“Your Hands, Malenkov, Are Covered in Blood…”: Nikita Khrushchev and the Instrumentalization of the 1949–1952 Leningrad Affair
Journal: The Russian Review
Year: 2025

Abstract This article analyzes how the Leningrad Affair, one of the most poorly understood of Joseph Stalin’s purges, was weaponized by Nikita Khrushchev and his comrades‐in‐arms in order to consolidate power during the 1950s and early 1960s. An exposé of how Khrushchev accused four different people of being responsible for the purge over the span of just four years, it offers new insight into several aspects of post‐Stalin high politics. First, it demonstrates the process by which victims of th