The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia

by Tim Tzouliadis

Together they worked on the lists of those about to be destroyed. In the Lubyanka, Yezhov would create the lists of names, which Stalin would read and sign, and afterward watch a movie for relaxation. At one Central Committee meeting, Stalin presented lists for Molotov, Kaganovich, and Georgy Malenkov to cosign that sentenced 230,000 people to their executions. During 1937 and 1938, Yezhov faithfully brought Stalin 383 lists for his examination.22 Unlike Hitler, the Soviet dictator never had any qualms about adding his personal signature to genocide, scanning thousands of names into the night, occasionally marking off a famous writer, such as Boris Pasternak, as “not to be touched.”