Amazon.com Review
In contrast to the brusque, standoffish Stalin, Leningrad party chief and Politburo member Sergei Kirov was charismatic and approachable--a real
muzhnik, or man of the people. His rise through the ranks of the communist party to become the prize orator of Stalin's regime was aided by his popularity and his devotion to the cause. The question of who killed Kirov has perplexed Russian bureaucrats and historians alike since the apparent murder took place in December 1934. Although the Stalin regime immediately accused and brutally killed alleged suspects--and then used the murders as a catalyst for massive purges of its enemies--lack of definitive evidence continues to shroud the case in mystery and keeps it rife with speculation to this day. In
Who Killed Kirov? The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery,
Amy Knight draws on compelling new evidence and presents the most convincing account to date of the Kirov murder and the momentous events surrounding it.
In order fully to understand the murder, according to Knight, the reader must learn what kind of man Kirov was, how he rose to power within the Soviet political system, and how Stalin came to dominate that system. Consequently, she devotes much of the book to Kirov's personal story, his role in forging the Bolshevik regime, and his relationships with key party leaders. Although Kirov's murder and its tragic aftermath remain the narrative's focal point, Knight successfully broadens her readers' understanding of the entire Stalinist era.
A research associate at George Washington University and author of two additional studies of Russian politics, Knight supplements her 270-page study with maps, illustrations, chronologies, a glossary of names, diagrams of the Soviet political hierarchy, and ample notes. Well researched and thoroughly documented, Who Killed Kirov? remains accessible to the general reader. --Bertina Loeffler Sedlack
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov, the Leningrad Communist Party chief and a rising star in Stalin's inner circle, marked the beginning of one of the darkest periods of Russian historyAStalin's Great Terror, in which millions of Soviet citizens were imprisoned, exiled or killed. While it was initially rumored that Kirov had been killed by a frustrated political rival, many believedAand many still believeAthat Stalin himself orchestrated Kirov's death in order to justify his crackdown. Knight (Spies Without Cloaks: The KGB's Successors and Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant) goes beyond the usual questions about the Kremlin's greatest mystery to take a closer look at the people and events that enabled Stalin to not only authorize the murder of a respected colleague but also to repeat the tactic without any kind of personal repercussion. Knight expertly unravels the layers of the Kirov coverup in which newly empowered party and police officials found themselves compelled to discard fact for fiction in a vain attempt to escape the ubiquitous brand of "traitor" or "collaborator." Even now, 65 years later and after more than a full decade of glasnost, the Kirov affair is still a delicate issue in Russia, where even the loudest decriers of the police state have shied away from a full disclosure of facts. While decades of forced testimonies and altered archival evidence make the truth elusive, Knight notes that people's lingering fears of being found guilty of past crimes remain a strong impediment to discovering the truth. 26 b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
