Russia's Century of Revolutions: Parties, People, Places. Studies Presented in Honor of Alexander Rabinowitch

"You Can Kill Me … but I Shall Die Standing": Mariia Spiridonova's Letter to the NKVD, 1937

Russia’s Century of Revolutions: Parties, People, Places. Studies Presented in Honor of Alexander Rabinowitch. Michael S. Melancon and Donald J. Raleigh, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2012, 111–32.       “You Can Kill Me … but I Shall Die Standing”: Mariia Spiridonova’s Letter to the NKVD, 1937 Sally A. Boniece Mariia   Aleksandrovna   Spiridonova,   Socialist   Revolutionary   (SR)   terrorist   in   the   Revolution   of   1905–07   and   Left   SR   leader   in   the   October   Revolution   of   1917,  made  political  choices  that  led  to  her  imprisonment  or  exile  by  various   Russian  regimes  for  the  greater  part  of  her  adult  life.  In  1906,  the  tsarist  gov-­‐‑ ernment  deported  her  to  an  eastern  Siberian  penal  complex  for  assassinating  a   provincial  official;  in  1918,  she  became  an  “enemy”  of  the  Soviet  government   for  actively  opposing  Bolshevik  policy.  As  Spiridonova  herself  stated  during   her  detention  in  Moscow  by  the  OGPU  (All-­‐‑Union  State  Political  Administra-­‐‑ tion)  in  1930,  “Since  [my  first  arrest  in]  1906,  I  have  spent  a  total  of  three  years   at   liberty,   and   for   half   of   that   period   I   was   living   illegally.”1   Sent   by   the   OGPU   into   administrative   exile   at   Ufa   in   the   Bashkir   Republic   in   January   1931,   she   was   arrested   for   the   final   time   in   February   1937,   after   which   she   remained  a  prisoner  of  Iosif  Stalin’s  government  until  her  execution  at  Orel  in   September  1941.     Sharing   Spiridonova’s   final   arrest   as   well   as   her   exile   in   Ufa   were   her   peasant-­‐‑born   but   university-­‐‑educated   husband,   the   former   Left   SR   deputy   commissar   of   agriculture   Il’ia   Andreevich   Maiorov,   and   her   two   longtime   party   and   prison   comrades   Aleksandra   Adol’fovna   Izmailovich   and   Irina   Konstantinovna   Kakhovskaia,   who,   like   Spiridonova,   came   from   Russia’s   upper  classes.  According  to  Kakhovskaia,  the  sole  member  of  this  self-­‐‑named   chetverka   (quartet)   to   survive   the   Stalin   era,   Spiridonova   declared   a   hunger   strike  after  two  or  three  months  of  intensive  interrogation  by  Bashkir  security   officials,  “demanding  that  the  inhumane  prison  conditions  be  redressed  and   that  all  of  our  cases  be  transferred  to  Moscow,  for  it  seemed  to  us  that  such   bizarre   goings-­‐‑on   could   occur   only   far   from   the   capital.”2   However,   Spiri-­‐‑ donova   was   transferred   to   Moscow   in   August   1937   unaccompanied   by   her   three   companions.   There   she   endured   several   more   months   of   delay   in   the   investigation   of   her   case   without   any   means   of   vindicating   herself   and   her                                                                                                                             1  V.   M.   Lavrov,   Mariia   Spiridonova:   Terroristka   i   zhertva   terrora.   Povestvovanie   v   doku-­‐‑ mentakh  (Moscow:  Arkheograficheskii  tsentr,  1996),  220.   2  I.  K.  Kakhovskaia,  “V  TsK  KPSS,”  in  Politicheskii  dnevnik,  1964–70  (Amsterdam:  Fond   imeni  Gertsena,  1972),  725.   112 SALLY A. BONIECE Left  SR  comrades  to  the  highest  Communist  Party  authorities,  as  had  been  her   intention  in  seeking  the  transfer.     After  being  moved  from  prison  to  prison  in  Moscow  seven  times  in  three   months  while  awaiting  trial,3  Spiridonova  addressed  a  packet  of  closely  writ-­‐‑ ten  pages  detailing  the  injustices  of  her  arrest  and  interrogation  to  the  4th  Sec-­‐‑ tion  of  the  GUGB  NKVD  (Main  Administration  for  State  Security  under  the   People’s  Commissariat  of  Internal  Affairs),  the  institutional  successor  to  the   OGPU  as  of  1934.  “When  I  arrived  in  Moscow,  I  was  very  much  hoping  to   have  an  opportunity  to  speak  briefly  with  someone  in  the  leadership,  in  par-­‐‑ ticular  with  someone  who  knows  me  personally,”  she  stated  in  her  letter.  “In   view  of  the  apparent  absence  of  such  an  opportunity,  I  must  write  instead.”4   Signed   by   Spiridonova   on   13   November   1937,   this   document,   when   tran-­‐‑ scribed  by  a  GUGB  typist,  turned  out  to  be  102  pages  in  length.  Although  ex-­‐‑ cerpts   from   Spiridonova’s   letter   to   the   NKVD   were   published   with   some   scholarly  background  commentary  in  English-­‐‑  and  Russian-­‐‑language  histori-­‐‑ cal  journals  and  in  a  Russian  document  collection  in  the  1990s,5  I  analyze  it   here  in  the  context  of  a  political  biography  of  Spiridonova  that  I  am  writing.     With   its   energetic   and   heartfelt   refutation   of   the   charges   that   she   had   directed  a  Left  SR-­‐‑Right  SR  terrorist  conspiracy  against  the  government,  Spiri-­‐‑ donova’s   letter   revisited   and   reconstructed   her   lifelong   political   principles   and  choices  through  the  lens  of  her  imprisonment  and  interrogation  in  1937.   This  document  is  in  actuality  the  converse  of  the  confessional  narrative  de-­‐‑ manded  by  the  interrogators.  To  cite  a  distinction  made  by  another  victim  of   the  purges,  it  was  a  profession  of  faith  (ispoved’)  rather  than  the  confession  of   guilt  (priznanie)  that  was  to  be  wrung  from  the  accused.6  Not  only  did  Spiri-­‐‑ donova   reaffirm   her   commitment   to   her   socialist   ideals   and   ethics,   but   she   also...