Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him

. . . Comrades , Iagoda and others are coming to stay with you for two months. They must be put in the best villa (clean, with no insects, with heating, lighting, etc.) right on the sea. You must be in all respects a hospitable host worthy of the Abkhaz name, which I do not have the slightest doubt about. The bearer of this note will give you more details. Be well. I shake your hand warmly. Your Sergo. ⁴⁵

Caucasian hospitality, after decades of sunless privation, seduced even the ascetic . Lakoba, whom Stalin cultivated for fifteen years, was his best tool for managing and eliminating rivals. When Lenin’s death was imminent, Stalin’s close protégé Abram Belenky, then Kremlin commandant, had Trotsky sent off for two months to Abkhazia, ostensibly for his health. Belenky told Lakoba on January 6, 1924:

I consider the best place for housing him is . . . where you used to put up Comrades and Zinoviev. The doctors have prescribed Comrade Trotsky complete peace and although our people will provide Trotsky’s guards, I nevertheless ask you, dear Comrade Lakoba, with your sharp eye and care, to take Comrade Trotsky under your wing, then our minds will be completely at rest . . . we have no need to speak any more on this subject, I am sure you will have understood me completely. Obviously there are to be no meetings or formal parades. . . . Comrades and Iagoda send you a warm cordial greeting. ⁴⁶

By the last year of Lenin’s life shared Stalin’s hostility to Trotsky and he actively helped Stalin get him out of the way. A civil war hero, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, who had admired Trotsky’s organizational genius, was rebuked by : “You’ve gone too far and you are not devoted to the party and revolution . . . keeping the dictatorship of the proletariat . . . demands from the party the greatest unity of ideas and unity of action. . . . And that means Trotsky has to be fought with.”

Trotsky’s vulnerable point was his hypochondria. had arranged treatment for him before, and in May 1921 Lenin was worried by Trotsky’s symptoms: chronic colitis, arterial spasms, fainting fits. The Politburo decided on April 23, 1921: “Comrade Trotsky is to be told to leave for treatment in the country, taking into account his doctors’ prescriptions when choosing the place and time. Supervision of Trotsky’s compliance with this decision is the responsibility of Comrade .” ⁴⁷ Trotsky was sent to the north Caucasus.⁴⁸

On January 5, 1924, as the struggle to dominate the post-Lenin USSR intensified, Stalin saw to it that “leave for Trotsky” was the first item on the agenda for the Politburo. A week later, three days before Lenin died, made it even clearer to Lakoba that he must keep Stalin’s rival away from the levers of power:

Comrade Lakoba! Dear Comrade! Because of the state of Comrade Trotsky’s health, the doctors are sending him to Sukhum. This has become widely known even abroad and therefore I am afraid lest there be any attempts on his life by White Guards. My request to you is to bear this in mind. Because of his state of health, Comrade Trotsky will not generally be able to leave his dacha and therefore the main task is not to let any outsiders or unknown persons in. . . .