1949 - Leningrad Affair

• Stalin had always been worried about the potential of the Leningrad Party to oppose him ever since the days of Zinoviev in the 1920s and Kirov in the 1930s.
• The seize and importance of Leningrad and its distance from Moscow made it ripe in Stalin's mind to become a centre of opposition.
• When Zhdanov died in 1948, Stalin encouraged Beria and Malenkov to purge the party of anyone deemed to be of dubious loyalty.
• The two leading party officials in Leningrad - Voznesensky (a Politburo member) and Kuznetsov were arrested along with thousands of other officials.

  • They were forced to confess, tried in secret and executed.
  • Their death warrants had already been signed by the Politburo before their trial.