand to be confronted with Reinhold, with all those who have falsely accused me.”
Kamenev explained that he and Zinoviev had been in prison or exile almost constantly since the fall of 1932, and that even in those days when they were allowed to go free, they had been watched around the clock by agents of the NKVD. The Secret Political Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also arranged for a man to live in Kamenev’s house under the pretext of protecting his personal safety, but this “bodyguard” often searched his desk and watched for visitors.
“I ask you”, Kamenev said again. “In such conditions, can I plan terrorist activities?”
“Reinhold affirmed that he had visited Kamenev’s home several times for secret meetings. On this point, Kamenev proposed that I look at the field surveillance log of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which must have recorded the surveillance of his house and its results, and then I would be convinced that Reinhold had never crossed the threshold of his house.”
“And what did you tell him?” I asked, after listening to Mironov’s account.
“What else can I answer him?” Mironov said with a double shrug, and I told him frankly that my role as an interrogator in this situation was limited, because the Politburo was fully convinced that the confession against him was true. Exasperated beyond belief, Kamenev declared to me.
“You can tell Yagoda that I will never again take part in the farce of a trial that I and Zinoviev had already seen last year. Please tell Yagoda that this time he must prove my guilt, and that I will never again make any deal with him. I demand that Andevich and the rest of the staff of the Leningrad branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs be summoned to court, and I will personally ask them a few questions about the murder of Kirov.”
This ended the first conversation between Mironov and Kamenev.
“I feel that I am incapable of handling the case of Kamenev,” said Mironov. “It would be better to give Kamenev to some well-known Central Committee member who knows Kamenev well to try him, that way they can talk on an equal footing. The representative of the Central Committee can explain to Kamenev about this case that you have failed in your opposition to the Party Central Committee and that now the Party Central Committee demands that you provide all materials for the benefit of the Party. If you refuse, then what will happen, what will happen …… But as for me, nobody will allow me to talk to him in this way. I was instructed to use only purely interrogation methods and to pull confessions of guilt out of Kamenev’s mouth mainly on the basis of Reinhold’s false confessions. I felt that I was working on such cases for nothing ……”
Mironov had to comply with Kamenev’s request to provide him with the opportunity to confront Reinhold. As I have already said, this Reinhold was almost from the very beginning of the interrogation under the complete domination of Yagoda. When confronted with Kamenev, his words were completely provocative: “Yes,” he said, having visited Kamenev’s house several times, when Kamenev was arguing the necessity of killing Stalin and his close aides and staff.
“Why are you lying?” Kamenev asked.
“The NKVD will decide who is lying: me or you!” Reinhold replied.
“You said that you had been to my house several times.” Kamenev continued, “So, can you say exactly when?”
Reinhold pointed out the dates: 1932, 1933, 1934.
“Since you come to my house so often, you must remember certain features of my house.” Then Kamenev launched into a series of questions about the location of the house and its furnishings.
Reinhold did not dare to risk answering these questions. He said that Kamenev was not an interrogator and had no right to interrogate him.
When he did, Kamenev asked Mironov to ask Reinhold the same questions. However, Mironov avoided mentioning them, not daring to help Kamenev crush those charges invented by Stalin. Kamenev could not but ask Mironov to at least reflect in the record of the confrontation the fact that Reinhold refused to answer questions about Kamenev’s place of residence.
The confrontation was over. In order to avoid Kamenev’s request, Mironov decided simply not to write a record. The interrogated man did not even ask why there was no transcript of the confrontation. He knew very well that the so-called interrogation was just a prelude to the crucial stage, when Yagoda would completely remove the mask of the legal system and shamelessly force him to confess to all the charges against him.
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