The Great Terror

There was one obvious motive for at least pretending suicide. If the doctors, or any of them, had seen the body and been told it was suicide, it is of course understandable that they could have been induced to hush up the scandal in the interests of Party and State. Kaminsky, at least, was to prove a brave critic of the new Terror over the months that were left to him; it may perhaps have been his direct connection with the Ordzhonikidze case which brought him to his moral decision. Hushed up or not, and even taking it as suicide and not murder, at his political level (as candidate member of the Central Committee) he might have guessed what a suicide in those circumstances signified. But if it had obviously been murder, he might well have taken a stronger line.

The decisive argument against any but a forced suicide (or murder) is different. If Ordzhonikidze had felt “unable to share responsibility,” if he “did not want to play the scoundrel” as an accomplice in Stalin’s plans, it is quite untrue that “the only thing to do was to depart,” as a Soviet account of the 1960s has it.¹⁷⁶ On the contrary, the Central Committee was to meet the next day.¹⁷⁷

When, after a postponement, the full plenum met on 23 February, some attempt was made to block the Purge. The natural, in fact the “only” thing for Ordzhonikidze to do was to throw himself into the struggle. Suicide at this moment was pointless.

Ordzhonikidze had been asked to prepare a report for the impending Central Committee plenum. This is still in the archives, and a Soviet historian describes Ordzhonikidze’s draft being returned by Stalin with coarse and hostile comments. This led to “stormy” exchanges.¹⁷⁸ Another recent Soviet publication suggests that Ordzhonikidze indeed planned to make a stand against the purges at the February–March plenum, hoping for the support of “Postyshev, Chubar, perhaps Kalinin.”¹⁷⁹ But from Stalin’s point of view, the opposite consideration prevailed. An opposition led by an angry Ordzhonikidze was likely to prove much more difficult to handle than one lacking his support. Voluntary suicide was pointless; but forced suicide (or murder) was logically indicated. A recent article by a Soviet historian tells us that those who saw him on the last day of his life reported him energetic, with no signs of depression, making appointments for the next day—as confirmed by his papers, still in the archives.¹⁸⁰

It is not uninteresting that Vyshinsky described the death of Zinoviev’s secretary, Bogdan, who had allegedly been forced to commit suicide under the terms “Kill yourself or else we will kill you,” as “really murder.”¹⁸¹ In this sense, even accepting a forced suicide, we can in any case certainly speak of the murder of Ordzhonikidze. As I write, the question of whose hand held the gun must be left as recently put by a Soviet historian—that “Ordzhonikidze killed himself (or was shot).”¹⁸²

On 19 February 1937,¹⁸³

the first photographs of Ordzhonilcidze’s corpse show, grouped around it, his wife and Stalin’s own cabal: Stalin himself, Yezhov, Molotov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, and Voroshilov. They all appear overcome with comradely sorrow.

A Central Committee announcement the same day spoke of him as “an irreproachably pure and staunch Party man, a Bolshevik.”¹⁸⁴ And Ordzhonikidze continued to be honored by Stalin, just as Kirov did. There is one curious public sign of the dictator’s animus. Seven years later, in 1942, the main towns that had been named after Ordzhonikidze were quietly rechristened: Ordzhonikidzegrad (formerly Bezhitsa), Ordzhonikidze (formerly Yenakiyevo), and Sergo (formerly Kadiyevka) reverted to their earlier names, while Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus (formerly Vladikavkaz), was given a new Ossetian name, Dzaudzhikau. Such action, in the Stalinist protocol, had hitherto invariably been a sign of disgrace (and was to be so in future under his successor as well, when the town of Molotov reverted to Perm, and so on).

As to Ordzhonikidze’s relatives (though without publicity), Papuliya Ordzhonikidze’s wife, Nina, was sentenced to ten years on 29 March 1938, and to death on 14 June 1938. Two other Ordzhonikidze brothers and a sister-in-law were jailed from 1939 through 1941; two other relatives were shot in 1937 and 1938; and another was imprisoned.¹⁸⁵ Yet no further public degradation was inflicted.

Five days after Ordzhonikidze’s death, the Central Committee assembled. In the last trial of strength which now took place, his presence was to be sorely missed among the elements attempting to halt the Purge.

THE FEBRUARY – MARCH PLENUM

The agenda of the plenum as first circulated consisted of two items:

The question of N. I. Bukharin and A.I. Rykov

Organizational questions