Popular Voices on Kirov
Kirov and the Ration Cards.
After Kirov's murder, sparse information in the official press led to a spate of rumors about the true causes of his death, ranging from foreign assassins to Stalin himself. The following rough verses uncovered by the NKVD in a Kronshtadt school tie together several popular rumors.
When Kirov was killed, Kalinin
Ordered "Give the bread out
Without ration cards, and hike the price
So we can save some money up
And buy Mrs. Kirov a nice dress.
You, worker, get rolling,
Stalin was feasting in Smolnyi
While the workers starved.
It won't last long, very soon
Some enemy will kill Stalin.
Soon we'll see the start of war,
And then, and then, and then
Stalin will be kind forever
Things will calm down when he's gone.
Source: Sarah Davies, Popular Opinion in StalinÌs Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 117.