[…]

In the course of the preliminary investigation Nikolaev testified that he made the decision to kill Kirov in July, began to prepare “more energetically” in August 1934, and attempted to carry out his intention by meeting Kirov near his home, at Moscow Station when he returned from Moscow, and near Smolny.

With regard to his detention on October 15, 1934, which is mentioned in his notebook, Nikolaev gave contradictory depositions. For example at an interrogation on December 2 he testified […]:

“ … on October 15 I met Comrade Kirov (completely by chance) near Uritsky Square, I let him by, but then turned to follow him and met him again by the Troitsky Bridge. From the bridge I followed him all the way to his home on Kamennoostrovsky Prospect [Krasnykh Zor Street]. Because Comrade Kirov was walking with Comrade Chudov I could not make up my mind to approach him for discussion. I want to emphasize that at the time I had not thought of assassination. After Comrade Kirov and Chudov disappeared inside the entrance, I was detained by a policeman, taken to the police station on the Petrograd Side, from there I was sent to the on-duty NKVD officer just by the entrance to the lower floor. After a check of my party and personal documents I was let go without a search.”

At an interrogation on December 8, Nikolaev gave somewhat different testimony:

“ … On October 15 there was supposed to be a city party meeting. I went to Smolny one hour before the beginning of the meeting. I did so because I had not been able to get a ticket to the meeting earlier and I was counting on getting one just before the meeting itself. I don’t remember who told me that Kirov and Chudov would not be at the meeting—Ugarov was to conduct it—and that they had just left for their homes on Krasnykh Zor Street. I thought that I had to use this excellent opportunity presented to me for an attack and I went after them on foot. I followed Kirov and Chudov right up to Building No. 28, without shooting. I refrained from shooting because I figured that I’d have to shoot at both and that did not come into my plans. At that moment I was arrested by Kirov’s guard, to whom my behavior seemed suspicious. They took me by car to the building of the NKVD Directorate […] to the duty officer.”

“Question: At the moment of your arrest did you have on your person the Nagan and your notes of an anti-Soviet character?”

“Answer: Yes, I had the Nagan and the notes of an anti-Soviet character on me. They were all in the briefcase that I was carrying.”

“Question: Were you searched when you were detained or when you were brought into the NKVD Directorate?”

“No […]”

As can be seen from these depositions, at first Nikolaev claimed that on October 15 he met Kirov “completely by chance” “near Uritsky Palace,” and he emphasized that at that time he had “not even thought about carrying out a murder.” Later he declared that on that day, upon arrival at Smolny for the city party meeting at Smolny and the discovery that Kirov would not be at that meeting and was going home on foot, he decided “to use the favorable opportunity for an attack” and followed him. In these depositions Nikolaev speaks of completely different circumstances when he followed Kirov on October 15. But the inquiry did not attempt to clear up these contradictions in Nikolaev’s evidence […]

[There follow extensive citations of 1934–1935 testimony from Operations Department Officers Pauzer, Gubin, and Kotomin, and a summary of Officer Griunvald’s depositions. See Chapter Ten, Documents 86–88, for excerpts from this testimony.]

From the above-detailed testimony of Pauzer it can be seen that Nikolaev was detained by him personally in the middle of October 1934 at the corner of Voinova Street and Volodarsky Prospect /opposite the NKVD building/ and taken to Griunvald. Griunvald confirmed the testimony of Pauzer as to the place of detention. Thus, compared with Nikolaev’s depositions, this testimony speaks of completely different circumstances of Nikolaev’s detention. Nikolaev gave his evidence on December 2 and 8, while Pauzer and Griunvald testified on December 5 and 6, that is, at the same time [as Nikolaev]. In essence these depositions witness different detentions of Nikolaev in October 1934. In Kotomin’s testimony there is mentioned [another] detention of Nikolaev, in November. However, the investigation did not attempt in any way to explain these contradictions in the evidence.

[…]

In the secret Central Committee circular, “Lessons of the Events Connected with the Villainous Murder of Comrade Kirov,” dated January 18, 1935 [authored by Stalin—see Chapter 9, Document 83] completely different circumstances and a different time are given for the detention of Nikolaev [there follows an excerpt from the circular].

[…]

From this excerpt it is clear that the topic is a detention of Nikolaev “three weeks before the murder of Kirov” and not “October 15” and not “in the middle of October” as appears in the materials of the investigation. Kotomin also wrote of the detention of Nikolaev in November. The TsK circular speaks of a detention […] in which Nikolaev threw himself at Kirov as the latter approached the automobile waiting for him, that is under other circumstances than those that obtained during the two [other] detentions of Nikolaev uncovered by the inquiry. Investigation has established that in both the detention of Nikolaev by Kirov’s building and that by the NKVD building, no automobile waiting for Kirov was involved. Thus, the “Secret Letter” refers to some other, third detention of Nikolaev. […]