Beriaespecially feared two younger competitors. State economic
chief Nikolai Voznesenskiy and Stalin’s personal favorite and former
Leningrad party boss Aleksei Kuznetzov were the target of rumors
spread by the old elite that the two were guilty of fixing a party elec-
tion; they were also accused of managerial incompetence. Stalin or-
dered Viktor Abakumovto investigate the two in the summer of- In August 1949 Kuznetzov and Voznesenskiy and more than
200 of their colleagues from the Leningrad party apparatus were ar-
rested. They were tried in camera on 30 September 1950, and many
were shot the same evening. Abakumov apparently played on Stalin’s
suspicions that Leningraders sought to build a Russian political party
and navigate a separate political course for Russia.
Among the casualties of Stalin’s paranoia were party, military, and
security officials who had defended Leningrad during the epic 900-
day siege. During the siege, Stalin had told Kuznetzov, who had spent
the war in Leningrad: “The motherland will never forget you.” Yet all
were accused of treasonously planning to form a counterrevolution-
ary Russian government and tortured into confessing that they had
betrayed the motherland they had defended during the war. The
Leningrad Case also suggests how Stalin in his dotage was both the
manipulator and manipulated. Willing to sacrifice acolytes and asso-
ciates to maintain the balance of power and terror in his entourage, he
struck down the most competent members of the party leadership.
LITVIN, MIKHAIL IOSIFORICH (1892–1938). Nikolai Yezhov
brought Litvin into the NKVDfrom the Communist Partyappara-
tus to purge the security service in October 1936. He was head of the
personnel department and was then assigned to Leningrad in January
1938 to finish purging the region. He was responsible for tens of
thousands of arrests over the next 10 months. In late 1938 Yezhov
warned Litvin that he would be arrested as part of Lavrenty Beria’s
cleansing of the service. Litvin chose to commit suicide rather than
face disgrace, trial, and execution.LIVE DOUBLE/ DEAD DOUBLE. One of the means used by the So-
viet intelligence services in establishing illegals was the live double/
dead double ploy. Intelligence officers would obtain a birth certificate
for a child who had died within the first two years of life. The cer-146 •LITVIN, MIKHAIL IOSIFORICH (1892–1938)06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 146