Although the shocking murder of Sergei Kirov—the charismatic Party member whose popularity threatened the power base of his friend, Stalin—impacted the lives of millions, the truth behind it has long remained a mystery. Was it motivated by politics, or by something else? In this program, Boris Starkov, of St. Petersburg Academy of Economics, and Yuri Amiantov, chief archivist of the Communist Party, scrutinize the facts surrounding the momentous 1934 murder and shed light on the horrific era of purges that followed, in which thousands of so-called conspirators and enemies of the people were brutally executed. (25 minutes)