[Much
more on Mikoyan can be found in my Stalin book, but this particular
story is told not on his account per se, but only as part of the continuing Lenin
subsection.
There
is also a certain connection to the previous entry here. Although Ukraine and
the holy city of Kiev is of a very special significance to Russian history and
mentality, Transcaucasia, which takes the center stage in this entry, had also
been a part of the Russian Empire, and Lenin had no intention of letting it go.
Thus, I repeat, this entry is more about Lenin’s strategic decision to keep
Transcaucasia for Russia, than about the person of Mikoyan, even though Mikoyan
is an extremely colorful and very important historical character in his own
right, and later on, he is going to reappear as the main focus of our
attention.]
Lenin
was a very practical man, and his heart was hard as a rock. He never suffered
from snotty bourgeois compassion, whether for some arrogant German Communists
(for which story see my entry Lenin And Rosa:
Who Owned Karl Marx? Posted on my blog on February 1, 2011), or for his
Bolshevik comrades closer to home. In telling the following story, a new
character ought to be introduced. So, welcome now to Comrade Mikoyan!
Comrade
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, one of Stalin’s most reliable and loyal lieutenants (and also the man, who introduced my mother to Stalin), before he became what he
is best known for, had performed a valuable service for Lenin, which special service
is now the subject of the present entry.
His active political life
spanned half-a-century. There is no better tale of suspense, intrigue and sheer
thrill than that of Comrade Mikoyan. His was so hot, that nothing even
distantly resembling a serious biography of his has ever been published. And
yet, the main reason why he is included in this Section is not so much as a
tribute to this extraordinary chameleon of the political jungle, but even more
about how the Founding Fathers of Soviet Russia used to go about their
business.
Mikoyan was born in 1895,
in that part of Armenia, which was inside the Russian Empire. Like Stalin, he
was at one time studying to be a priest, and, like Stalin, he loved to quote
the Scriptures all his life. By the age of twenty, he was actively dabbling in
Revolution among his nationalistically-minded Transcaucasian brethren. A man of
immense ambition, he could not afford to be an ideologue, and seldom found it
beneath his dignity to sell ‘inside information’ to the highest bidder. The
czarist secret police was among his better customers. After the collapse of the
Russian Empire, he would be exchanging favors with the British Occupation Authority.
(It goes without saying that his relationship with both was far more complex
than being a “snitch.” Mind you, in this, he was certainly by no means an exception
among the Bolsheviks, who all wore such “dangerous liaisons” in the line of duty, as their badges of
honor!)
By the time of the
Revolution, Lenin had been well-apprised of Comrade Mikoyan’s special skills
through his most valuable private source of inside information on
Transcaucasia, Leonid Krasin, one of the richest and most colorful members of
the Bolshevik establishment. Of an aristocratic background, Krasin made his
fortune in the city of Baku, where he seemed to know everybody who was
somebody, including the family of Stalin’s second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva.
And, of course, he had made it his business to keep track of every little fact
and gossip going around Transcaucasia. Scientist, businessman, diplomat,
terrorist, he was the epitome of the Renaissance man, Soviet style, with
equally close ties to Lenin and Stalin, and personal loyalty to none. (After
the Bolshevik Revolution, Krasin quickly got bored of the Socialist Paradise-in-the-making,
and considered any close association with fellow Russians a waste of his time
and talent. He was, therefore, expeditiously dispatched to Europe, to rub
shoulders with the crème de la crème of international diplomacy at various
conferences, which were in great vogue at the time. He negotiated with the
Germans, the French, and the British, and was Ambassador to Paris and London,
where he eventually, and blissfully, died in office, in 1926.)
(This is the end of Part
I. Part II will be posted tomorrow.)
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