An hour later, as soon as I walked into his office, he joyfully announced, “Not a single person will be shot! Today, the matter is finally and completely cleared up!” Since everything Mironov told me was very important, I will try to convey everything he told me as accurately as possible.
“When Yagoda went to the Kremlin today, he instructed Morchanov and me not to leave the office and to be ready to send Zinoviev and Kamenev to the Kremlin to talk with Stalin. Yagoda called from there and we got them into the car and sent them off.”
“Yagoda waited for us in the reception room. Then we were sent to Stalin’s office again. The only member of the Politburo inside, besides Stalin, was Voroshilov. He was sitting to Stalin’s right. On his left was Yerov. Zinoviev and Kamenev entered the office silently and stood in the middle. They did not greet anyone. Stalin pointed with his finger to the row of chairs passing by, and we all took our seats: next to me was Kamenev, and next to Molchanov was Tikhoviev.”
“Hey, what are you going to say?” Stalin suddenly asked, and glanced at Zinoviev and Kamenev with his eyes. Zinoviev and Kamenev exchanged glances.
“We have heard that our case is to be discussed at a meeting of the Politburo.” Kamenev said.
“You are sitting in front of what happens to be the Politburo’s ad hoc committee, entitled to hear all your views,” Stalin replied. Kamenev shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Zinoviev in trepidation. Zinoviev rose to his feet and began to speak.
“He began with the matter of promises, saying that he and Kamenev had accepted many promises in recent years, but that none of them had been fulfilled, and then he asked how they could believe in new promises after all this. You know, after Kirov’s death, they were forced to admit political and moral responsibility for the murder, and Yagoda had conveyed to them the promise made by Stalin himself that it was the last time they would make a sacrifice. And yet, the most despicable public trial is being prepared to persecute them. This public trial will not only discredit them, but will also tarnish the whole party.”
“Zinoviev wanted to rouse Stalin’s senses, to ask him to cancel the public trial and to prove to Stalin that by doing so he would certainly bring unprecedented disgrace upon the Soviet Union. ‘Think about it,’ pleaded Zinoviev tearfully, ‘you want to frame members of the Politburo under Lenin and personal friends of Lenin as bandits who have betrayed their principles. And to turn our Bolshevik Party, the revolutionary party of the proletariat, into a den of vipers specializing in intrigue, treachery and assassination, you …… had Vladimir Ilyich been alive, had he seen all this …… Zinoviev cried out a few times and howled.”
“He picked up a glass of water and drank it. Stalin whispered after he had calmed down a little: ‘It’s too late to cry now. What were you thinking when you rose up against the Party Central Committee. The Party Central Committee warned you many times that you would only end up in tears when you started such factional wars. You didn’t listen to these warnings, and you really ended up crying your eyes out. Now we are saying to you again. You must obey the will of the Party so that you and those you dragged down can stay alive, but you don’t want to listen. If this goes on, things will end in a way that will make you cry even more and bring you to a miserable end, and then you will only have yourselves to thank.'”
“What about your pledge? Didn’t you promise not to shoot us?” Kamenev asked innocently.
“Promise?” Stalin asked rhetorically. “Seriously, how can you guarantee that? It’s ridiculous, you want the League of Nations to issue a formal guarantee agreement?” Stalin laughed mockingly. “Zinoviev and Kamenev have apparently forgotten that they are in the Politburo of the Bolshevik Party, not in the marketplace haggling over stolen horses. As if their guarantee to the Politburo wasn’t enough. Comrades. Then I don’t know if there is any point in continuing to talk with them.”
“Kamenev and Zinoviev are too wild, too,” interjected Voroshilov. “As if they had the right to force the Politburo to accept their conditions. This is outrageous! If they had any brains at all. They should kneel before Comrade Stalin and thank him for not killing them. If they don’t want their heads, then let them die to hell!”
“Stalin stood up, copied his hands behind his back, and paced around his office.”
“There was a time when Kamenev and Zinoviev were known for their clarity of thought and their ability to analyze problems dialectically, Stalin said again, but now they analyze problems as crudely as citizens, yes, comrades, like a group of the most backward and ignorant little citizens. They think that we are organizing a trial just to shoot them. This is stupid! As if we couldn’t shoot them all if we had to go through a trial, what would be the point of a trial if we thought we had to shoot them. They forget three things:”
“First, the court trial was not against them, but against Trotsky, the sworn enemy of our Party.”
“Second, since we didn’t shoot them when they were at the height of their anti-Party rage, why did we shoot them after they were willing to help the Central Committee in its struggle against Trotsky?”
“Thirdly, these two comrades forgot (Mironov particularly emphasized the fact that Stalin called Zinoviev and Kamenev comrades) that we Bolsheviks were all students and successors of Lenin, and we did not want to shed the blood of old party members, no matter how much they had sinned against the party.”
This last remark, according to Mironov, was delivered with great emotion by Stalin and sounded very sincere. It was also very convincing.
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