In 1934, Sergei Kirov was approached by Communist Party delegates to run against Stalin for Secretary General. This initiated Stalin's campaign to destroy the independence of the Communist Party along with all other Soviet groups that might provide independent centers of power. By the next Party Congress in 1939, 98% of its former delegates had been executed or sent to the Gulag. | In 1934, Sergei Kirov was approached by Communist Party delegates to run against Stalin for Secretary General. This initiated Stalin's campaign to destroy the independence of the Communist Party along with all other Soviet groups that might provide independent centers of power. By the next Party Congress in 1939, 98% of its former delegates had been executed or sent to the Gulag. |