Kirov Murders
Kirov, the leader of the Leningrad party, was one of Stalin’s inner circle, who was shot by an unemployed Communist Party member, Leonid Nikolaev. However, Stalin accused his former party rivals – Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and the exiled Leon Trotsky – of orchestrating the assassination. He also claimed that the conspiracy had spread deep into the Communist Party, and necessitated a massive purge of its leaders now known as The Great Purge.
There was much controversy at first over who exactly the culprit/culprits were: