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By NKVD - People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Narkomvnudel)

Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953

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Document 136

Summary by the GUGB NKVD SSSR Secret Political Department on the moods of I. E. Babel in connection with the conclusion of the trial of the so-called “Anti-Soviet United Trotskyite-Zinovievite Center.” RGASPI, f. 57, op. 1, d. 64, ll. 93–94. Original. Typewritten. On the first page of the summary there are the following instructions: “To Com. Yezhov. Ya. Agranov, 22 September 1936.”

22 September 1936

After the publication of the sentence of the Military Board of the Sup[reme] Court against the participants in the Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc, a source, while in Odessa, met with the writer Babel in the presence of film director Eisenstein. The conversation took place in the hotel room where Babel and Eisenstein were staying.

Concerning primarily the results of the trial, Babel said:

“You cannot imagine or appreciate the scale on which people perished and what significance this has for history.

“This is a terrible business. You and I, of course, know nothing, whether or not there has been a struggle with the ‘boss’ due to the personal attitudes of a number of people toward him.

“Who made the Revolution? Who was in the first Politburo?”

At this, Babel picked up a sheet of paper and began writing out the names of the TsK VKP(b) and Politburo members from the first years of the Revolution. Then he began gradually crossing out the names of those who had died, left, and finally, those who had been through the last trial. After this, Babel tore up the sheet with his jottings and said:

“You realize who is now being shot or is on the verge of it: Lenin was very fond of Sokolnikov because he's a very smart man. True, Sokolnikov is a ‘great skeptic’ and an office man who literally detests mass work. For Sokolnikov, the only authority that could exist was Lenin's, and his whole struggle is the struggle against Stalin's influence. That's why this relationship came about between Sokolnikov and Stalin.

“But take Trotsky. You cannot imagine his charm and the strength of his influence on the people he met. Trotsky will indisputably continue the struggle and many will support him.

“Of those shot one of the most remarkable figures is Mrachkovsky. He himself is a worker, he was the organizer of the partisan movement in Siberia; he's a man of exceptional strength of will. People have told me that shortly before his arrest he had an eleven-hour discussion with Stalin.

“I'm very sorry for the people executed because these were real people. Kamenev, for example, after Belinsky

Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848) was a leading Russian critic whose advocacy of a social message in literature was seen by Soviet theorists as a model of the “realist” approach.

he's our most brilliant connoisseur of the Russian language and literature.

Page 311

“I don't think this is the counterrevolutionaries' struggle, I think it's a struggle with Stalin based on personal relationships.

“Can you imagine what's going on in Europe and how they're going to feel about us now? I know that after the execution of Kamenev, Zinoviev, and the others, Hitler said: ‘Now I'm executing Thälmann.’

“What alarming times! I feel horrible!”

During Babel's statements, Eisenstein made no objections.

Dep[uty] Head of the GUGB Sec[ret]-Polit[ical] Department Senior Major of State Security V. Berman

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