American History Tellers

Special Episode: History Daily — The Assassination of Sergei Kirov
Host: Lindsey Graham
Release Date: December 1, 2025

Overview

This episode examines the dramatic events surrounding the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a prominent Soviet politician, on December 1, 1934. Host Lindsey Graham explores the personal motivations behind the killing, the immediate and far-reaching political consequences, and how Kirov's death triggered Stalin’s Great Terror—one of the most brutal campaigns of political repression in history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Backdrop: Stalin’s Rise to Power (00:08–04:24)

• The narrative opens with the reverent funeral for Vladimir Lenin in 1924, highlighting the power vacuum and the fierce rivalries among Communist Party officials.
• Joseph Stalin, a pallbearer at Lenin’s funeral, is introduced as an ambitious, cunning, and increasingly paranoid figure.
• The Party is described as a “viper’s nest of competing allegiances and fierce rivalries” (00:48).
• Stalin, realizing he must eliminate his rivals to secure his rule, soon embarks on a policy of purges—climaxing with the aftermath of Kirov’s assassination.

Notable Quote:

"In truth, the Communist Party is a viper's nest of competing allegiances and fierce rivalries. A dog-eat-dog world in which nobody is to be trusted and everybody is to be feared."
— Lindsey Graham (00:48)

2. The Assassination: Motive and Execution (04:24–09:51)

• Leonid Nikolayev, an embittered, struggling former party bureaucrat, is introduced as Kirov’s assassin.
• Graham paints a vivid portrait of Nikolayev’s failures, humiliation, isolation, and deepening paranoia. Suspicious his wife is cheating on him with Kirov, Nikolayev’s personal grievances grow into a lethal obsession.
• On December 1, 1934, Nikolayev enters the Smolny Institute, finds Kirov in the corridor, and shoots him at close range. He attempts suicide immediately afterward, unsuccessfully.
• Nikolayev is apprehended by the NKVD and confesses—insisting he acted alone.
• Stalin, seizing the political opportunity, ignores the lone-actor confession and orchestrates a wide-ranging crackdown on supposed enemies.

Notable Moment:

"Nikolayev holds his breath as Kirov passes, not noticing Nikolayev lurking in the shadows. Realizing that it's now or never, Nikolayev dashes into the open, lifts his revolver and squeezes the trigger."
— Lindsey Graham (08:43)

3. Stalin’s Immediate Response and Show Trials (11:34–17:51)

• After a swift investigation, Stalin rejects Nikolayev’s claim of lone action.
• A military tribunal sentences 14 accused co-conspirators to death. (11:38)
• Focus shifts to Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, former high-ranking Bolsheviks and Stalin’s rivals, now scapegoated for Kirov’s death.
• Zinoviev and Kamenev face trumped-up charges and are forced to confess during sham trials, with the promise their lives will be spared—a promise Stalin reneges on.
• The public show trials mark the beginning of widespread purges, known as the Great Terror, resulting in mass arrests, executions, and the silencing of dissent.

Notable Quote:

"The verdict of the court was already decided before the hearing began. These defendants were convicted of conspiring against the state and sentenced to death by firing squad."
— Lindsey Graham (11:47)

4. The Great Terror Expands: Military and Secret Police Purged (19:59–23:23)

• Demonstrates how Stalin’s paranoia and purges spread, reaching the upper echelons of the military and even the Soviet secret police.
• Case of Mikhail Tukhachevsky: Once a lauded marshal, he is accused of conspiracy, tortured, and executed alongside other top officers. (19:59)
• The head of the NKVD, Nikolai Yezhov, the architect of terror, is eventually purged and executed himself.
• By the end of the Great Terror in 1938, between 700,000–1 million people are estimated to have been executed, with the full extent hidden from public knowledge for decades.

Notable Quote:

"During Stalin's great terror, nobody in Soviet civic life was safe, not even the NKVD."
— Lindsey Graham (21:48)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• "Stalin will become increasingly paranoid, and in the end, the opportunity to get rid of his opponent will be provided by a lone gunman..."
  — Lindsey Graham (01:24)

• "He feels wronged by the Communist Party's leadership. And there is one man he blames above all others: Sergey Kirov."
  — Lindsey Graham (05:53)

• "When Sergey Kirov was shot by a crazed gunman, Stalin seized the opportunity to round up his opponents."
  — Lindsey Graham (15:52)

• "A veil of silence will be cast across the atrocities until the 1980s when it finally becomes legal in the Soviet Union to speak openly about what happened during Stalin's Great Terror."
  — Lindsey Graham (22:45)

Key Timestamps

• 00:08—04:24: Stalin at Lenin’s funeral; setup for power struggle and purge environment.
• 04:24—09:51: Leonid Nikolayev’s descent; Kirov assassination event.
• 11:34—17:51: Stalin’s purge machine begins; Moscow Show Trials and executions.
• 19:59—23:23: Terror reaches the military (Tukhachevsky) and NKVD; scale of the Great Terror revealed.

Tone & Language

Lindsey Graham’s narrative is rich, immersive, and suspenseful, mixing dramatic second-person perspectives with somber, evocative descriptions of Soviet life and terror. The storytelling is methodical, leaning on emotional detail and historical context to bring the listener into the paranoia and brutality of the Stalin era.

Summary

This episode serves as a powerful, tightly focused account of how the assassination of Sergei Kirov became the spark for Stalin’s Great Terror. Through vivid character sketches and chilling historical detail, Graham shows how Stalin manipulated a single tragic event into justification for the systematic destruction of political rivals and the terrorization of an entire nation. The episode underscores the human costs of dictatorship and paranoia—and the enduring relevance of these lessons for understanding power, propaganda, and repression.