Talk:Kremlin Plot

Sources for Mikhail Cherniavsky/Alexei Sinelobov

Is there verification of the involvement of Mikhail Cherniavsky or Alexei Sinelobov besides Svetlana Lokhova? These names are also translated, they are sometimes referred to as "Alexey Sinelobov" or "Michael Cherniavsky" or "Алексей Синелобов"

Svetlana Lokhova has another book talking about Mikhail Cherniavsky:

The Spy Who Changed History: The Untold Story of How the Soviet Union Won the Race for America's Top Secrets ISBN 9780008238117

This book by Edward Radzinsky appears to talk about the Kremlin Plot and the involvement of Alexei Sinelobov:

ЭДВАРД РАДЗИНСКИЙ СТАЛИН жизнь и смерть ISBN 9785171179892

".. Алексей Синелобов , секретарь для поручений коменданта
Кремля , был расстрелян , а его сестра получила четыре года . Тогда же получила свой срок уборщица Корчагина « за 
распространение слухов , порочащих руководителей правительства ..."

".. Alexey Sinelobov, secretary for assignments of the Kremlin commandant, was shot, and his sister received four years. At the same time, the cleaning lady Korchagina received her sentence “for spreading rumors discrediting government leaders...”

A JPRS report makes mention of Sinelobov in a

"... a petition addressed to M.I. Kalinin pleading clemency for Aleksandra Gavrilovna Korchagina, an inmate in the Solovki concentration camp. The appeal is written in violet pencil on several pages from an exercise-book on 22 October 1935..."

It says on the letter:

"... A.G. Korchagina, a party member, had worked as a maid in Stalin's family for five years. She was arrested when one of the convicts who used to work in the Kremlin before, a Sinelobov, said that Korchagina allegedly claimed that Stalin himself had shot Nadezhda Sergheyevna. Korchagina denies this fact in her letter, not with much conviction though, invoking an official version of Alliluyeva's "heart attack." Sinelobov (there are no initials in the text - D.V.), guard Ya. K. Glome, who was Korchagina's live-in boy friend, and a nameless secretary of the primary party cell inquired the maid why the cause of death was not given in the papers..."

It also makes mention of a trial,

"... The trials were held Stalin style even then, at the end of 1935 and early 1936. Korchagina writes to Kalinin that investigator Kogan made her admit accusation by using threats and then he sentenced was passed without a trial: the Solovki concentration camp. [Enclosed with the letter is a verdict by NKVD special representative Lutskiy which says that Korchagina A.G.] "is involved in the case of counterrevolutionary terrorist groups in a government library, the Kremlin's commandant's office, and others..."

Both sources mention Korchagina and Sinelobov in the same time frame and generally mention similar events and is accurate to what Korchagina was convicted on,

"Korchagina Alexandra Gavrilovna, born in 1905, Russian, cleaner of the Government House - to 3 years in a camp." (from the CC CPSU)  

I believe the report to be atleast relevant to Alexei Sinelobov's imprisonment, I'm not sure if there is a way of definitively verifying that this is Alexei Sinelobov, it is a JPRS report and connected to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, but I don't think its inherent bias particularly affects the interpretation in this specific section. Padlocks (talk) 22:44, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

Name of the article

This case is also sometimes referred to as Дело «Клубок» или «Кремлёвское дело», so alternatively "Tangle Case" or transliterated as "Klubok Case" or just "Kremlin Case" There is not much information about this case on the english internet, there are many exact details such as court dates and the accused of this case that are present on other websites. There are also some resources that refer to this as the "Kremlin Affair" Padlocks (talk) 06:05, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

There's also another existing wikipedia article about Abel/Avel Yenukidze, another figure in this case accused of failing to exercise sufficient political vigilance in the Kremlin (didn't serve prison time) that refers to this as the "Kremlin Affair." There is also a wealth of references in that same article about this affair as well. Padlocks (talk) 23:44, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Russian Wikipedia article on the "Kremlin Affair" + CC CPSU archive on the case

The title of the article should probably be changed for recognizability and consistency, I've noticed that most sources refer to this as the "Kremlin Affair" rather than the "Kremlin Plot," it seems to be an uncommon variation of the case's name. More important is the russian wikipedia article on the same topic, which references the CPSU Central Committee's news on who was charged and how long they were sentenced for. These names are brought forward as those to be executed, corroborating Svetlana Lukhova, of the intitial 30 tried on July 27 1935.

• Aleksey Ivanovich Sinelobov, born in 1899, Russian, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), secretary for assignments of the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin.
• Chernyavsky Mikhail Kondratyevich, born in 1901, Belarusian, member of the CPSU (b), head of the intelligence department of the Red Army. Both are subject to capital punishment - execution.

The article as a whole is lacking verifiability but most of this information, such as exact court dates and positions occupied by the accused, can likely be gleaned through records. The majority of specific information will be found here, archived Padlocks (talk) 08:17, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

Primary source for all interrogative questions of the accused

In a "project is dedicated to the history of our country and the history of democratic, liberation and revolutionary movements in the world" they have archived many important documents relating to the Kremlin Case that come from RGASPI and were created at the time of the case and used in the trial. The documents have exact dates, with many being interrogations, confrontations, notes, inspections, plans against the terrorist attacks. Archived: ИCTMAT Padlocks (talk) 23:28, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 11 December 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: no consensus. (closed by non-admin page mover) estar8806 (talk) ★ 22:09, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

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Kremlin Plot → Kremlin Affair – The article should be renamed "Kremlin Affair" instead of "Kremlin Plot" because other resources on the topic and other parts of Wikipedia referred to it as the "Kremlin Affair" before it was changed. "Kremlin Affair" is more recognizable and consistent with other sources. Padlocks (talk) 07:37, 11 December 2023 (UTC) — Relisting. Bensci54 (talk) 14:20, 18 December 2023 (UTC) — Relisting. Mattdaviesfsic (talk) 08:27, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

• Include year in title, neutral vote. This specific event is so obscure that I think it would be better if the title included "1935". - Anonimski (talk) 19:07, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

  Agree, though the event is only obscure outside of the beginnings of what became the Great Purge. Padlocks (talk) 01:20, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

  The year should only be in the title if it might be confused with another Kremlin affair/plot. Is that the case? Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 13:24, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

  Somewhat, there are infrequent uses of the term "Kremlin Plot" in connection with more recent events involving the Kremlin such as the attempts on Navalnys life. I initially suggested the change to Kremlin Affair after seeing most scholars using the same terminology, its just a translation from «Кремлёвское дело» which can be translated as either, Kremlin Case, Kremlin Affair, or Kremlin Plot. These three are the most used to describe the event. Kremlin Affair has already been in use for decades specifically for this event as opposed to Kremlin Plot, I'm not opposed to adding a year to the title but its not strictly necessary. Kremlin Case also has usage, but still less than Kremlin Affair. There are other more uncommon names too, the NKVD dubbed it the "tangle," cleaners plot, etc. Padlocks (talk) 21:04, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Soviet Union has been notified of this discussion. Bensci54 (talk) 14:20, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose. Just scoping around, usage of both "Kremlin plot" and "Kremlin affair" seems pretty equally matched, neither dominating the other. I am more inclined to "plot" simply because "affair" is a little too generic and ambiguous and can refer to many things over the past century, whereas "plot" at least emphasizes its conspiratorial character, and is thus less generic, and more likely to be associated with the events of 1935. If the date is added, that would help. Walrasiad (talk) 18:58, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

  Here is a WP:GOOGLETEST for any relevant alternative names.

  I included "Yezhov" as any relevant discussion of the affair would inevitably include him.

  "yezhov" "kremlin affair" : 311 results

  "yezhov" "kremlin case" : 220 results

  "yezhov" "kremlin plot" : 73 results

  I wanted to change the name because from these scholars I've seen, they use "Kremlin Affair" when talking about this specific case and its used basically nowhere else. Hardly anyone except Christopher Andrews and Svetlana Lukhova are referring to this specific case with "Kremlin Plot," just look at JSTOR Search results and compare "Kremlin Affair" (10+ relevant results) to "Kremlin Plot" (1 relevant result, Christopher Andrews.)

  Padlocks (talk) 21:06, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

My Googlebooks search was "Kremlin Plot", 1935: 217 results and "Kremlin Affair", 1935: 165 results. Plot has the edge. Walrasiad (talk) 14:42, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

"Kremlin Plot", 1935 will return extraneous results such as any plot involving the Kremlin around that time, which is another reason to change this article's name. Include "Yezhov" (or "Ezhov") to find relevant results, the term "Kremlin Affair" has more books dedicated specifically to this topic.

"Kremlin plot" "Ezhov": 44 results

"Kremlin plot" "Yezhov": 48 results

"Kremlin affair" "Yezhov": 80 results

"Kremlin affair" "Ezhov": 98 results

Padlocks (talk) 23:18, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Not sure why you're bothering with Yezhov. He's barely mentioned in this article. And is usually not mentioned at all in most general references to this event. Date seems a better bet. Walrasiad (talk) 00:07, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Yezhov is the primary investigator of this case following the Kirov assassination, and ousted Yenukidze.

But to dispel all doubts, I'll include the date and the most associated figure with this case (to remove unrelated results):

"Kremlin affair" "Stalin" 1935: 220 results

"Kremlin plot" "Stalin" 1935: 146 results

Padlocks (talk) 02:31, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

‘The Tangle’, as the NKVD termed this affair, has acquired as many names as explanations: ‘Kremlin Affair’, ‘Cleaners’ Plot’, ‘Enukidze Case’, ‘Case of Librarians’, to name but a few. Robert Service sees the significance of the case as an act of revenge against Stalin’s maid (Service 2005:293) and Simon Sebag- Montefiore sees a wider Stalinist plot featuring a ‘wicked beauty’ (Sebag- Montefiore 2010: 178). J. Arch Getty views the case as a ‘further sharpening of political atmosphere’ (Getty 2010: 161), whilst Oleg Khlevnyuk sees it as an attack on the influence of the Politburo (Khlevnyuk 2008: 253) and Marc Jansen emphasises the terrorism link as a plan to liquidate political opposition (Jansen 2002: 31).

— Lokhova, Svetlana (2014). "Stalin, the NKVD and the investigation of the Kremlin Case". In Andrew, Christopher; Tobia, Simona (eds.). Interrogation in War and Conflict.

Padlocks, after i've had more time to look ignore most of what i said at FTN (but still a little leery of Andrew and Lokhova). :Those using "Kremlin Affair", Getty, Davies, Wheatcroft, Khlevnyuk seem more well known, tho Khlevnyuk seems to use 'case' when writing without a coauthor. fiveby(zero) 16:10, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

• Kremlin Affair and an additional redirect from 'Kremlin Case'. Seems to be most common in well-known authors when they actually use as a name by quoting, capitalizing 'Affair', etc. Don't think a year in the title is necessary. fiveby(zero) 17:09, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

I just want to make sure with other people, did the 110th person die during their investigation?

I'm going to make a table with those convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union + those convicted by the NKVD, and there's only 109 names. This may be a mistake on my part but the document with all the names, (izvestia no. 7 1989, i linked it above somewhere) says that "Additionally, during the investigation and following a death, the case against Mikhail Yakovlevich Prezent, born in 1896, a Jew, the chief editor of the State Publishing House of Fiction Literature, was terminated." I'm pretty sure he was tried by NKVD special meeting (Special Board of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) since I have all 30 tried by the military collegium.

Padlocks (talk) 23:05, 20 December 2023 (UTC)