Molotov confirms Stalin’s testimony

I would like to add a very brief postscript to my article titled Joseph Stalin as witness, published on 29 May 2025.

Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) – for many years Stalin’s closest associate, most trusted confidant, and chief aide during the “Great Purge” – remained a politician unwaveringly loyal to Stalinism until his final breath.

In Molotov Remembers, an extended interview with Soviet journalist and writer Felix Chuev – himself known for his staunch Stalinist views – we find Molotov openly confirming Stalin’s testimony about Trotsky’s crucial role in the October Revolution, a testimony that would later be suppressed.

Chuev recounts his exchange with Molotov on the matter in the following words:

The talk switched to Trotsky, and about Stalin’s assessment of his activity in the article “The October Revolution.” It turned out that a whole paragraph had been omitted from Stalin’s collected works. Molotov brought his own volume, in which he had written in the margin what had appeared in Stalin’s original version—how Trotsky managed to win over the Petrograd garrison. It appears sometimes they also edited Stalin. [*]

[*] Felix Chuev, Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics, ed. Albert Resis, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 1993, p. 166.