Page 353 - The Chief Culprit

298 y Notes to Pages 98–105

1. M. Vodopianov, Friends in the Sky (Moscow: Sovetskaya Rossia, 1971), 147.
2. Luftwaffe’s Wings, 20.
3. I. M. Maiski, Spain, 1918–1972: A Historical Sketch (Moscow: Nauka, 1975), 210.
4. VIZh, no. 7 (1986): 85.
5. Istoricheskiy Arkhiv [Historical Archive], no. 2 (1962): 172.
6. VIZh, no. 7 (1986): 87.
7. Roman Khrapachevskiy, “ e Spanish Gold of the Kremlin,” Russkiy Focus, no. 7 (May 14, 2001). By
1936, Spain’s gold reserve was more than six hundred tons. When the military mutiny began, the major
part of it was stored in the Bank of Spain cellars in Madrid. After consultations with Soviet representa-
tives, the government of Spain approached Moscow with the request to “accept for storage” the gold of
the Republic of Spain. e official reason for this was the threat of the mutineers’ takeover of Madrid
in October 1936. On October 15, prime minister Francisco Largo Caballero and treasury minister
Juan Negrin approached the Soviet Government with the suggestion to “accept for storage” more than
five hundred tons of gold. Stalin immediately ordered the evacuation of the Spanish gold reserve.
Here is a quote from the minutes of the Politburo of the Central Committee of VKP(b) meeting from
October 17, 1936: “Paragraph 56. Comrade Rosenberg’s issue. Determination: To authorize Comrade
Rosenberg to reply to the Spanish Government that we are ready to accept the gold reserve for storage,
and that we approve the evacuation of this gold by our ships returning from [Spanish] ports.” After
the political decision was made the operation began in full swing: on October 20, the cable with the
approval came to Spain, and by October 22–25 it was already loaded on Soviet ships in Cartagena. e
total cargo was 510 tons of gold.
8. Ibid, no. 7 (1971): 77.
9. History of the Second World War, 1939–1945, 2: 55.
10. Ibid., 54.
11. A. P. Yaremchuk, Russian Volunteers in Spain, 1936–1939 [in Russian] (San Francisco: Globus,
1983), 12.
12. N. N. Voronov became Chief Marshal of Artillery; F. A. Agaltsov became Marshal of Aviation, com-
mander of long-range aviation, deputy commander of the Air Force; M. I. Nedelin became Chief
Marshal of Artillery, deputy minister of defense of the USSR, and, from 1959, head commander of stra-
tegic missile forces; P. V. Rychagov became Lieutenant General, head of the Central Command of the
Red Army’s Air Force, deputy of the People’s Commissar for Defense of the USSR; Kh. U. Mamsurov
became Colonel General, first deputy of the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate); P. P. Vechnyi became
Lieutenant General, military aide to Stalin; I. I. Proskurov became Lieutenant General of the Air Force,
chief of the GRU; P. I. Batov, D. G. Pavlov, V. Y. Kolpakchi, and N. G. Lyachenko became Generals of
the Army; A. I. Rodimtzev, G. M. Shtern, M. S. Shumilov, V. A. Yushkevich, and T. T. Khrukin became
Colonel Generals; V. A. Alafuzof became Admiral, chief of naval staff; N. E. Bassistyi became Admiral,
commander of the Black Sea fleet, first deputy of the minister of the navy; A. G. Golovko became
Admiral —during all of World War II he commanded the Northern fleet, after the war he became the
chief of naval staff, deputy of the minister of the navy.
13. “National-revolutionary War of the Spanish People,” Voprosy Istorii [Questions of History], no. 11
(1953): 11.
14. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, World History of Wars (St. Petersburg and Moscow: AST, 1998),
4: 41.
15. N. Voronov, Serving in the Military (Moscow: Voyenizdat, 1963), 80.
16. Leon Trotsky, Bulleten Oppozitsii [Bulletin of the Opposition] no. 71 (November 1938): 7.
17. Ibid., no. 79–80 (June 21, 1939): 13.
18. S. M. Krivoshein, Warriors’ Stories (Moscow: Molodaya Gvardia, 1962), 8.

Chapter 17
First Epigraph: Ogonek, no. 30 (1989): 10.
Second Epigraph: A. Avtorkhanov, Origins of Partocracy (Party-rule) (Frankfurt: Posev, 1973), 356.
1. Pravda, June 1, 1939.
2. Maslov, Fighter I-16, 19–20.