The murder of Kirov (1934)

Robert Conquest argues that the murder of Kirov was a turning point in history, which not only unleashed terror that killed millions but also determined the future of Soviet Russia

The murder

• Just after 4pm on December 1934, Kirov entered Party headquarters in Leningrad
• He left his bodyguard downstairs and went upstairs alone, not noticing that the usual guards were absent
• As Kirov passed the corridor, an assassin emerged from the shadows and shot him in the back of the neck

The assassin

• Nikolayev, aged 30, was a nervous man with poor health who had joined the Communist Party in 1920 at 16
• He was expelled in March 1934 for a breach of disicpline, but later reinstated
• He had never been linked to the left opposition…