For the prior thread of my Icebreaker Thesis Chronology project,
click here.
For the Table of Contents and Introduction thread,
click here.
The Shadow of Death
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As Stalin works to consolidate his rule, against his competitors for Lenin's legacy, this leads into an introduction for how Stalin prefers to make government policy. Anastas Mikoyan, for example, becomes a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party this year, 1923 -- and will stay in the Committee until 1973! (Beating all records of political survival under Stalin.) For forty of those fifty-three years, he will also be a candidate or member of the Politburo, the most important power organ of the nation, which governs the entire Soviet Union and its satellite republics. An article later in the Soviet
Journal of Military History (hereafter
JMH) #6, 1976, p.68, cites him for a typical Stalin policy meeting: "Most often there were five people. We met late in the evening or at night, rarely in the afternoon, usually without preliminary notice. There were no protocols or records kept during the course of such meetings."
Later in Stalin's reign, Air Force Colonel-General A.S. Yakovlev will serve as one of Stalin's personal aides. In his memoir "
Life's Task", p.498, he will write, "During the meetings of Stalin's inner circle there were no stenographers, no secretaries present, no records or protocols kept."
During the coming Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry F. Ustinov will be the People's Commissar of Arms. In his memoir, "
In the Name of Victory," he will write, "During the meetings and conferences conducted by Stalin, discussions of problems and the making of decisions frequently occurred without records, and often without the corresponding paperwork marking the decision made."
During the coming war, once Stalin takes the role of Commander in Chief, the epic G.K. Zhukov will serve as his deputy. From his "
Memoirs and Reflections", 1969, p.296, "Many political, military, and general government questions were discussed and solved not only at the official meetings of the Politburo and in the Central Committee Secretariat, but also in the evening at dinner in Stalin's apartment or at his dacha, where the Politburo members closest to him were usually present."
JMH #2, 1962 (page uncited) will quote Colonel-General B. Vannikov, the People's Commissar of Ammunition, "At the meetings and conferences, Stalin had a habit of discussing questions and making decisions without protocols or records... From this it is clear that the understanding of many events just based on documents is incomplete and unclear, and in many cases incorrect."
In short, as Stalin begins consolidating his rule during and after Lenin's death, he is continuing to operate primarily like the leader of a mafia gang: secret gatherings of plotters and conspirators, in spirit and in essence. By contrast, Hitler will hold meetings in the presence of large crowds, ensuring that a personal historian and three stenographers would be available for historical records. Doubtless, this was due to Hitler's egotistic insistence on shaping, and even on
being the shape, of history! But the different result is that we have a lot of, often contradictory, material from Hitler to work with, even for tracking his policy considerations and decisions; while for Stalin we have to work with more indirect references and propaganda.
(As a sidenote, regarding Suvorov's occasional lack of pages cited: he reports in a postscript to
Chief Culprit that he often has had to work from requested photocopies of material available only in Russia at the time, made by friends of his and smuggled out; consequently, the page numbers aren't always visibly aligned correctly.)