大象传媒

Sergei Kirov had been a loyal ally of Stalin in the 1920s, but his popularity made Stalin regard him as a rival. Martin Sixsmith visits the "rather sumptuous 5 room apartment" in St Petersburg from which Kirov left for work on December 1st 1934. He never arrived.

Rumours that Stalin ordered Kirov's murder would persist for many years; the next day Stalin personally interrogated the assassin, forcing him to sign a statement that he had acted as part of an opposition plot led by Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. Within days 100s of people were arrested and executed without trial and in the following years Stalin used the Kirov murder as a pretext to exterminate 100s of 1000s of people whom he considered enemies or potential enemies. Leading Bolsheviks were arrested and tortured until they confessed to imaginary crimes against the state; the Soviet Union was gripped by fear; denunciations proliferated. Executions could be ordered without a judge.

Families were held responsible for the crimes of a relative, and children were taught to inform on anyone they suspected of disloyalty to Stalin. The Tale of Pavlik Morozov, a schoolboy who denounced his own father was compulsory reading in schools; plays, paintings and an opera inculcated the message that loyalty to one's family is less important than loyalty to the state.

With the murder of Trotsky who, from his in exile in Mexico had kept up a vendetta against Stalin, in 1940, Stalin had achieved his goal of removing all actual or potential rivals for power. But the purges of the 1930s had disastrous consequences. Millions died, the economy suffered, national security was undermined, and Stalin had destroyed the cream of the Soviet Union's armed forces at the very moment that the clouds of world war were gathering on the horizon.

Historical Consultant - Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producer: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.