ABSTRACT
In January 1934 the Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party assembled. A new Politburo was elected. It comprised: Stalin, Molotov, Kouibychev, Ordjonikidze, Vorochilov, Kalinin, Kirov, Andreev, Petrosky, Tchoubar, Mikoyan, and Lazar Kaganovitch. The whole fabric of the USSR threatened to collapse if its rulers betrayed the least weakness. During this period—a crucial period for him—Stalin, who trusted no one, subjected Rosenfeld and his accomplices to a personal interrogation. Rosenfeld declared that Kamenev and Zinoviev were completely ignorant of the conspiracy, but that its political aim was in correspondence with the slogan, 'Back to the Politburo of Lenin'. The 'Stalinites' and their enemies were now caught up in a mesh of circumstances from which neither could escape save by the destruction of the adverse party. By a special decision, the Politburo ordered the verification and renewal of the membership cards of the Russian party.
