Chapter 13: Molotov: On the Brink of Imprisonment
It is clear from the official stenographic transcripts of the court case of the “Joint Trotsky-Tenoviev Headquarters” that the court did not mention Molotov at all in its list of leaders of the “Joint Headquarters” attempted murder, despite the fact that he was second only to Stalin in the country He was the second most important person and head of government in the country after Stalin. The defendants have admitted that they conspired to assassinate Stalin, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov, Ordzhonikidze, Kosyul and Postishev. But for some reason, these “vicious conspirators” left out Molotov.
Most notably, neither the state prosecutor Vyshinsky nor the members of the trial court ever once asked the defendants to explain this strange choice. Why did they leave out Molotov when they wanted to assassinate all party and state leaders? There can be only one explanation for the “conspirators'” love for Molotov’s life: Molotov’s apparent participation in the conspiracy against Stalin, even though it has not yet been revealed!
However, it seems forbidden to mention this name in court. Neither the defendant nor the judge or the prosecutor mentioned a word about it. What is going on here?
We will see below. There is no mystery here. In fact, at the beginning of the interrogation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was given the order that the interrogated persons must be forced to confess that they had attempted to assassinate Stalin and all the other members of the Politburo. In accordance with this order, Mironov then asked Reinhold (a man who, as I said earlier, agreed to make a false confession of slander against the old Bolsheviks) to falsely accuse the former opposition leaders of attempting to murder Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Kirov, and other leaders. In the Soviet Union, the order of the names of the leaders was very strict, because it indicated the position of these leaders in the life of the party and the state. In Reinhold’s confession, Molotov’s name was next to Stalin’s precisely because he was the number two man in the party and state. But when this interrogation transcript was sent to Stalin for approval, as I said earlier, Stalin crossed out Molotov’s name with his own handwriting. Immediately afterwards, the interrogators received orders that Molotov’s name should not appear in future interrogation materials.
It is not difficult to imagine. What a shock this event caused among the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, they immediately drew a logical conclusion from it. Stalin would immediately order the arrest of Molotov and put him in the dock as an accomplice in the conspiracy against the party, in the company of Zinoviev and Kamenev. There were even rumors among the investigators that Molotov had been placed under house arrest in his own home. Probably, no one in the NKVD, except Yagoda, could figure out the reason for Molotov’s sudden loss of favor. But according to the rumors that prevailed at the time, Stalin was angry because Molotov had tried to persuade him to cancel the despicable trial of the old Bolsheviks.
Soon Molotov went to the south to recuperate. According to the heads of the NKVD, this hasty trip. It was also a sign of Molotov’s downfall, a sign that the play was coming to an end. It was known that Stalin had a “habit”: instead of eliminating or arresting a People’s Commissar or Politburo member directly at his workplace, whenever he ordered the arrest of a comrade, he always sent him away for recuperation or announced it through the newspapers. A person had received (or was about to receive) a new appointment. The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs knew this “habit” of Stalin better than anyone else, so they waited day after day for the order to arrest Molotov. Almost no one in the “organs” suspected. The place where Molotov came back from his vacation. It was no longer the Kremlin, but the internal prison in Lubyanka.
On the eve of Molotov’s departure from Moscow, Yagoda summoned T., the head of the transport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had been a subordinate of mine, to see him. He ordered T-so to escort Molotov to his vacation. He warned that this task was very delicate. It was given by the “master” himself. Yagoda told T. to monitor Molotov around the clock on the pretext of strengthening his security and to take special measures to prevent Molotov’s suicide.
Stalin could not tolerate his victims escaping his revenge, not even by committing suicide. Tomsky’s suicide had earned Yagoda a scolding from Stalin, who had already prepared a farce of a trial for revenge against Tomsky. Tomsky escaped the clutches of the investigators by raising his pistol to his temple in time for the last moment when they came to arrest him.
In previous years, whenever Molotov went on leave, Stalin had to see him off in person at the station. But this time, Stalin did not go to the station. However, this “exception” did not surprise me in the slightest. On the contrary, I was puzzled by what happened later: about an hour after the departure of Molotov’s car, Yagoda suddenly ordered the Transportation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to send a telegram to Molotov through a special railroad line, saying that Stalin had gone to the station to see him off, but was late. He also said that this telegram was sent by Stalin’s personal order.
Stalin clearly did not go to the station to see him off, so why did he deceive Molotov off? What was the purpose of sending this telegram? Of course. It was not to relieve Molotov’s suffering from his concealment, nor was it to show that the two sides had reconciled. If Stalin had really meant it, he would have first of all ordered that Molotov’s name be added to the confessions of the accused, that he no longer be placed in the “separate register” and that he be given the same “rights” as the other members of the Politburo, i.e., that Molotov be recognized as one of the In other words, it was recognized that Molotov was also the subject of a murder attempt by the “conspirators”. But Stalin did not give this instruction. Apparently, he then sent this telegram simply to ease Molotov’s mind, so that he would not risk suicide and so that the burden on the NKVD personnel responsible for monitoring Molotov would be relieved.
So, despite this reassuring telegram, Molotov’s situation was still quite dangerous. In the southern sanatorium, despite the comfort and luxury of life, the garden full of roses and vines, he seemed to be in a trap, and this trap is likely to be covered and locked at any time. There is no doubt that as long as his name is not on the blacklist of the “To-Ji conspiracy” to be assassinated, he will have no peace, and what is more, he is the only member of the Politburo whose name is not on it.
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