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- [00:00]
Afua Hirsch
Wondery subscribers can binge seasons of legacy early and ad free. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. This episode contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to the second episode in our series on Joseph Stalin.
- [00:28]
Peter Frankopan
We left Russia in the throes of violent revolution. Everything is changing, everything up for grabs and Joseph Stalin knows it.
- [00:37]
Afua Hirsch
When Stalin comes back from exile, not one person turns out to welcome him, but he can see his chance coming. Within months, Joseph Stalin will become one of the most powerful men in the country with his steely eyes set on the very top job.
- [01:01]
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- [02:05]
Peter Frankopan
From Wondery and Goal Hanger. I'm Peter Frankopan.
- [02:08]
Afua Hirsch
I'm Afwa Haysh.
- [02:10]
Peter Frankopan
And this is Legacy, the show that tells the lives of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived and asks if they have the reputation that they deserve.
- [02:28]
Afua Hirsch
This is Joseph Stalin, episode two the Terror.
- [02:46]
Peter Frankopan
So we're in the middle of 1917 in Russia and Petrograd, that's the name that St. Petersburg is given to make it sound more Russian. After the war starts, is in a state of frenzied change. There's huge speculation about what's going to happen now. The Tsar is gone, Might he come back? Who's going to take over? There's a new government called the Provisional Government and new freedoms. But that new regime has a mountain of problems. It has to deal with the continuing war with Germany. It's got economic pressures on it. It's got the problems of food supplies, which is why there'd been a breakdown in in the first place. And there are always threats about coups of little groups trying to seize power. It survives a right wing coup, but there's another one that's brewing.
- [03:31]
Afua Hirsch
Lenin has big plans for the Bolsheviks to bring down the Provisional Government. But the party is divided on the issue and Stalin at this point sides faithfully with Lenin.
- [03:43]
Peter Frankopan
The two men are growing close, not really as friends, as we'll see later. Lenin never really liked Stalin, but he needs an enforcer. Lenin is a thinker. He needs someone to go and implement. And Stalin, on the other hand, needs to have a kind of papal authority given to him by Lenin to allow him to get things done too.
- [04:02]
Afua Hirsch
It's hard to emphasize enough how much the Bolsheviks are at war within their own ranks, constantly plotting against each other, competing, disagreeing. And Stalin's first job is to navigate that labyrinth, to establish his position. He works out that the way to do this is to make himself a reliable, consistent official and master of the paperwork. Lenin says in what is one of history's great backhand compliments, he's a good official in all sorts of responsible work. And when voting for the Central Committee takes place, only Lenin and Zinoviev, who's the leading Petrograd Bolshevik, get more votes.
- [04:46]
Peter Frankopan
He's put in three key positions. So first in charge of policymaking, that means distilling what it is that everybody thinks they're saying is going to happen. He's put in charge of organization, which means that he has to work out who to manipulate. And then he's put in charge of Pravda, a newspaper for the Bolshevik Party. So he's the power behind the throne. When Lenin is forced into hiding by the Provisional Government to try to arrest him, it's no surprise that the man who steps up is Stalin. Stalin is absolutely critical in the success of the Bolsheviks. At this time.
- [05:17]
Afua Hirsch
He's 38, he's feeling stable and more secure in his role. And he's staying with an old Bolshevik family, the Ali Luevs, and takes the shine, as he has done before, to their young daughter, in this case 16 year old Nadia.
- [05:34]
Peter Frankopan
24Th of October 1917. Stalin returns late to the Aliyev apartment and Stalin is excited. Everything is ready. He tells the family, we take action tomorrow. We shall seize power. And he's right. The Bolsheviks are about to alter the course of history because we have one of the most seismic events of the 20th century, the Bolshevik coup of October 1917. And actually it's pretty straightforward. Afwa.
- [06:03]
Afua Hirsch
It is surprisingly, for all of the scheming and dreaming and plotting, that's been going on for decades now. At this point in October 1917, the provisional government is weak. It can't really rely on the soldiers and sailors it has positioned in Petrograd. It doesn't have the support of the people. And while other parties in the Soviet are not really up for the fight, the Bolsheviks are ready, waiting and perfectly positioned to move.
- [06:35]
Peter Frankopan
They've got good support amongst the military after years of groundwork, particularly amongst the lower ranks. Overnight, red soldiers take control of key buildings. Then they go after the Mensheviks and the Socialist revolutionary delegates who are arriving for the Congress of Soviets. So it's interesting. It's not just about trying to push Tsarist officials and members of the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks immediately target their closest rivals and in fact, in many ways, their ideological peers. So Bolshevism from the beginning is about using force. It's about overriding what it is that people want to impose. A view from on top. By the afternoon of 25 October, the Bolsheviks have seized control of the Petrograd Soviet, which is the Council of Workers and Soldiers, who are absolutely instrumental in control over the city.
- [07:25]
Afua Hirsch
And on the 26th of October, the Council of People's Commissars is announced. The original aim had been to bring other parties in to this council, but negotiations go nowhere. So Lenin decides, what's the point of being a broad church? This can be a Bolshevik only government. This is what he'd wanted all along. And now we have the beginnings of the one party state that remains in Russia today.
- [07:51]
Peter Frankopan
And he appoints all of his buddies into the key positions. So Stalin has appointed People's Commissar for Nationalities. Trotsky's in there too. And as the Bolsheviks take power, it dawns on them quite quickly. Not only is their hold on power tenuous, but lots of people expect them not to survive. This is just a bunch of ideologues. They got no idea how the state works. They got no idea how to feed workers, let alone to end the war. So a lot is needed to try to get some breathing space to embed themselves. And one of the first things they do, afwa, is to bring about the end of the hostilities with Germany.
- [08:26]
Afua Hirsch
Trotsky oversees the end of the war. And this mainly involves the humiliating specter of the Bolsheviks signing away vast swathes of land to the Germans. A painful concession on their part, but crucial to give them breathing space, because they have another main priority to focus on, which is feeding the workers, feeding the people. And this is where Stalin comes out. From behind his desk he is ordered south. It is his job to make sure that food is provided so that the Bolsheviks can govern without losing the support of the people. And this is not as easy as it sounds because much of the breadbasket of Ukraine has been surrendered to the Germans. War and revolution have meant the collapse of so much of the infrastructure that underpins everyday production. And Stalin has the fateful orders do whatever it takes.
- [09:25]
Peter Frankopan
When the Bolsheviks seize power, one of the things that they tell all of the peoples of the former Russian empire is that they will have the right to self determination. Some peoples and regions take matters into their own hands. At the beginning of 1918, Ukraine declares itself independent. And Ukraine is one of the big breadbaskets of the Russian empire. And that question about natural resources has obvious resonances in today's world with the Russian invasion of Ukraine first of 2014 and then the 2022. But Stalin is sent down to try to make sure that there's food supplies, particularly for the big cities. The whole point of Bolshevism is about the urban proletariat. It's not about peasants. In fact, the agricultural workers are seen as a hindrance. They're ones who still have a Christian faith. They have hierarchical ways of running their villages and are looked down on by the urban proletariat. You know Marx's vision of what comes with the use of capital and it's about putting control of the means of production in the hands of the workers and working classes in cities. So supplying those cities is key because that's where Bolshevik power is based.
- [10:26]
Afua Hirsch
Stalin is now elevated to co chair of the party with Yakov Sverdlov and heads south on his grain miss but there is a backdrop of brewing civil war becoming more and more inevitable of this coalition of everyone who opposes the Bolsheviks. Tsarists, Cossacks, nationalists, social revolutionaries, all willing to do whatever it takes to stop the Bolshevik rise.
- [10:50]
Peter Frankopan
There's a coalition of czarists or White Russians, Cossacks, nationalists, independence movements, socialist revolutionaries, left wingers who don't like the Bolsheviks, all coming together to oppose the Bolsheviks who are known as the Reds. Funnily enough, the fact that there are all these ragtag different groups who have different visions, who can't agree things with each other, they're suspicious of each other, and so on, it gives the Bolsheviks the opportunity to galvanize and to create the kind of sense that the revolution has been compromised from outside. And that's important for two reasons. First, because it allows momentum to build up behind the Bolsheviks. But Second, which is probably as important over the long term is it creates that sense of paranoia that there's always a threat, that the revolution is always going to get compromised. It's important also that the point of the Russian revolution in Lenin's eyes anyway, and certainly from Marxist doctrine, was that it was the start of a global uprising of the urban proletariat. Russia wasn't expected to go first because it was much less industrialized than places like Germany, which were thought to be the place where the tinder would catch fire. But the expectation would be that if it happened in Russia, it would spread everywhere. So the Bolsheviks see it as their destiny to try to deliver something that's a kind of once in a millennium opportunity to change the new world global order. And Stalin and Lenin believe fervently that this is their moment too. If it fails, it's not just their lives and their livelihoods and their visions. It's sort of. It's the proof of concept that fails as well. July 12, 1918 Tsaritsin, Russia. @ Saratsin railway station, Stalin strides along the platform. His knee length leather boots thump out a steady rhythm. Around him, men heave grain sacks onto trolleys destined for the train. Stalin glances at a clerk trying to keep up with him. Holding out a clipboard, he snatches the document and examines the details, then shoots the man the dangerous look. This shipment is half a ton light. The clerk's face reddens. There's been increased Cossack activity in the area. Comrade Stalin. Stalin sighs. Resistance to the Bolsheviks Red army is now widespread. Attacks on Stalin's grain procurements are increasing. He orders the clerk to take a message for the commander of the Southern Front's army. Burn the Cossack villages closest to the last robbery. Execute any suspects, he says. Then he instructs another Red army platoon to move south of the city to engage the Whites. He's prepared to lose men, but he can't spare the grain. In truth, Stalin knows he doesn't have the authority to make such demands. But as co chair of the Party, Lenin has personally tasked him with procuring grain from the south of the country. He's decided he'll do whatever he considers necessary to achieve his aims. Stalin arranges his uniform as the clerk disappears, smooths his collarless tunic, tightens the pistol belt around his waist and brushes a scarf from his black boots. His assistant Nadjia approaches. She hands him a stack of correspondence with a knowing smile. Matters demanding your attention, comrade, she says. Stalin returns a wink as he accepts the bundle I see only one thing deserving of my attention, and my first order is that you agree to be my wife. Nadia flushes crimson, but allows him to pull her close. He doesn't mind the 20 year age difference. Her youthful energy has proved an asset to his work. But more importantly, Nadia understands very well what Stalin wants. Stalin gets.
- [14:53]
Afua Hirsch
He marries Nadia around 1918, he's 40, she's 17. But he is thriving, arguably coming into the height of his career. Personally and politically, he's flourishing. And it really gives us a sense of the conditions in which Stalin flourishes, which will become a real feature in his life. Chaos, conflict. This is the environment that allows him to really wield the most power. And that is in itself quite a sinister feature of his character. PETER oh God.
- [15:26]
Peter Frankopan
And I mean the tragedy of this period, of all the hopes and expectations of a new Russia that would modernize, would reform, that would become free, you know, it turns wrong very quickly from the moment that Lenin shuts the doors on the Mensheviks and the socialist revolutionaries. You know, that pathway that Russia goes down where the belief is that the only way in which you can rule is through violence and authority. It sends all of those ideas about what a new dawn could look like into the darkness. And that descended very quickly over the new emerging Soviet Union.
- [16:01]
Afua Hirsch
We almost need a new word for violence for what happened in Russia during this period, because it almost doesn't feel adequate to capture just the sheer numbers, the mindlessness of the violence. It's just really hard for the human mind to process this level of brutality. And even in that context, Stalin is actually earning a reputation for violence and ruthlessness. Even Trotsky regards him as somebody on the extreme end of capacity for violence. Often feel the labels we have for this period, civil war, revolution, they kind of sanitize what's really happening. And what's really happening is just so catastrophic, just violence that will forever change the future of the countries experiencing it.
- [16:48]
Peter Frankopan
Ironically, as Russia dissolves into chaos, that puts more and more power in centralized hands. The Central Committee is the body that oversees the partying country, which has Lenin at its head. There are two key the Politburo, the political bureau, and the Ogburo, the organizational bureau. And very unusually, Stalin is appointed to both. So most Red leaders make themselves famous. With one role, like Trotsky leading the Red Army, Stalin manages to insert himself, get his tentacles into absolutely everything. So the Bolsheviks survive the civil war as much because of the incompetence of the whites as their own military success. But they're still on shaky ground, with lots of other problems to be looking.
- [17:29]
Afua Hirsch
At solving, one of which is the economy which is devastated by this conflict. And Lenin's number one priority is consolidating Bolshevik power, even at the expense of the pure Leninist Marxist ideology, which is of course state control, collectivisation, everything being done by the state on behalf of the people. And instead he has to slightly water down that ideology for pragmatic reasons. At this point he instigates new economic policy nep, which involves halting this hated grain requisition and allowing a degree of private ownership to come back into the system. Private trade, private land ownership. And this is meant to be a transitional measure until the economy is back on its feet, until food is flowing where it needs to again and the Bolsheviks are more secure in their power base. And then they plan to reinvigorate their long term vision for state run industrialization.
- [18:26]
Peter Frankopan
Stalin continues to cement his place at the heart of Lenin's party. In 1922 he's appointed to be general secretary of the Communist Party. And there's a continual struggle within the party for other positions in power which makes good government even more difficult. But actually that gives Stalin an opportunity because he survives by maneuvering and by playing people off against each other. His big rival though afua, is Trotsky.
- [18:52]
Afua Hirsch
I'm just thinking back to my doomed date and your comment about how revolutionaries are always disagreeing with each other. Well, this guy that I dated, you know, he was a Stalinist, but his mother was a Trotskyist and they were constantly at each other's throats. I just can't help thinking about how crazy it is.
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Peter Frankopan
He must have been good looking afwa, that's all I can say.
- [19:10]
Afua Hirsch
I don't want to comment further on what was going on in my mind. In fairness, I did not know he was a Stalinist when I went on a date with him.
- [19:16]
Peter Frankopan
But tell us about Leo Trotsky, Stalin's big rival, because that's the sort of theme of the first decade of Stalin's position in the Soviet Union.
- [19:24]
Afua Hirsch
Well, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the Stalin Trotsky rivalry was strong enough to outlive both Stalin and Trotsky and well into the 20th century. In an Islington restaurant on a Friday night, these two men hated each other. They have a common goal. They are united in their ambition to have the top job to succeed Lenin. But it is a zero sum game. They both recognize that one will succeed at the expense of the other. And there is much in Trotsky that Stalin envies. He's a brilliant orator, charismatic. He's Jewish. He's a revered intellectual. He inspires and mobilizes people just through the power of his personality. And on top of that, Trotsky is also a man of action. He built the Red Army. He is one of the heroes of the Civil war from the Bolshevik perspective. So Stalin is envious of Trotsky. And on top of that, there are political differences, real divergences in their ideology. Stalin believes in socialism in one country. He's focused on Russia and Greater Russia. Trotsky is committed to the vision of international Bolshevik revolution and specifically the spread of Bolshevism throughout Europe. But you know, like all these things, you can analyze it intellectually and ideologically. The truth is, they hated each other and it was going to be a fight to the death.
- [20:45]
Peter Frankopan
So Stalin has always been the right hand man. But that could be about to change. Because on the 25th of May 1922, Lenin suffers a stroke at the age of 52. And in Stalin's mind, there's only one question. How can he outmaneuver his comrade Trotsky and snare the top job? Why are there ridges on Reese's peanut butter cups? Probably so they never slip from her hands. Could you imagine? I'd lose it. Luckily, Reese has thought about that. Wonder what else they think about. Probably chocolate and peanut butter. There is another player in this complex battle. Nadezh Shakrupskaya, Lenin's wife. She is determined to fight her husband's corner to the bitter end. And Krupskaya needs to be kept sweet because the blessing of Lenin could make or break Stalin's leadership bid. But who is going to be favored? Stalin or Trotsky?
- [22:11]
Afua Hirsch
January 12, 1922, Moscow, USSR Stalin grips the receiver, clenches his other hand into a fist as Lenin's wife prattles on. I know better than anyone what my husband needs anyway. Our private life is nobody's business but ours. Stalin has found out that Krupskaya has been helping Lenin draft correspondence despite doctors strict orders to cease all work. Worse still, his spies tell him the notes were intended for Trotsky. Stalin phoned Krupskaya to take her to task, but he's struggling to make his point. He hears her say, lenin needs your support, comrade. You're not bigger than the party. Stalin can't hear anymore. You should be ashamed, allowing Lenin to exert himself with party business. The committee ordered him to rest. Your conduct could be a disciplinary matter. He pauses before adding, as for your husband's needs. They have often been well met elsewhere. He knows he's taking a risk by alluding to Lennon's previous close relationship with Inessa Armand. But who does this woman think she is? Stalin hears Krupskaya gasp and slam down the phone. He stalks to his cabinet and sloshes bodka into a tumbler. Wonders what Trotsky and Lenin might be plotting. He feels exposed. Stalin flings open the door to find a thin faced man in a drab suit, an envelope clutched in his hands. Stalin is in no mood for work. He snarls. Unless you want a date with a firing squad, I suggest it waits till tomorrow. But before he can close the door, the man thrusts the envelope into his hands. It's from a friend and vital. You see it. He disappears down the stairs. Stalin takes his drink to the window and tears open the package. It's a statement by Lenin concerning his succession. He stares at the words. Stalin is too crude. And this defect becomes intolerable in the post of General Secretary. I therefore make a proposal for comrades to think of a way to remove Stalin and in his place appoint someone else. Stalin lets the paper flutter from his hand. He stares for a few seconds at the wall in front of him. This isn't Trotsky plotting his downfall. It's the leader of his own party. Downing his drink, he determines to fight back. He still has his allies and his departments. He'll cling on to power, rise again, until finally he has them all at his Merc.
- [25:11]
Peter Frankopan
That secret paper that Stalin spires got hold of becomes known as Lenin's Testament. And it includes this absolutely dynamite statement. I'm not convinced that comrade Stalin will always manage to use power with adequate care, which is one of the great understatements. So this document could destroy Stalin's hopes. And the only good thing for him is that Lenin is equally damning of Trotsky. And that gives Stalin the wiggle room he needs. So when Lenin dies on 21 January 1924, having never properly recovered, Stalin organizes the funeral and he gives himself the figurative role of being the mourner in chief, ironically for the man who'd wanted to stop him from getting to the top. Lots of people around Stalin, like Zinoviev and Kamynev and even Trotsky despise him. But Stalin has lots of key allies across the whole of the apparatus. And Stalin benefits from the fact that his enemies can't agree with each other. So Zinoviev and Kamila see Trotsky as The they hate Trotsky too, and they'll do anything to keep him out. And again, when it comes to Lenin's testament, Zinev and Kamien have come to Stalin's rescue. At the Party Congress, they decide that Lenin's will or testament is only going to be disclosed to a few people and not to the whole congress, because they don't want it going public. And Trotsky goes along with it because he doesn't want to be seen as being divisive.
- [26:38]
Afua Hirsch
Which means that the party never really gets to find out how deeply Lenin disapproved of Stalin and how invested he was in making sure he didn't succeed, because that would have been devastating to Stalin's legitimacy. And Stalin himself will rebrand himself as the inevitable heir of Lenin. So Stalin bides his time. It's not until 1927, three years later, that he's now ready to strike.
- [27:05]
Peter Frankopan
In October 1927, Trotsky and his allies on the Central Committee raised the question of the testament. But Stalin is now strong, and he throws Trotsky off the central committee in November 1927, and Zinoviev too, and for good measure, adds Kamila as well, and expels all of them from the Party. And what Stalin does is he says, it's all about Party loyalty, and these men are trying to destabilize the revolution.
- [27:30]
Afua Hirsch
How and why this happens is so fascinating to me, because we see it again and again in history. Why do people sit back and let that happen? He is building himself into an unstoppable, untouchable, completely unaccountable dictator, and his Party comrades let it happen. Why is that, Peter? Is it that they don't get the extent of his terrifying vision? Or is it because they're already too scared to stand up to him, that he's already powerful enough that they feel the cost?
- [28:02]
Peter Frankopan
I think it's not a beauty competition. It's who's going to win. Stalin is a good operator, he's a good canvasser, and he's also very menacing. Trotsky is too clever for his own good. He's very charismatic and flamboyant, but that also can alienate and lose people too.
- [28:19]
Afua Hirsch
Stalin is a man in a hurry, and now he's made it to the top. He wants things done his way, he wants them done quickly, and the result will be catastrophic.
- [28:54]
Peter Frankopan
So Stalin's first target is the countryside. He wants radical change. He wants an end to private ownership, and he wants the formation of huge collective farms, by force if necessary. So he scraps the new economic policy in cities. He introduces a policy of rapid industrialization. Without thinking about the human cost. He's fashioning a state in his own image.
- [29:17]
Afua Hirsch
I think, Peter, if we think about a kind of spectrum of urgency, where Bolshevism believed in a more urgent revolution than Menshevism, and then Lenin believed in Bolshevism, but was willing to water it down to prepare the economy to get there, Stalin is one step further towards urgency. And like you said, his capacity for violence is crucial to that. He doesn't really mind if it Costs lives. In January 1928, he takes a train to Novosibirsk along the Trans Siberian Railway and personally oversees the taking of grain from quote, unquote hoarders. And he sends armed squads into villages where they murder people, literally. He returns triumphantly to Moscow, wagons filled with grain. This is an early red flag for the Politburo who've not been consulted on this brutal and radical step. But the urban party membership love it. They are benefiting, they want bread, they want change. These kulaks, these wealthy peasants have been presented to them as the enemy within. And they're absolutely eating it.
- [30:23]
Peter Frankopan
And I think that's really important. That explains why there is widespread support. Because Stalin looks and sounds like a man of action. He's a man of steel.
- [30:31]
Afua Hirsch
It's going to come at a cost. That cost is human life. It will be worth it for the long term gains. I mean, he is building stuff. He increases production on these five year plans. He has a target to increase production by 161%. He builds new towns and cities like Magnitogorsk in the Urals, which will host a vast steelworks. He has these huge infrastructure projects. The White Sea, Baltic Canal is begun. And probably the most violent of these is the collectivisation of farms in the countryside. Peasants are taken off their own land, their livestock is taken away. They no longer have control of their own production. They must work in these state owned farms and pool their labor and resources for the state. And this is not food that will be going to feed their own families or which they can sell in exchange for money for themselves. It's now going to the greater good of feeding the nation, feeding the ussr. And you can imagine the inbuilt, inequalities, unfairnesses, but also hardship.
- [31:33]
Peter Frankopan
The human cost, as you mentioned afraid, is absolutely enormous. So in Magnitogorsk, 10,000 people die in the first five years of building it. You have hundreds of thousands of kulak households forced off the land. Some of it is about raising grain, for example, to get foreign currency. Grain starts to be exported through black seaports to raise US dollars in particular. And that turns into a famine, one of the worst famines in human history. In Ukraine, this famine is known as the Holodomor, and it's estimated to have killed somewhere between three and a half, maybe five million people. And I've read lots of letters, diaries, reports of the suffering in the 1930s. I mean, they're heartbreaking. It's children literally dying in the schoolroom and the teacher asking the question and not getting an answer, and it's because they've collapsed and died at their desk. So the transformation of the Soviet Union in the 1930s is one of the most brutal moments in human history.
- [32:25]
Afua Hirsch
There are all these stories about Stalin or other Central Committee members taking trains through the countryside and soldiers having to come and clear all the bodies away from the tracks or the dying peasants out of sight. You start to feel you're becoming numb to it. At some point. It's sowed these very long festering seeds of grievance, understandably, in trauma in Ukraine that they were so disproportionately affected by deliberate suffering caused by Stalin's decisions during this era.
- [32:58]
Peter Frankopan
Yeah, and I think that's not that well known in the West. I mean, it's the defining point of the 20th century in Ukraine. And one of the reasons why people living in Ukraine today have been so suspicious about Russian intentions. But I mean, what I think is interesting here also in this period, which I find very difficult, is the way in which communism becomes very popular in Western Europe. And you get the fellow travelers who come and get taken to see what are called Pochemkin villages, sort of shams of people smiling and saying they've got enough to eat. And kind of intellectuals all over Britain and other countries in Europe really thinking about Communism as offering a potential solution and being an alternative form of government. We talked in the last episode about the glamorization of Stalin or left wing leaders, Castro, Che Guevara and so on. But the damage that's been done through the hiding behind the ideology of what Marxism could offer. You know, throw in Mao in China too. I think the idea that Communism has a validity should be as discredited as the idea of National Socialism in Germany too.
- [33:59]
Afua Hirsch
He doesn't want people to know how devastating this regime is. And so he controls, like all dictators do, what they read, what they watch, what they see in the news, what music they listen to. But, and this is A real morality tale. You never can control everything. His wife, Nadia, is really coming to the end of her tether and I think, suffering in some ways, the trauma, the secondary trauma of what was going on in the country at her husband's behest. They've been married 14 years. They have two children, Vasily and Svetlana. Stalin is not particularly faithful. He is flirting with women, sometimes in front of her, which infuriates her.
- [34:47]
Peter Frankopan
Then one evening, after a Politburo dinner, where everybody would typically drink too much, Stalin would hold court. Nadja storms out one evening, goes back to their apartment in another part of the Kremlin, and she shoots herself. Stalin, not for the first time controlling the news feed, makes sure that the cause of death that's reported in Pravda is covered up, and it's listed as being an appendicitis, as when his first wife died. Stalin looks like he takes it really hard. He tells Molotov, one of his closest allies. I was a bad husband. I never had time to take her to the cinema. But it doesn't take long for Stalin to do what you might expect after, which is to blame her.
- [35:27]
Afua Hirsch
I think, in a way, I see her suicide as one of the very few forms of accountability. You know, there were very few ways you could protest Stalin at this point. He is omnipotent. There is no democracy. There are no rights. There are no avenues for protest. But she took her own life in a way that directly confronted him with the unhappiness that he was causing, not just in the country at large, but in his own home. I think that's one of the reasons he resented it. He didn't want to be held accountable. He didn't want a mirror held up to himself in that way. And this really unleashes a whole new level of brief, a whole new capacity for violence.
- [36:10]
Peter Frankopan
It fuels the bloodlust. It fuels the paranoia, too. In December 1934, Sergei Kirov, a member of the Politburo, a friend of Stalin's and probably the most popular person in the Soviet Union at the time, is assassinated in Leningrad. And it's seen as the starting point for what becomes known as the Great Purges, the point where old Bolsheviks start to get removed from power, as well as scientists, novelists, poets, engineers, academics, taken out by the nkvd, the sort of secret service, and shot for looking at people the wrong way, writing the wrong thing, thinking the wrong thing. And not even the men who'd won the civil war are saved. So people like Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Man who'd modernised the Red Army, a hero amongst the military, the first great military commander of the Russian Revolution, is deemed to be suspect and is dealt with by Stalin and his associates in a way that becomes extremely familiar. Familiar.
- [37:08]
Afua Hirsch
May 23rd, 1937. The Kremlin, Moscow. Mikhail Tukhachevsky staggers to his feet as his cell door opens. He's been alone in the dark for what feels like hours, but it might be days. Tukhachevsky blinks as Nikolai Yev off slaps a thin yellow file on the desk. You must have known this day would arrive, he says. Comrade, there's been a mistake. The things I'm accused of. I would never betray Comrade Stalin. Tukhachevsky feels nauseous. He hasn't eaten anything since he was bundled into a prison van and driven to Moscow. He eyes the dark brown stains smeared on the cell walls and shudders. Why would I undermine my country? I have given my life to protect it. Yesov leans forward and sneers. Ah, yes, Marshal Tokhachevsky, the great war hero. It doesn't make any difference here. General or kulak, they all confess in the end. He pushes a sheet of paper across the desk, hands him a pen and turns to leave. I need you to confess everything about your plans to seize power. Leave nothing out, comrade. The door opens and a large figure enters the room. Tukhachevsky shrinks back. Fear prickles his body. He calls after Yezov, please let me speak to Comrade Stalin. He knows I'm loyal to him. So the Soviet Union in. As the door closes, Tukhachevsky feels a fist knock him to the floor. He struggles to his knees and suddenly understands this isn't about establishing the truth. It's about exerting control, consolidating power and unleashing a world fueled by terr.
- [39:18]
Peter Frankopan
Yeah. God. I mean, you know, the Great Purges in the Soviet Union were, I mean, absolutely incredible. I mean, the numbers of people officially killed. 680,000, something like that. It's amazing how many would ask for their final words to be celebrating and declaring their loyalty to the motherland and to Stalin. In fact, Tukhachevsky, when He's shot in June 1937, he does just that. But, you know, Bolshevism, from the beginning, it's a violent movement. They believe in violence to take power and violence to stay in power. And Stalin takes it to a new level. The man who industrializes the Soviet Union industrializes terror. Governors in towns in the Urals would say, you need 200 people arrested and 94 people shot. So you then have to follow what you're told to do. And it's absolutely extraordinary.
- [40:04]
Afua Hirsch
You know, what you just touched on is really the thing that most stays with me. I think the idea that you can round up traitors by quota really reveals how cynical this was. There are so many stories of somebody who's in that position of power thinking, well, he has a dacha that I've always wanted, so he's going on my list. And then of course, you get to inherit their property when you've had them shot. It's just very hard to understand.
- [40:28]
Peter Frankopan
Stalin by 1939 is completely untouchable at home, but the Soviet Union, despite everything, is far from secure.
- [40:37]
Afua Hirsch
Well, a big part of that threat that the USSR feels at this point is personified in the phenomenon of Adolf Hitler in Germany. Stalin also knows that should Nazi Germany attack the ussr, they are in no position to go to war. But he doesn't have great options for allies. Britain and France are not exactly natural friends to the communist Soviet Union. And so again, being a pragmatist, Stalin does what on one level is shocking, but on another level makes perfect sense.
- [41:12]
Peter Frankopan
On the 24th of August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10 year non aggression pact. And that's largely driven by the fact that the Germans are keen to get access to Soviet or Russian metals and also oil from the Caucasus because the Germans are short of energy for their own rearming processes. The reason why the Soviet Union is not ready for a war is because half of the leadership, in fact more than half the leadership of the Red army have been executed. Plus, Stalin doesn't believe that Hitler is crazy enough to ever turn on the Soviet Union.
- [41:48]
Afua Hirsch
In 1939, the Nazis invaded invade Poland beginning the Second World War. And under the terms of the deal, Stalin rolls his tanks in to claim his part of Poland and sits back and watches the Nazi blitzkrieg smash into France. This is going according to plan from Stalin's perspective. He's bought the Soviet Union the time it needs. He's got Hitler's measure. He understands him. And Hitler will never invade the Soviet Union in or will he? That's next time on Legacy. Follow Legacy on the Wondery app, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcast. You can binge seasons early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey@wondery.com survey from wondery and goal hanger this is the second episode in our series about Joseph Stalin.
- [43:07]
Peter Frankopan
A quick note about our dialogue we can't know everything that was said or done behind closed doors, particularly when we go far back in history. But our scenes are written using the best available sources, so even if a scene or conversation has been recreated for dramatic effect, it is still based on biographical research.
- [43:26]
Afua Hirsch
We've used many sources for this series, including a biography by Robert Servis. Legacy is hosted by me, Afua Hirsch.
- [43:35]
Peter Frankopan
And me, Peter Frankapen.
- [43:37]
Afua Hirsch
Scene writing by Jack Jack McKay for Goal Hanger.
- [43:39]
Peter Frankopan
Our series producers are Kate Taylor and Anoushka Lewis. The associate producer is Robin Scott Elliott. Our production managers are Izzy Reed and Alex Hack Roberts. The executive producers are Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport.
- [43:54]
Afua Hirsch
Legacy is sound, designed and engineered by Daniel King. Music supervision is Scott Velasquez for Friss and Sink. Our producer for Wondery is Emanuela Quinati Francis and our senior managing producer is Rachel Sibley.
- [44:08]
Peter Frankopan
Executive producers for Wondery are Estelle Doyle, Chris Bourne, Morgan Jones and Marshall Louis.