Stalin

and German troop movements, 820

mass arrests in, 413–14, 419, 434, 454–55, 589

Proskurov as head of, 636

tradecraft failures of, 172, 252

Trotskyites in, 377

Uritsky as head of, 252

Wehrmacht buildup in Poland reported by, 877

Winter War and, 753

Soviet Ukraine (battleship), 702–3

Soviet Union (battleship), 703

Spain, Republican:

army of, 406

gold reserves transferred to USSR by, 347, 349, 398, 476

political instability in, 312

Popular Front government of, 312, 315, 317, 321, 323, 334–35, 338, 364, 405, 476–77

possibility of Communist coup in, 401, 405, 406

Soviet arms sold to, 347, 398, 476–77

Soviet military aid requested by, 320, 342

Soviet relations with, 333–34, 337, 379–81

Spanish civil war, 312, 330, 343, 377, 561

assault on Madrid in, 350–51

atrocities in, 312–13, 316, 351

Basques in, 312, 407

Britain and, 317, 356–57, 374, 398, 582

Catalonia in, 312, 316, 321, 364, 380, 408

cautious initial Soviet response to, 320

civilian deaths in, 312–13

consequences of, 616–17

fall of Madrid in, 615

as fight between fascism and Communism, 317, 326

Franco’s failed assault on Madrid in, 350–51, 406–7

French-Soviet relations and, 318–19, 320

German military intervention in, 317–18, 323, 328–29, 339, 350, 407, 431, 556, 582

International Brigades in, 338, 350, 399, 460

Italian military intervention in, 318, 323, 328–29, 330, 339, 398–99, 406, 407, 431, 556, 582

Koltsov’s reports on, 334–35, 364, 459–60

leftist infighting in, 364, 400–401, 405, 408, 410–11, 425

newsreel coverage of, 337–38

NKVD operations in, 339, 346–47, 408, 410, 425

Non-Intervention Agreement in, 327, 329, 330, 337, 342, 346, 347

as public rationale for mass arrests, 429–30

Republican army in, 399–400

Soviet advisers in, 338–39, 346, 350, 380–82

Soviet military intervention in, 311, 313–14, 342–43, 344, 345–46, 351–52, 376, 379, 381, 409, 431, 459, 476, 486, 562, 670, 754, 755

Soviet workers’ support for Republican cause in, 326–27

as test of Stalin’s geopolitics, 314, 373–74, 401, 431

Trotsky and, 323, 335

Trotskyites in, 374, 425, 431

Spanish Spring (Koltsov), 334

specialists:

accused of wrecking, 21–22, 62, 64, 73

arrests and executions of, 50–51

Orjonikidze’s cultivation of, 66, 73

Speer, Albert, 411, 556, 585, 586, 629, 769, 900

spies, alleged, mass arrests and executions of, 485–88

Spiller, Natalya, 594, 595, 732

SRs (Socialist Revolutionaries), 99, 116, 176, 182, 434, 437, 450, 453, 467, 475

SS (Schutzstaffel), 174, 475, 688

Stakhanov, Alexei, 273, 274

Stakhanovism, Stakhanovites, 273–74, 278, 782

Stalin, Iosif, 154

alleged assassination attempts against, 470

as archetypal hero, 301

atheism of, 3

in automobile accident, 46–47

awkward gait of, 3–4

charisma of, 4, 304

class struggle as core tenet of, 190

coarse manners of, 2

contradictory character of, 5, 552, 579

cruelty of, 349, 368, 488, 492

cult of, 7, 58, 155, 226, 257, 289–90, 303–4, 369, 417, 902

darkening mind-set of, 490, 491–92

European war with USSR expected by, 484, 495

false modesty of, 7, 33, 417, 570

fatigue of, 887

fiftieth birthday celebrations for, 32–34

fifty-fifth birthday of, 212–13

foreign depictions of, 154

as gambler, 9, 17, 705

as Germanophile, xv, 903

grudges held by, 303

home life of, 108–9

illnesses and health problems of, 47, 98, 270, 303, 365, 472–73, 731, 743, 887

isolation of, 524, 526

Lenin’s Testament and, 5

as master improviser, xiv–xv, 10, 16

micromanaging by, 55, 81, 303, 586, 587, 624–25, 738, 800–801, 807, 839, 841, 887

as opportunist, 67–68, 698, 819

paranoia of, 5–6, 8, 11, 309, 396, 397, 480, 492–93, 429, 551, 884

as party general secretary, xi–xii, 10

as pedagogue, 495

perverse sense of humor of, 4

political intelligence of, 303

populism of, 18, 249–50, 464

religious upbringing of, 2

rise of, xi–xii

rumored affairs of, 525

rumored death of, 62–63

Russian imperial majesty melded with socialist state building by, 552

as Russian nationalist, 902

ruthlessness of, 552–53

self-control of, 492

self-improvement as tenet of, 495

sixtieth birthday celebration of, 732–35

small pox contracted by, 4

sociopathology of, xii, 5, 11, 130, 579

state, view of, 493–94, 573–74

statecraft as obsession of, 552, 901

two-front war as concern of, 643

victim playing by, 14–15, 59, 114, 130

as voracious reader, 1–2, 5, 586, 617, 681

willpower of, 552

Stalin, Iosif, dictatorship of, 4–5, 907

absolute power needed by, 6, 8, 11, 67–68, 308–9, 325, 430

“Caucasus group” in, 548

concentration of decision making in upper ranks of, 440–41, 704–5, 887

conspiracy charges as tool of, 306, 469

conspiratorial worldview of, 422, 429, 551, 902

dysfunctional administrative apparatus of, 430, 440–42, 587, 705

information-gathering apparatus of, 550–51, 586, 705

inner circle’s closing of ranks in, 107, 114, 116–17, 129, 308

mass-based modernity and, 296–98, 901

mass terror as outgrowth of, 493

Nazi Germany compared with, 696–97

permanent state of emergency as necessity of, 5, 64, 68, 430, 495

politburo bypassed in, 56–57, 58–59, 586

precarious footing of, 68–69

promotion of “new people” in, 442, 462–64, 494–95, 737–38, 832, 846, 902

Ryutin’s attacks on, 103–5, 107, 303, 308