This is Russia's JFK Mystery

On December 1, 1934, Leonid Nikolaev entered the Smolny Institute. The Soviet Union would never be the same.
—

For citations, turn on CC. Footnotes below ↓
—
About us:
Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world.
—
SOURCES
A = Amy Knight, Who Killed Kirov? The Kremlin’s Greatest Mystery (Hill and Wang, New York: 1999).
B = Lenoe, Matthew E. The Kirov Murder and Soviet History. Yale University Press, 25 May 2010.
C = Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin, Vol. II. Waiting for Hitler, 1928-1941. London, Penguin Books Ltd, 2017.
D = Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich, Special Report to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 24-25 February 1956.
F = Matthew Lenoe, “Did Stalin Kill Kirov and Does It Matter?” in The Journal of Modern History 74 no. 2 (June 2002).
—
CITATIONS
[^1]: A,189
[^2]: A,189-190
[^3]: B,152
[^4]: B,157
[^5]: B,157-158,167. The source and intent of the second shot is a matter of dispute.
[^6]: A,30-32
[^7]: A,91
[^8]: A,104
[^9]: B,70-73
[^10]: A,125-128
[^11]: B,85
[^12]: B,82/96;C,180
[^13]: A,170-172
[^14]: A,172
[^15]: A,172
[^16]: A,179-181
[^17]: C,194
[^18]: B,157
[^19]: B,251
[^20]: B,259
[^21]: ???
[^22]: C,208
[^23]: B,281-284
[^24]: B,288
[^25]: B,309
[^26]: B,310
[^27]: C,213
[^28]: C,219
[^29]: B,456
[^30]: C,305
[^31]: B,463-465
[^32]: B,471-478
[^33]: B,477
[^34]: B,478-480
[^35]: B,468
[^36]: C,305
[^37]: B,647
[^38]: B,229
[^39]: B,398
[^40]: B,397
[^41]: B,288-289
[^42]: B,283
[^43]: B,281
[^44]: D
[^45]: A,263-264
[^46]: E,14
[^47]: B,112-113
[^48]: A,173
[^49]: A,189
[^50]: A,200
[^51]: B,407
[^52]: B,161
[^53]: B,162
[^54]: B,427
[^55]: B,413-427. This section of Lenoe’s book is remarkably thorough, with input from several independent experts with excellent credentials. It is dense and impossible to reproduce worthily here. For more details, please read his work.
[^56]: B,477-478
[^57]: B,113-114
[^58]: B,533-534
[^59]: F,374
[^60]: F,378
[^61]: C,198
[^62]: B,210
[^63]: C,198
[^64]: B,201-205
[^65]: B,216
[^66]: B,239
[^67]: B,249
[^68]: B,226
—
00:00 MURDER
02:36 KIROV
09:04 INVESTIGATION
13:43 CONSPIRACY
17:43 IS IT TRUE?
22:38 STALIN DID IT
27:56 OR DID HE?
30:45 A LONE GUNMAN
36:06 HOW ONE DEATH BECOMES ONE MILLION
—
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images

[spectacles-dm]

---
Corrections:
At 01:49, map borders are inaccurate

[BigBoyJay_]

We're going around the globe learning about each country's JFK lmao

[nknight]

I can’t even knock your formula for using “x countries JFK mystery” because you know what, it’s gets my attention and I love these videos, well played

[csousher]

Hi, I'm Matthew Lenoe's son. My sister and I have let him know about the video and, while he hasn't watched it, he's happy that his research is being shared to a wider audience. He remains convicted that Nikolaev acted alone and expressed disappointment to me in the past that his work on the murder would do little to sway public opinion, because it was meant for a scholarly audience. Now, over 100, 000 people have seen this video!

I'm also thankful that you did your homework and read his absolute tome of a book (over 600 pages!) to summarize it to an audience on Youtube. Seeing my dad's work in this format was really exciting, and now I have something to show my friends what he actually does. If you are willing to deal with the length, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the book if you have any interest in forensics since there is a really interesting section on analysis of Borisov's skull, for example.

Finally, I think your conclusion to the video is exactly right: it's pretty clear that we often accept conspiracy theories to justify our own views of the world and of politics. Kirov's murder has come to my mind a lot in the past two weeks or so, for obvious reasons. Often, what political assassinations do is reveal a part of a society or ideology that is deeply flawed or difficult to confront. A conspiracy theory allows the public not to meet those flaws head on by providing simple explanations. I think what my father's and your work shows is that truth still matters in public discourse, no matter what others may say.

[Maxim_Kuzin]

In fact Kirov's death was so important that in my city the main street is still named after Kirov, and in the middle of it stands a big big beautiful monument of Kirov. And that is for many cities here in Russia, I think Kirov street is 2nd most popular street name after Lenin street. Oh and there is even a city named just Kirov

[elpintokiito]

1:49 the map is wrong, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were independent in 1934, Finland has 1940 borders, and the Polish border looks hella sus.

[lyras.]

I think being Stalin's best friend is probably as risky as being his worst enemy.

[ivansmith]

The consistency this channel has in telling stories that I should know but don't is remarkable.

[JoeRogansForehead]

We were an inch from having “this is americas other JFK like mystery” .

[GeorgeTheDinoGuy]

I think the fact his daughter testifies that Stalin would never have killed Kirov will forever confuse me. I can’t find a source but my Soviet Union history course said something like that.

[lifeunderthestarstv]

i feel like this adds a completely different context to stalins purges

[KlaustoFausto]

34:51 taking off the mustache as a tool of storytelling is one of the most epic thinkgs Ive ever seen

[BallisticDamages]

Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand knows exactly how much dumb luck can suck

[MKdross]

How incredibly tragic. It is very important to remember that historical actors don't always act rationally, and this is a fine example. A man suffering from extreme depression acts out against what he feels is an uncaring system and inadvertently triggers a manic mass murder spree by the deeply paranoid, sadistic dictator that runs the country. Both of their psychological states are so far out of the rational norm yet had profound consequences that have shaped events even nearly a century on.

[jensphiliphohmann]

16:22
This piece of film doesn't show a Soviet trial from 1937 but rather a German trial from 1944.

[notamused]

Best intro u could have done straight to it pls keep it like that

[jaredgarrison]

Nikolaev seems to have a lot of similarities to James Garfield's killer Charles Guiteau, pretty much the same motive for both of them too

[beaver]

this video really reminds me of LEMINO. don't know if it was a coincidence or not but thanks for making me think of him. he does great stuff like this too.
(No hate or anything to the creator of this video, just something funny that passed my mind)

[gusissus]

Thank you for posting such high quality content. I know I can trust that your videos are accurate and enjoyable

[purshottamadevadhikar]

Woah man i love how your videos get titled more and more creatively