There are still no definitive answers to the question of who and why killed Sergey Mironovich Kirov. Doubts that the truth will ever be established have been passed down from generation to generation. Party-prosecutorial commissions and additional investigations were created, which literally drowned in a monstrous swamp of lies and falsifications. Only now, for the first time in the entire history of the "Kirov case," real steps have been taken to conduct objective forensic medical and criminalistic examinations. In December 2004, at the request of the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation, specialists from the 111th Center for Forensic Medical and Criminalistic Examinations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, with the assistance of employees of the S.M. Kirov Museum and with the participation of FSO officers, conducted special studies. Their results are becoming public knowledge.

On December 1, 1934, in Leningrad, at Smolny, a member of the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee, a member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Secretary of the Leningrad Regional and City Party Committees Sergey Mironovich Kirov was killed. On that day, Kirov left his apartment at house No. 26/28 on Krasnykh Zor Street (today Kamenoostrovsky Prospekt) and arrived at Smolny around 4:30 p.m. He ascended the central staircase to the third floor, passed the main corridor, and began moving down the left corridor toward his office. At that moment, Kirov was shot in the back of the head with a revolver. The killer, Leonid Vasilyevich Nikolaev, was detained at the crime scene. A Nagant revolver model 1895 No. 24778, manufactured in 1912, with five cartridges, two spent casings in the cylinder, and a briefcase with documents were found on him. During the investigation, besides Nikolaev, 13 other people were arrested and brought to trial. On December 29, 1934, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR recognized that Kirov’s murder was committed by the underground terrorist Zinoviev organization, led by the so-called "Leningrad Center." All 14 defendants were sentenced to death by shooting.

The news of the tragedy caught the head of the NKVD Directorate for the Leningrad Region, F.D. Medved, at his workplace in the building at Liteyny Prospekt, house 4. Together with his deputy, he immediately went to Smolny. The first orders followed: to block all entrances and exits of Smolny and to send at least three dozen operational officers to Medved’s disposal. Everyone present in the building at the time of the murder was detained and later interrogated.

At 4:37 p.m., Kirov was moved to his office, and doctors continued to provide him with already futile medical assistance on the meeting table.

Kirov’s office at Smolny, consisting of two rooms, was sealed on December 1 at 9:30 p.m. "Seals were placed: one on the door from the inside of the second room of the office, and another on the office door leading to the reception area."

The first interrogation by Medved’s order began at 4:45 p.m., just 15 minutes after the shot: in one of the rooms adjacent to Kirov’s office, the killer’s wife, Milda Petrovna Draule, answered the investigator’s questions. Leonid Nikolaev could not give testimony, being in a state of hysterical fit, and began to speak coherently only after 9 p.m., when he was interrogated twice. That same evening, a search was conducted at his apartment on Batenina Street, 9/39, and an NKVD ambush was set up.

Vyacheslav Molotov recalled in the 1970s: "I was in Stalin’s office when Medved, the head of the Leningrad OGPU, called and said that Comrade Sergey was killed today at Smolny. Stalin said into the phone: ‘Nonsense!’" On the same day, at 6:25 p.m., the head of the NKVD USSR Operational Department, Pauker, received instructions in Stalin’s office at Old Square to prepare a special train to deliver the party and state leadership of the USSR to Leningrad. The "special standard" train traveled from Moscow to the Northern capital according to the schedule of train No. 2 (today known as the "Red Arrow"). At 10:30 a.m. on December 2, 1934, the train arrived at Leningrad’s Moscow Station. Stalin was met on the platform by Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Yezhov, Kosarev, and Yagoda with a group of NKVD officers. The Kirov murder case was taken over by the Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Agranov.

Stalin actively influenced the course of the preliminary investigation and trial of this and all subsequent cases related to Kirov’s murder. This is evidenced not only by the investigative materials of the case, which he personally edited. He did not manage to fully complete the investigative program because a key witness, Commissar of the Operational Department of the UNKVD Borisov, was fatally injured on the way to interrogation. But the interrogation of the alleged killer Leonid Nikolaev was enough for the "leader of the peoples." Much has been written about this interrogation, but there is no protocol, and none of the versions found real confirmation. Most likely, after interrogating Nikolaev, Stalin already knew the real motives for the murder. And he was completely uninterested in the criminal investigation. All interrogation protocols and other documents produced from December 3 onward served one purpose – to confirm the scheme determined by Stalin and Yezhov. In Yezhov’s archive, as well as in other declassified archives, there is neither a crime scene plan, nor a protocol of Nikolaev’s interrogation by Stalin, nor the slightest hint of developing versions other than political ones. However, there are plenty of contradictions in the documents.

Then the General Secretary left for Moscow, having received the necessary information and, most likely, knowing how it could be used. In December 1934 – January 1935, the most frequent visitors to his office were the direct executors of the fabricated "Leningrad Center" case – Yagoda, Agranov, USSR Prosecutor Akulov, RSFSR Prosecutor Vyshinsky, and Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR Ulrich.

No witnesses saw who and when killed Kirov. What could be simpler – to determine the exact time of the murder? The shot (or shots) at Smolny were heard by dozens of employees of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee. But the data on the time differ, as do the data on who and how guarded Kirov after he entered Smolny. The head of the Leningrad UNKVD Medved wrote: "On December 1 at 4:30 p.m., in the Smolny building on the third floor, 20 steps from Comrade Kirov’s office, a shot was fired into Comrade Kirov’s head by an unknown person walking toward him, who turned out to be Leonid Vasilyevich Nikolaev according to documents… Intelligence accompanied Comrade Kirov up to the third floor. On the third floor, Comrade Kirov was accompanied to the crime scene by Operational Commissar Borisov."

Now let’s compare this operational report with the only interrogation protocol of that same Operational Commissar Borisov, also written on December 1: "At approximately 4:30 p.m., Comrade Kirov came out of the car alone and went into the regional committee building. In the lobby, I followed behind him at a distance of about 15 steps. I kept this distance up to the second floor. When I stood on the first staircase, Comrade Kirov was already on the landing halfway between the first and second floors, so I followed him up to the entrance to the third floor. Reaching the corridor, I walked along the corridor at a distance of 20 steps from him. Not two steps before the turn into the left corridor, I heard a shot."

Another operational commissar, Karl Pauzer, reported during interrogation that three Chekists – Borisov, Auzen, and Balykovsky – went upstairs with Kirov. And Nikolai Dureiko, an employee of the Smolny commandant’s office, testified (undated): "Borisov walked behind Comrade Kirov at a distance of 8–10 steps."

Notice the difference? Medved writes that "intelligence" accompanied Kirov to the third floor, Borisov says he walked alone. Medved notes the shot was at 4:30 p.m., Borisov says that at that time he had just met Kirov downstairs.

But that’s not all. After the first shot, Borisov drew his revolver, cocked it, and heard a second shot. "Running out into the left corridor," Borisov told the investigator, "I saw two people lying by the doors of Comrade Chudov’s reception. They lay about ¾ meter apart. Nearby lay a Nagant revolver. In the same corridor, I saw the Smolny fitter Platych."

When interrogated, Seliverst Platych claimed he was going with storekeeper Vasilyev to the typing bureau for typewriters. Here is an excerpt from the interrogation protocol: "Having reached the corner of the left corridor, we saw that Comrade Kirov had caught up with us. Vasilyev asked me to close the glass door in the left corridor leading to the 4th canteen. I ran ahead of Comrade Kirov by about 8 steps, suddenly heard a shot behind me, and when I turned around, a second shot rang out. I saw that Comrade Kirov was lying down, and the second person was slowly descending to the floor, leaning against the wall. This person held a Nagant revolver, which I took from his hands." Meanwhile, Georgy Yalozo, deputy manager of the Leningrad Council houses, who was also interrogated on December 1, reported: "Several people rushed out of Comrade Chudov’s office, led by Comrade Chudov. Approaching there, I saw next to a man in a sheepskin coat a Nagant revolver. Recognizing Comrade Kirov in the second man (by figure and back of the head), I grabbed the revolver and stood next to the first person lying down."

An interesting case! Three or four interrogation protocols – and so many inconsistencies. Commissar Borisov says the Nagant was on the floor, Platych says he took it from Nikolaev’s hands, Yalozo says it lay on the floor and he took it. But none of them saw Nikolaev shooting! Neither Platych, who ran eight steps ahead of Kirov down the left corridor, nor storekeeper Vasilyev, who was returning back, nor guard Borisov.

And Nikolaev himself described the murder as follows: "Having ascended to the third floor, I went into the restroom, composed myself, and upon leaving the restroom, turned left. After two or three steps, I saw Sergey Mironovich Kirov walking toward me along the right wall of the corridor at a distance of 15–20 steps. Seeing Sergey Mironovich Kirov, I first stopped and turned my back to him, so when he passed me, I looked after him. Letting Kirov get 10–15 steps ahead of me, I noticed that there was no one else at a great distance from us. Then I followed Kirov, gradually catching up. When Comrade Kirov turned left around the corner to his office, which I knew well, the entire half of the corridor was empty – I ran up about five steps, pulled the Nagant out of my pocket on the run, aimed at Kirov’s head, and fired one shot in the back of the head. Kirov instantly fell face down."

Here are more inconsistencies. On December 2, the already known fitter Platych said during interrogation: "I rushed to run toward this person because I suspected he was the shooter… Approaching him, I picked up the Nagant lying on the floor, threw it aside, and punched the shooter twice in the face… I think I was the first to reach the killer."

In the Politburo archive of the CPSU Central Committee, there is a letter dated March 10, 1956, from Ivan Kasparov, who in 1934 worked as head of the foreign department of the Leningrad City Party Committee. He reported that besides him, "there were no living witnesses of this terrible crime." We quote: "At Kirov’s feet, we found a relatively young man who lay motionless, then began to move as after a deep faint, raised himself, and looked around with a vacant gaze. Next to him lay a battered briefcase containing a revolver and a party card."

Member of the regional committee and candidate member of the regional committee bureau of the VKP(b) Mikhail Roslyakov gave a different version in his testimony: "On the fateful day of December 1, 1934, when Nikolaev’s treacherous shot rang out at Smolny, I was the first to approach the face-down S.M. Kirov, trying to help him. Next to him lay the killer Nikolaev, from whom I took the party card and revolver. I gave the card to A.I. Ugarov."

Nikolaev was there, the party card was there, the briefcase and even the Nagant were there. But no witness saw who fired from it.

The number of shots and the case of the shot-through cap. The question of how many shots were fired is very confusing. Most witnesses, including Operational Commissar Borisov and fitter Seliverst Platych, mentioned two shots in their testimonies. Leonid Nikolaev said he pulled the trigger twice. Some witnesses noted that for a long time a mark from the second bullet was visible on the ceiling of the Smolny corridor. However, Deputy Head of the UNKVD for the Leningrad Region Fyodor Fomin wrote to Mikhail Suslov in 1956: "When I examined the Nagant revolver brought by me along with Nikolaev, one cartridge had been fired – the casing was empty, and next to this casing in the Nagant was a cartridge with a misfire. From this, I concluded that Nikolaev, after shooting S.M. Kirov, fired at himself, but it was a misfire… So who fired the second shot into the ceiling?"

In literature, the "shot-through cap" exhibited in the Kirov Museum is often mentioned. But was it real? Mikhail Roslyakov, describing the crime scene, wrote: "Following behind, I saw a terrible scene: to the left of the doors of Chudov’s reception in the corridor lay Kirov face down with his head turned to the right; the cap, whose visor rested on the floor, was slightly raised and did not touch the back of the head; under his left arm was a folder with materials for the prepared report." It is hard to even imagine that a bullet pierced the cap’s rim, Kirov fell face down, and the cap remained on his head…

Ivan Kasparov, already mentioned, wrote: "Kirov lay face down on the floor. Under his left arm was a folder with papers (it is known that he was going to a meeting of the Leningrad party activists with a report), his hat lay nearby, and on the right side of the back of his head was a huge wound larger than an old five-kopeck coin."

Authorized secretary of the political department Babushkina interrogated the director of the Leningrad State Circus, Leonid Efimovich Tsukerman, on December 1, who ran to the shots among the first, as he was near Kirov’s office: "A little ahead of him (meaning Nikolaev) lay a man face down; in his left hand was a hat… I immediately recognized Comrade Kirov lying there." How do you like this plot: the shot Kirov, falling, grabs his cap and holds it tightly?

Stalin personally edited and drafted the indictment. He instructed that the trial be conducted within two days and that all 14 defendants be executed. The verdict was printed in Moscow before the trial began, so the fate of the defendants was predetermined. The trial was swift. The closed session of the Military Collegium took place in Leningrad from 2:20 p.m. on December 28 to 6:40 a.m. on December 29, 1934 (thus, the court session lasted 16 hours and 20 minutes). The verdict was carried out an hour after its announcement. Less than a month had passed since the murder.

In April 1956, the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee decided to create a commission to investigate the circumstances of Kirov’s murder and other cases from the "cult of personality" era. This was the first attempt to review the "Kirov case." All commissions, six in total, working at different times and independently of each other, came to the unanimous conclusion that no underground Trotskyist-Zinoviev terrorist organization existed in Leningrad, and former opposition members, including those convicted in the Nikolaev case, were not involved in Kirov’s murder. However, the rehabilitation of the 13 executed in the "Leningrad case" followed only in 1989.

The commissions’ decisions directly depended on the political situation. There were enough contradictions in the "Kirov case," but all commissions either ignored them or "did not have the right" to work in that direction. For example, it is unlikely that the head of the first commission, Molotov, who was in Leningrad with Stalin in December 1934, did not know the objective picture of events.

Until 1932, entry to Smolny was free, without any passes. The building, housing many regional and city party, Soviet, and Komsomol organizations and institutions, was guarded by combined-arms posts and police officers. The Smolny commandant’s office was staffed by civilians (doormen), employed in the Leningrad Soviet headquarters. From 1933, the local commandant’s office was staffed by employees of the Operational Department of the OGPU Plenipotentiary Representative in the Leningrad Military District; the combined-arms guard was replaced by the commandant’s division of the OSNAZ troops of the OGPU border troops in the Leningrad Military District.

More details on the organization of Smolny’s security on the eve of the December tragedy are set out in a report by the head of the Operational Department Alekhin to the head of the NKVD Directorate for the Leningrad Region L.M. Zakovsky dated December 12, 1934:

"I report that until December 1, 1934, more than 15 different institutions and organizations related to the Leningrad Soviet and Regional Executive Committee were housed in the Smolny building; the main building, thanks to a special annex, was connected to other buildings, and therefore, besides the 1,829 people working in Smolny, the building was flooded with thousands of people." "The small corridor of the left wing of the third floor of Smolny was not separated from the general corridor. Anyone who got into the premises of the VKP(b) regional committee could freely get into the area of Kirov’s office, at the entrance to his reception."

From mid-1933 to February 1934, Kirov’s personal security increased from 3 to 12 people. At that time, he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) and secretary of the Central Committee. For accompanying the protected person during his trips and on foot, a car with a group of employees, usually two people, was allocated. Measures were taken to strengthen the security of Smolny, the house at No. 26/28 on Krasnykh Zor Street, and Kirov’s dacha premises on Kamenny Island.

On December 1, 1934, Kirov’s security was provided by 4 people from the personal security group and 5 employees of the commandant’s office. Two employees ensured the departure of the protected person from the house; that day, they escorted Sergey Mironovich only to the entrance of Smolny, not to the office. The personal security group employees did not enter the building, which they were supposed to do according to their official duties.

At the approach to Smolny, Kirov’s security was ensured by three commandant’s office employees on duty outside the building. At Smolny, the leader of the Leningrad Bolsheviks was met by Operational Commissar M.V. Borisov, appointed to this position on February 1, 1934. Since October 1929, he had been involved in Kirov’s security as a rank-and-file employee of the Operational Department. The operational commissar’s duties included accompanying the protected person around Smolny; during the rest of the time, he was to stay in the secretary’s reception. Another commandant’s office employee was the third-floor watchman.

On the evening of December 1, 1934, a meeting of party activists was expected at the Tauride Palace in Leningrad, with Kirov’s report on the upcoming abolition of the rationing system. He prepared for the report in the morning. Around 4 p.m., he called a car and went to Smolny. He entered the building through the central entrance, went up to the third floor, walked along the main corridor, and turned left toward his office. The responsibility to accompany Kirov inside Smolny lay with guard Mikhail Borisov. He followed at some distance. When Kirov turned into the small corridor, Borisov continued along the main corridor for some time, losing sight of the protected person.

Then Borisov died in an accident the same day when he was taken for interrogation. Of course, this was confirmed repeatedly by the prosecution as accidental.

Initially, Nikolaev’s plan – the killer of Kirov – allegedly was to try to shoot him at the upcoming meeting at the Tauride Palace. But to get there, an invitation was required. Nikolaev went to Smolny to get it. He entered the building without hindrance using his party card. This was common practice.

It is known that Sergey Mironovich resented the security. In November 1934, the head of the Operational Department Gubin reported to the leadership that Kirov still did not allow security. Security employees (except for escort personnel) were instructed to keep away from the protected person and not show themselves. The issue of appointing a special commissar for Kirov’s constant security was never resolved.

This attitude toward security was characteristic not only of Kirov. Until December 1, 1934, many top state and party leaders sometimes did not take security with them during trips and movements.

On December 3, 1934, People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda signed an order: "For negligent attitude to their duties in protecting state security in Leningrad, remove the leadership of the NKVD Directorate for the Leningrad Region from their positions and bring them to trial."

Draule is perhaps the most closed figure in the "Kirov case," about whom practically nothing is known. An incredible number of rumors have formed around her, mostly portraying her as the heroine of Kirov’s "romantic" infatuation and a woman who awakened murderous jealousy in her husband. Reliable information about Leonid Nikolaev’s wife is provided by archival documents. Here is what Milda’s younger sister Olga wrote in 1926:

"...So we lived until 1917. I remember that during the voting, my sister said (she was still underage) that we should vote for the Bolsheviks. I don’t know if she was familiar with this, but still, father voted for the Bolsheviks... After the October Revolution, the landlords were not expelled from their large estate and remained full owners until 1919. Only in 1919 did the revolutionary committee evict the landlords. They blamed our family for their eviction; my sister was already in the party then. A week later, there was Yudenich’s offensive – the landlords, sheltered by their protectors, tried by all means to prove to the White Guards that my sister was a counterrevolutionary, who, after being arrested, was taken for execution, but suddenly the Reds attacked them, and my sister survived. The cooperative where my parents lived was a training farm; later, at the end of 1924, there was a reduction in workers. My father was among those laid off. The reduction changed the situation. Thanks only to one of my father’s acquaintances, he had to find a hut for housing and temporary use of a garden. My sister and I help our parents. The sickly and elderly state of my parents does not allow them to get a job."

Milda Draule and Leonid Nikolaev married in 1925 in Luga.

A photograph is known where Milda and Leonid stand side by side. Both are young and attractive. The newlyweds settled in Leningrad at the end of 1925 in the apartment of Nikolaev’s mother at Lesnoy Prospekt, 13/8, apartment 41, where the mother lived with grandmother and younger sister, Leonid with his wife, the elder sister with her husband, and Vasilyev, a "cobbler-repairman," who worked and lived in the kitchen.

The Nikolaev family suffered from unemployment, a common phenomenon in Leningrad in the late 1920s. The mother’s job as a tram park washer (cleaner) was relatively stable. Relatives of Nikolaev helped Milda and her husband find work. In 1927, the Nikolaevs had their first child, named Marx. In September 1930, Milda Petrovna got a new job as an accountant in the regional party committee, then as assistant head of the light industry personnel sector. It remains unclear who patronized Draule. But obviously, his reputation was enough for Milda to find a place in the regional committee.

In 1931, Milda gave birth to a second child, Leonid, and the family received a three-room apartment in a new building on Batenina Street in the Vyborg district. Milda was registered in the Smolny party organization. Like all party members, she had public duties – as a cell bureau member, she checked party dues arrears. But she often had to excuse herself from party meetings regularly held after work hours. On October 26, 1932, the party cell bureau of the city committee decided "to recognize Comrade Draule’s absence from political training for valid reasons and henceforth exempt her from attending the circle." This was probably an exceptional case for the Smolny party organization. Milda had no special reasons not to attend party meetings, as Nikolaev and Draule lived with Milda Petrovna’s parents, and the children were cared for by the grandmother.

In April 1931, Nikolaev was hired by the Leningrad Regional Committee of the VKP(b) as an instructor-referent. The spouses worked side by side in Smolny for six months.

In September 1931, Leonid was transferred from party work to the regional council of the "Down with Illiteracy" society. This was the thirteenth job listed in his "Work List." He "endured" there exactly one year. In August 1932, he was enrolled as an inspector of the Price Inspection of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection with a salary of 250 rubles per month. The inspection was located in Smolny. The person who recommended Nikolaev to the RKI remains unidentified.

The spouses were dismissed from Smolny almost simultaneously. In August 1933, Nikolaev took his regular vacation and was dismissed on October 1 with the reason "due to going to study." On August 23, Draule was sent "to work as Head of the Accounting Group of the Office of the Authorized People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry with a salary of 275 rubles," but initially to a temporary inspector position with a salary of 250 rubles. Only on January 19, 1934, was Milda officially included in the staff with a salary of 275 rubles. The evasive answer about the reason for her transfer from the regional committee to the commissariat was found in the protocol of the party cell meeting of the city committee, where Draule underwent a party purge in November 1933 along with comrades.

Note that no decisions on staff reductions were made by the Leningrad city and regional committees of the VKP(b) in 1933. The reasons for Nikolaev’s dismissal and Draule’s transfer were most likely the desertion of Leonid’s brother from the Red Army and the arrest of Milda’s brother for embezzlement.

She spent her next vacation in August 1934 with her children in Sestroretsk, as she testified at the investigation. Note that Kirov was also vacationing there at the same time. Draule was dismissed "due to staff reduction" on January 1, 1935, and on January 7 was expelled from the VKP(b) "for complete lack of Bolshevik vigilance, for concealing from the party the counterrevolutionary activities of her husband Nikolaev and his brother, who deserted from the Red Army for counterrevolutionary terrorist activities, and that by her actions Draule fell into the camp of open enemies of the party and working class."

The FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region retains registration and questionnaire cards of the arrested Milda and Olga Petrovna Draule, as well as Olga’s husband Roman Kulisher, who were involved in the "Kirov case." Olga Draule and Kulisher were arrested later than Milda, but on the same day – December 1. The NKVD internal prison received the spouses on December 6. It remains to be established where they were held between December 1 and 6. It is also necessary to clarify the role of all three arrested in the events surrounding Kirov’s murder. Milda and Olga Draule were interrogated twice on December 1, 1934. Milda, as a possible eyewitness, could see and therefore tell about the circumstances of the fatal shot. Olga and her husband, as witnesses, could shed light on the relationships between Kirov, Milda, and Nikolaev. But the testimonies of the sisters and Kulisher did not fit the framework of the fabricated official trial. The case of Milda, Olga, and Kulisher was separated into a separate criminal proceeding. All three were executed on March 10, 1935.

The working group of specialists from the 111th Center for Forensic Medical and Criminalistic Examinations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was provided with Sergey M. Kirov’s clothing items he wore at the time of the murder, as well as documents (certificates, acts) related to the events of December 1, 1934. The working group, based on the official version, reconstructed certain events directly at the place of Kirov’s death in the Smolny corridor.

The studies established that Kirov suffered a single, blind gunshot wound to the head with damage to the cerebellum and brainstem. The entry gunshot wound was located in the occipital region to the left and above the occipital protuberance; the direction of the wound channel was from back to front, right to left, somewhat top to bottom.

A through gunshot wound was found on the rim of Kirov’s half-military cap. The significant thickness of the rim allowed determining the direction of the bullet channel – from back to front, left to right, and top to bottom at an angle of about 45 degrees to the horizontal plane. A grazing gunshot wound was found on the collar fold of Kirov’s coat. The studies also indicate that the wound was caused by a bullet that had previously interacted with an obstacle and, as a result, lost stability. Such an obstacle could have been the coat collar, on which the grazing gunshot wound was found.

The study of the entry gunshot wound on the rim of Kirov’s cap gave grounds to assert that it was caused from a distance beyond the range of accompanying shot products – from a considerable distance (for the Nagant revolver model 1895 – more than 1 meter).

The reconstruction of events allowed establishing several theoretically possible variants of Nikolaev’s and Kirov’s positions at the time of the shots. However, the data obtained during the experiment cast doubt on the correctness of the official version of the death of the leader of the Leningrad Bolsheviks. It seems most likely that at the moment of the injury, Kirov was not in a vertical position.

During the forensic medical examination of Kirov’s long johns, it was established that, despite the absence of traces of prolonged wear after the last washing, significant stains of dried semen were found on the inner front upper surface.

It is time to move on to a delicate topic – the nature of the relationship between Sergey Kirov and Milda Draule. Undoubtedly, Kirov knew Draule professionally. By the way, Sergey Mironovich knew all the employees of the regional committee apparatus, remembering them by first name, patronymic, and surname.

Rumors about the causes of the fatal shot and the intimate relationship between Draule and Kirov spread throughout Leningrad as early as December 1 at 11 p.m. Such "information" in December 1934 was collected, analyzed, and summarized by party committees, district committees, regional committees, and finally by the local NKVD administration. Most of the "disseminators" of these rumors were expelled from the party, some arrested or executed.

There is a lot of such "information" – dozens and hundreds of summaries and reports. The first stage of expert research confirms the assumptions about an intimate relationship between the deceased and the killer’s wife. Ironically, the principle of inviolability of private life was, in December 1934, perhaps observed only once. All possible measures were taken to hide the circumstances of the "Kirov," essentially "intimate," case.

More than ten Smolny employees who became eyewitnesses or to whom Nikolaev turned for an invitation ticket to the Uritsky Palace party activist meeting are known. All were interrogated on December 1 but did not testify as witnesses at the trial on December 28 and 29, 1934. Most of these people were later subjected to party sanctions or expelled from the party and dismissed from work. Kirov’s driver F.G. Ershov was dismissed from the Leningrad Soviet garage. He was the one who took Sergey Mironovich to Smolny on December 1.

The question of the events of December 1 was not discussed at party meetings of the Smolny apparatus. Only decisions to "increase vigilance" were made, calls to "not loiter in the Smolny corridors without cause," to lock offices and desks. Simultaneously, identification of persons previously connected with the opposition began.

On January 7, 1935, the bureau of the Leningrad regional and city committees of the VKP(b) adopted a resolution "On the apparatus of the regional and city committees," sanctioning the dismissal and transfer of 79 employees. Curiously, all witnesses of the tragic events were included in this list. Thus, the main goal was achieved – the source of information that could contradict the official version was cut off. Some of the 79 people were soon arrested or exiled.

No witnesses saw who and when killed Kirov… What could be simpler – to determine the exact time of the murder? The shot or shots at Smolny were heard by dozens of employees of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee. But the data on the time differ, as do the data on who and how guarded Kirov after he entered Smolny. The head of the Leningrad UNKVD Medved wrote: "On December 1 at 4:30 p.m., in the Smolny building on the third floor, 20 steps from Comrade Kirov’s office, a shot was fired into Comrade Kirov’s head by an unknown person walking toward him, who turned out to be Leonid Vasilyevich Nikolaev according to documents… Intelligence accompanied Comrade Kirov up to the third floor. On the third floor, Comrade Kirov was accompanied to the crime scene by Operational Commissar Borisov."

Now let’s compare this operational report with the only interrogation protocol of that same Operational Commissar Borisov, also written on December 1: "At approximately 4:30 p.m., Comrade Kirov came out of the car alone and went into the regional committee building. In the lobby, I followed behind him at a distance of about 15 steps. I kept this distance up to the second floor. When I stood on the first staircase, Comrade Kirov was already on the landing halfway between the first and second floors, so I followed him up to the entrance to the third floor. Reaching the corridor, I walked along the corridor at a distance of 20 steps from him. Not two steps before the turn into the left corridor, I heard a shot."

Another operational commissar, Karl Pauzer, reported during interrogation that three Chekists – Borisov, Auzen, and Balykovsky – went upstairs with Kirov. And Nikolai Dureiko, an employee of the Smolny commandant’s office, testified (undated): "Borisov walked behind Comrade Kirov at a distance of 8–10 steps." That is, Medved writes that "intelligence" accompanied Kirov to the third floor, Borisov says he walked alone. Medved notes the shot was at 4:30 p.m., Borisov says that at that time he had just met Kirov downstairs.

But that’s not all. After the first shot, Borisov drew his revolver, cocked it, and heard a second shot. "Running out into the left corridor," Borisov told the investigator, "I saw two people lying by the doors of Comrade Chudov’s reception. They lay about ¾ meter apart. Nearby lay a Nagant revolver. In the same corridor, I saw the Smolny fitter Platych."

When interrogated, Seliverst Platych claimed he was going with storekeeper Vasilyev to the typing bureau for typewriters. Here is an excerpt from the interrogation protocol: "Having reached the corner of the left corridor, we saw that Comrade Kirov had caught up with us. Vasilyev asked me to close the glass door in the left corridor leading to the 4th canteen. I ran ahead of Comrade Kirov by about 8 steps, suddenly heard a shot behind me, and when I turned around, a second shot rang out. I saw that Comrade Kirov was lying down, and the second person was slowly descending to the floor, leaning against the wall. This person held a Nagant revolver, which I took from his hands." Meanwhile, Georgy Yalozo, deputy manager of the Leningrad Council houses, who was also interrogated on December 1, reported: "Several people rushed out of Comrade Chudov’s office, led by Comrade Chudov. Approaching there, I saw next to a man in a sheepskin coat a Nagant revolver. Recognizing Comrade Kirov in the second man (by figure and back of the head), I grabbed the revolver and stood next to the first person lying down."

Three or four interrogation protocols – and so many inconsistencies. Commissar Borisov says the Nagant was on the floor, Platych says he took it from Nikolaev’s hands, Yalozo says it lay on the floor and he took it. But none of them saw Nikolaev shooting! Neither Platych, who ran eight steps ahead of Kirov down the left corridor, nor storekeeper Vasilyev, who was returning back, nor guard Borisov. And Nikolaev himself described the murder as follows: "Having ascended to the third floor, I went into the restroom, composed myself, and upon leaving the restroom, turned left. After two or three steps, I saw Sergey Mironovich Kirov walking toward me along the right wall of the corridor at a distance of 15–20 steps. Seeing Sergey Mironovich Kirov, I first stopped and turned my back to him, so when he passed me, I looked after him. Letting Kirov get 10–15 steps ahead of me, I noticed that there was no one else at a great distance from us. Then I followed Kirov, gradually catching up. When Comrade Kirov turned left around the corner to his office, which I knew well, the entire half of the corridor was empty – I ran up about five steps, pulled the Nagant out of my pocket on the run, aimed at Kirov’s head, and fired one shot in the back of the head. Kirov instantly fell face down."

Here are more inconsistencies. On December 2, the already known fitter Platych said during interrogation: "I rushed to run toward this person because I suspected he was the shooter… Approaching him, I picked up the Nagant lying on the floor, threw it aside, and punched the shooter twice in the face… I think I was the first to reach the killer."

In the Politburo archive of the CPSU Central Committee, there is a letter dated March 10, 1956, from Ivan Kasparov, who in 1934 worked as head of the foreign department of the Leningrad City Party Committee. He reported that besides him, "there were no living witnesses of this terrible crime." We quote: "At Kirov’s feet, we found a relatively young man who lay motionless, then began to move as after a deep faint, raised himself, and looked around with a vacant gaze. Next to him lay a battered briefcase containing a revolver and a party card."

Member of the regional committee and candidate member of the regional committee bureau of the VKP(b) Mikhail Roslyakov gave a different version in his testimony: "On the fateful day of December 1, 1934, when Nikolaev’s treacherous shot rang out at Smolny, I was the first to approach the face-down S.M. Kirov, trying to help him. Next to him lay the killer Nikolaev, from whom I took the party card and revolver. I gave the card to A.I. Ugarov."

Nikolaev was there, the party card was there, the briefcase and even the Nagant were there. But no witness saw who fired from it.

The number of shots and the case of the shot-through cap. The question of how many shots were fired is very confusing. Most witnesses, including Operational Commissar Borisov and fitter Seliverst Platych, mentioned two shots in their testimonies. Leonid Nikolaev said he pulled the trigger twice. Some witnesses noted that for a long time a mark from the second bullet was visible on the ceiling of the Smolny corridor. However, Deputy Head of the UNKVD for the Leningrad Region Fyodor Fomin wrote to Mikhail Suslov in 1956: "When I examined the Nagant revolver brought by me along with Nikolaev, one cartridge had been fired – the casing was empty, and next to this casing in the Nagant was a cartridge with a misfire. From this, I concluded that Nikolaev, after shooting Kirov, fired at himself, but it was a misfire… So who fired the second shot into the ceiling?"

In literature, the "shot-through cap" exhibited in the Kirov Museum is often mentioned. But was it real? Mikhail Roslyakov, describing the crime scene, wrote: "Following behind, I saw a terrible scene: to the left of the doors of Chudov’s reception in the corridor lay Kirov face down with his head turned to the right; the cap, whose visor rested on the floor, was slightly raised and did not touch the back of the head; under his left arm was a folder with materials for the prepared report." It is hard to even imagine that a bullet pierced the cap’s rim, Kirov fell face down, and the cap remained on his head…

Ivan Kasparov, already mentioned, wrote: "Kirov lay face down on the floor. Under his left arm was a folder with papers (it is known that he was going to a meeting of the Leningrad party activists with a report), his hat lay nearby, and on the right side of the back of his head was a huge wound larger than an old five-kopeck coin."

Authorized secretary of the political department Babushkina interrogated the director of the Leningrad State Circus, Leonid Efimovich Tsukerman, on December 1, who ran to the shots among the first, as he was near Kirov’s office: "A little ahead of him (meaning Nikolaev) lay a man face down; in his left hand was a hat… I immediately recognized Comrade Kirov lying there." That is, the plot: the shot Kirov, falling, grabs his cap and holds it tightly?

One of the most mysterious plots related to Kirov’s murder is the death of Operational Commissar Borisov, the very one who walked behind Kirov at a distance of 8 to 20 steps according to various reports and was supposed to guard him on the way to the office. He was interrogated only once, on December 1. The next day, Stalin ordered Borisov to be brought to him.

Reference from Yezhov’s archive: "Borisov M.V., born in 1881, from peasants, candidate member of the VKP(b) since 1931, operational commissar of the 4th department of the operational department of the UNKVD for the Leningrad Region, in the OGPU since 1924, previously worked as a watchman; died on December 2, 1934, at 10:50 a.m. when a truck crashed into the wall of house No. 50 on Voinova Street." This is the official 1934 reference. Then come versions of the incident…

Version No. 1. Fyodor Fomin, deputy head of the regional UNKVD, wrote: "Commissar Borisov was arrested on the morning of December 2 and held in the operational department of the UNKVD after the interrogation of the killer Nikolaev by Comrade Stalin. Yagoda called Agranov from Smolny to the Leningrad UNKVD to send Borisov to Smolny to Comrade Stalin, and when he was taken in an operational car, an open one-and-a-half-ton truck, he sat on the right side in the direction of the car, and on the left side opposite him sat the accompanying operative. When the driver was driving along Voinova Street near the Tavrichesky Garden on an icy section, he lost control, and the car went full speed toward the fence and hit the fence with the right side. Commissar Borisov, sitting on the right side on the bench, hit his head and died immediately…" On this letter, addressed to Mikhail Suslov in 1956, the Central Committee secretary put question marks opposite the quoted words.

Version No. 2. Stepan Sergeevich Popovitsky, a former employee of the Leningrad UNKVD, wrote to the CPSU Central Committee on March 7, 1956, that the head of the third department of the operational department Khvilyuzov ordered operative Mali to deliver Borisov to Stalin, taking any car from the fourth entrance. There was only one car – a one-and-a-half-ton truck of the fifth department of the operational department. "Since the driver Kuzin did not know the government entrance to Smolny, Mali sat with him in the cabin, and Vinogradov and Borisov sat in the truck bed. It should be noted that Borisov was in a state of mental depression, was a whining person, and therefore posed no danger to the accompanying person in the car… While driving along Voinova Street, crossing the tram tracks of Potemkin Street, due to technical faults, the car skidded to the wall of the house, and Borisov hit his head on a drainpipe." Popovitsky even mentioned that a piece of Borisov’s coat was allegedly taken from the pipe and attached to the case.

Version No. 3. In 1956, former OGPU-NKVD investigator Yakushev wrote to CPSU secretary Frol Kozlov that in 1937 he interrogated the driver Kuzin, who said that at 5–6 a.m. on December 2, he was called to the operational department and asked to bring a car to the NKVD building on Voinova Street. Kuzin said that the operative Mali sitting next to him grabbed the steering wheel, and the car hit the drainpipe. Mali jumped out of the car, but Borisov apparently did not fall out of the truck bed: "The employee sitting with him was no longer there; he heard a dull thud in the truck bed, and when he looked into the truck, he saw a man lying on the floor in a coat with a bloody head."

Yakushev quoted the testimony of Chekist Vinogradov: "At that moment, I hit Borisov on the head with an iron bar. The car stopped, Mali, who jumped into the truck bed, grabbed the iron bar from my hands and hit the lying Borisov on the head again with it… That’s how Borisov was killed." Mali and Vinogradov were sentenced to death by the Military Collegium, while investigator Yakushev released Kuzin, who was not repressed.

By the way, driver Vasily Kuzin in a letter to the same Frol Kozlov in 1956 described the circumstances of arriving at the NKVD building and Borisov’s murder somewhat differently: "On December 2 at 11 a.m., I brought Chief Muller to the administration and went to the red corner (remember Kuzin’s testimony at the 1937 investigation that he was called at 5–6 a.m.?). I left the car on Voinova Street near the entrance." Then Kuzin was asked several times to go to Smolny, but since Muller strictly forbade going anywhere, he went only by order of the secretary of the operational department Maximov.

I managed to find another curious testimony that the Chekists immediately after Borisov’s death were undecided about the version. Party committee instructor Voitas reported that on December 2, NKVD officers stopped his car and asked him to transport a dead man’s body to the UNKVD. At the same time, he heard NKVD officers’ conversation: "Damn, he sat next to the driver, the camera burst, he hit his head on the steering wheel and broke his head." Voitas recognized the guard of Kirov in the dead man and was very surprised by this conversation because "the body was dragged not from the driver’s cabin but from the truck platform, so the steering wheel had nothing to do with it."

So it can be asserted with high probability that Borisov was indeed killed in the bed of the Chekist’s one-and-a-half-ton truck. He did not expect the blow and did not even have time to cover his head with his hands (which would be natural in an accident). His hands were intact. The autopsy report of Borisov’s body, conducted the same day by Professors Nadezhdin and Rozanov, describes terrible skull injuries, which were practically split into parts, as happens from a blow with a blunt object. And the report does not say a word that these injuries could have resulted from a car accident…

On December 2, according to available documents, investigators did not speak in accusatory terms about Borisov. But from December 3 to 14, testimonies of various people were collected about Kirov’s murder, stating that "Borisov ran away from the crime scene," that "Borisov did not participate in the arrest of the killer and the call for doctors." Dead Borisov could tell nothing to Comrade Stalin.

On the morning of December 2, 1934, a Government Commission arrived in Leningrad to investigate Kirov’s murder, consisting of Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov, and with the participation of Yagoda, Yezhov, Vyshinsky, and others. For interrogation by Stalin, the Chekist Borisov, who guarded and accompanied Kirov on the day of the murder, was summoned to this commission. Borisov detained Nikolaev, knew well everything concerning Kirov’s security, and was an eyewitness to his murder. The order to bring Borisov, who was then in the NKVD building on Voinova Street, was given by Yagoda. From Smolny, an NKVD operative from the Leningrad NKVD, Mali, and NKVD driver Yanelis left in a "Packard" car that members of the Government Commission arrived in from the station that morning.

As driver Yanelis shows, having received the order for urgent delivery of Borisov to Smolny, he and Mali arrived at the NKVD building courtyard and saw Commissar Borisov surrounded by a group of UNKVD employees. Driver Yanelis quickly turned the car around and prepared to leave for Smolny, knowing that Stalin was already waiting for Borisov’s interrogation. However, operational department employees Mali and Vinogradov, after talking among themselves, decided to send driver Yanelis back to Smolny, with Mali saying he would take Borisov only in a truck, and began to drag Borisov onto the truck standing in the yard, which was usually used to deliver food for detainees in the internal prison. Driver Yanelis saw the weakened Borisov dragged into the truck bed, forcibly seated on the side, and Yanelis, opening the door of the car, began shouting at Mali that "people should not be seated on the side according to the rules," to which Mali replied with coarse language, saying it was none of his business and to go back to Smolny, slamming the car door angrily. Driver Yanelis did not immediately go to Smolny and stayed for some time in the NKVD building buffet, parking his car near the NKVD building.

Mali, not receiving permission to use the truck in the yard, asked the operational duty officer to give him a truck to deliver Borisov to Smolny; the duty officer offered him to take the free passenger car that served the department head Benyuk, whose driver Vasilyev was at the operational department at that time. Mali refused to use this passenger car and went to the head of the operational department Gubin, who allowed him to take the "GAZ-AA" truck standing at that time in the alley opposite the service entrance to the NKVD building from Voinova Street.

As driver Kuzin, a CPSU member, shows, he constantly served the NKVD operational department and on the morning of December 2, 1934, brought the head of the operational department Muller, who said that without his permission he should not go anywhere else. When operative Mali approached driver Kuzin and demanded to urgently go to Smolny, Kuzin refused. He received a second order from operative Vinogradov and also refused to go to Smolny, citing Muller’s order. Only after the secretary of the operational department Maximov’s order did driver Kuzin bring his car to the service entrance. Mali sat in the cabin with the driver, and operative Vinogradov and Commissar Borisov sat in the truck bed, with Borisov sitting on the bench with his back to the driver’s cabin and Vinogradov standing to his right.

On the way to Smolny, when the driver had already crossed Potemkin Street and was approaching the Tauride Palace, Mali suddenly grabbed the steering wheel from driver Kuzin and directed the car toward the house wall, trying to jump out of the car on the move. Driver Kuzin stopped Mali, but the car entered the street, hit the door against the wall, breaking the side window in the door. When driver Kuzin stopped the car, put it back on the pavement, Mali jumped out of the cabin and climbed into the truck bed. Vinogradov, sitting in the truck bed next to Commissar Borisov, jumped out at the same time, ran to the gate of the house located on the opposite side of the street. Minutes later, Vinogradov returned to the car. Driver Kuzin jumped into the truck bed and saw the dead Borisov lying in the car. Kuzin shouted: "What have you done, you killed him!" Mali approached him and threatened, saying: "Shut up, puppy, or else here’s a gun." Stopping a passenger car coming from Smolny, Mali and Vinogradov took the dead Borisov in it to the NKVD building. Driver Kuzin, with the help of a police officer, called a traffic inspector, who could not inspect the car on the spot because Kuzin was arrested by operative Gusev, who ordered traffic inspector Oskotsky not to inspect the car and to go to the NKVD building with the arrested and disarmed driver Kuzin and Gusev in his passenger car. Gusev forbade Kuzin to talk to the traffic inspector on the way.

Having stayed in the canteen on the 7th floor of the NKVD building, driver Yanelis decided to return to Smolny because Mali and Vinogradov took Borisov in the truck. Yanelis testified about how they "delivered" Borisov to Smolny:

"Just as I began to descend from the second floor to the first, I saw Borisov being carried in arms, who turned out to be dead. Since he was without a head covering, I clearly saw Borisov’s bald head. It seemed to me that it was crushed because it was even misshapen. When I asked what happened, Mali rudely pushed me aside, and Borisov was carried to the medical unit located on the second floor."

Borisov was a completely unwanted witness in the Kirov murder case and therefore was killed the very next day after the villainous murder of Kirov. As now established, immediately after Kirov’s murder, Borisov was taken to the NKVD building and arrested. Borisov was guarded by former operational commissar of the Leningrad UNKVD operational department Petrovsky, who reported to the Party Control Commission that Borisov was beaten in the yard of the detention center before being sent, but initially sat with a weapon. Petrovsky reported on this matter:

"…Upon arrival at the operational department, I and another employee in civilian clothes were assigned to guard the arrested guard of Comrade Kirov – Borisov. After talking with my assistant, judging by Borisov’s condition, I took the 'Browning' from him, which I handed over to the head of the secret guards Grunveld. This chief scolded me with obscene words, saying, 'Who asked you to take away the weapon? It’s none of your business.'"

After Stalin’s arrival from Moscow, Borisov was ordered to be brought to Smolny for interrogation, but there was no vehicle to deliver him. Suddenly, all cars disappeared, and only a one-and-a-half-ton truck could be found, the bottom of the truck bed polished to a mirror shine. This truck was provided by one of the heads of the operational department Muller.

Borisov was seated in the middle of the truck bed (Borisov was beaten in the yard of the detention center beforehand…). A copy of the act dated December 2, 1934, at 11:15 a.m. by doctors of the NKVD clinic states:

"…No breathing. No heartbeat heard, pulse absent. Pupils do not react to light, complete absence of corneal reflex. Profuse bleeding from both ears and mouth… No external signs of fractures of the chest bones, upper and lower limbs were found… Borisov was delivered to clinic No. 1 dead."

Death apparently occurred from a skull base fracture.

The autopsy of Borisov’s body was conducted three days later, on December 4, and the body was issued for burial only three weeks later. The autopsy report states: "…that Borisov’s death was an accident related to a car crash."

Of the six doctors who signed the conclusion of Borisov’s death from an accident related to a car crash, only former NKVD doctor Mamushin is still alive. He confirmed that at the time the conclusion was made on December 4, 1934, none of the doctors were allowed to the accident site, that the forensic medical examination was clearly incomplete, and that the picture of brain tissue and skull destruction with numerous diverging cracks, with relatively intact skin, seemed mysterious to him even then. On this matter, Dr. Mamushin said:

"Even then, there was a sharp dispute among the members of the medical expert commission about their conclusions, whether it could have been not an ordinary skull injury but an actual murder, due to the massive fragmentation of the skull cap – however, we could not fully clarify this issue because we were not allowed to go to the site for a detailed inspection until further clarification of this difficult question. And many years later, these memories kept haunting me, and I always wanted to complete this case."

It should be especially noted that the original forensic medical examination act was supposed to be kept in the archive of the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad; in reality, the second copy of this act is kept, but it lacks the schematic drawings of the fracture and skull cracks.

On April 25, 1957, a note from the CPSU Central Committee Commission chaired by Vyacheslav Molotov about the circumstances of M.V. Borisov’s death was sent to the CPSU Central Committee Presidium, which rendered the verdict: "Due to the remoteness of events and the death of persons who could clarify this matter, collecting materials that would make it possible to establish whether Borisov’s death was the result of intentional murder or a car accident is not feasible. The Party Control Committee checked the circumstances of Chekist Borisov’s murder on-site, thoroughly studied archival documents, interviewed witnesses, and organized forensic medical and technical examinations on this case."

Sources:

https://istmat.org/node/60692

https://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/istoriya/myertvye-svideteli-ubiystva-kirova/

https://dzen.ru/a/Y4hLDuMrsjSHHkbN

https://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/articles/2019/12/02/817687-ubiistvo-kirova

https://www.kirovmuseum.ru/node/17