Kirov's Murder

On December 1, 1934, the entire Soviet Union was shocked to hear of the murder of Sergei Mironovich Kirov, head of the Communist Party’s Leningrad Oblast Committee and one of the party’s most respected bosses. He was shot by a fellow named Nikolayev, who, apparently, attacked Kirov out of jealousy, because of a rumored affair between Kirov and Nikolayev’s wife. Nikolayev was arrested and, just one month later, shot.

Yet that was only the beginning...

Kirov’s murder was blamed on a “Trotskyite-Zinovievite Bloc” and triggered a crackdown that served as a prelude to what historians would later label “The Great Terror.” Laws that were already undemocratic and harsh were made even more stringent, and thousands of innocent people were expelled from Leningrad simply because their forebears were aristocrats or priests. According to Stalinist logic, they were the ones who had to pay the price for Comrade Kirov’s death.

But not the only ones, of course. About a year and a half later, former oppositionists Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were shot, and Trotsky died in Mexico at the hands of an ice pick-wielding assassin.

A huge mythology has grown up around Kirov’s murder. His wife claimed that several months before her husband was killed he had gotten the same number of votes as Stalin at the 17th Party Congress. If true, Stalin would not have been able to forgive this. Furthermore, supposedly Kirov was approached by members of the party leadership and asked to replace Stalin. Kirov, the story goes, not only refused, but told Stalin about this, thus signing his own death warrant.

Some have wondered how Nikolayev managed to get so close to Kirov, or about the fact that several days before the murder he was detained for following the party boss. Not only did Nikolayev appear to be stalking Kirov, but he was found to be carrying a gun, a serious crime.

We do not know whether or not to believe a guard charged with escorting Nikolayev to and from the courtroom who claimed that Nikolayev admitted giving false testimony against innocent people, and that when he heard that he was being sentenced to death he cried out, “They tricked me!”

What was Nikolayev promised in exchange for testifying that he had been inspired to shoot Kirov by Stalin’s enemies – Kamenev, Zinoviev, and Trotsky? Maybe there were no promises?

Is it true that Kirov’s bodyguard, who died while being driven to an interview with murder investigators, was killed by a blow to the head rather than in a mysterious car accident that happened along the way? And is there any truth to rumors that a secret policeman sitting next to the driver of the truck in which the bodyguard was being driven turned the wheel sharply and sent the vehicle crashing into a wall?

There is no solid proof to answer any of these questions, but that hasn’t stopped people from drawing their own conclusions. There was a popular rhyme: «Огурчики, помидорчики, целовал меня милый в коридорчике». It translates as “Cucumbers, tomatoes, my sweetheart kissed me in the corridor.” In the 1960s, a new version made the rounds: «Огурчики, помидорчики, Сталин Кирова убил в коридорчике». (“Cucumbers, tomatoes, Stalin killed Kirov in the corridor.”)