Murder of Kirov

1) 1st December 1934 Leonid Nikolaev walked into the party headquarters in Leningrad. Kirov was shot in his office.
2) Stalin and his entourage rushed from Moscow to investigate. They claimed that they had unveiled a huge plot to murder Stalin, Molotov and Kirov.
3) A campaign was launched to uncover the plot. This led to at least 3 million being executed or sent to labour camps between 1933 and 1938.
4) There is evidence that Stalin was involved in the murder of Kirov - for example Kirov’s bodyguards were removed from the headquarters on the day of the murder, one of whom was battered to death and his death certificate was falsified - it was claimed that his death was a road accident.
5) Stalin stood to benefit from the death of Kirov - it removed a threat

1) In January 1935 both Kamenev and Zinoviev were found guilty of involvement in Kirov’s murder and imprisoned.
2) This was followed by over 30,000 being deported from Leningrad to Siberia.
3) In May 1935 - 280,000 had their membership cards taken away.
4) New penalties were introduced - anyone leaving the country without permission faced the death penalty if caught, if they succeeded then their relatives would be imprisoned. Penalties including death now applied to anyone over the age of twelve.