Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [174]
So the content of the telegram: through Zinoviev, the Ekaterinburg Ural Soviet informed Sverdlov and Lenin in Moscow that the execution of the tsar’s family agreed upon with Goloshchekin could not bear any further delay in view of Ekaterinburg’s deteriorating military situation and the town’s imminent surrender. If Moscow had any objections, they must inform Goloshchekin and Safarov of such immediately.
After this telegram one can speak of Goloshchekin’s mission in Moscow definitively: he discussed the fate of Ekaterinburg and agreed upon the family’s execution.
TWO “EDUCATED” MARXISTS
The telegram mentioned two others who evidently played a significant role in the fate of the tsar and his family. A photograph of the presidium of the Ural Soviet: beside Goloshchekin and Beloborodov stands a typical bespectacled intellectual with weak eyes that somehow do not mesh with his bold fur cap. This is Safarov, a member of the presidium and the chairman’s comrade. The signature of this intellectual was on the Ural Soviet’s bloodiest telegrams.
Georgy Ivanovich Safarov, son of an engineer, born 1891. The typical biography of an “educated Marxist”: exile, emigration to Switzerland.… It was during this exile that a most powerful name arose alongside Safarov—Grigory Zinoviev, a figure right behind Lenin and Trotsky in the Bolshevik hierarchy. The close tie between Zinoviev and Safarov persisted over the entire course of their lives.
They became close in Switzerland. Zinoviev introduced Safarov to Lenin. Immediately after the February Revolution, thanks to Zinoviev, Safarov arrived in Petrograd in the sealed car that Germany, Russia’s military adversary, allowed to pass through to Russia. The revolution conquered, and after September 1917 Safarov was “Comrade Chairman of the Ural Soviet.” Safarov’s actions in Ekaterinburg were highly reminiscent of those of his idol Zinoviev in Petrograd.
In Petrograd, surrounded by the Whites, Zinoviev introduced the institution of hostages. In response to a White attack he and Stalin, who had come to Petrograd, arranged a bloody bacchanalia: nighttime executions of hostages—White officers, priests, and other “formers.” In 1919 Zinoviev would carry out another bloody retaliation for the murder in Berlin of the German Communists Karl Leibnecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Hostages were executed in the Fortress of Peter and Paul: four grand dukes—Nicholas Mikhailovich and George Mikhailovich, Paul Alexandrovich, and Dmitry Konstantinovich Romanov. (Soon after this display of international solidarity Lenin would recommend Zinoviev to run the Comintern.)
Naturally, from the beginning Zinoviev supported the Uralites’ idea of executing the Romanovs. According to his logic, that was the proper response to the Whites’ advance on Ekaterinburg. Also, he did not want a trial: he hated Trotsky. “The party has wanted to smash Trotsky’s face in for a long time,” this educated Marxist wrote sweetly of his rival in the struggle for power.
All this time the old friends remained in close contact, as they would till the very end. When in 1919 Zinoviev headed the Comintern, he took with him the head of the eastern division, his friend Safarov. After Lenin’s death, Zinoviev, the leader of Petrograd, strengthened his rear. He made the loyal Safarov director of the party newspaper, Leningrad Pravda, and when Stalin rewarded Zinoviev with a bloody “kick in the ass,” it fell upon Safarov to get even.
From a letter of Sergei Pozharsky in Rostov-on-the-Don: “Ogonyok printed your ‘Execution in Ekaterinburg’ and there in the photo is Safarov. Since you are involved with the material, perhaps you can tell me what ever happened to him. I can explain. In 1941, in Saratov, I shared a prison cell with Safarov. A most remarkable individual. According to him he was with Lenin, either as a secretary or librarian in emigration.… He was a delegate at some party congress. And a newspaper editor. Then for many years he was a witness at almost all the ‘cases’ of 1937, etc. Tell me briefly: was he all this or not, my cellmate?”