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On December 1st, 1934 long-time Bolshevik activist and rising star Sergey Kirov was assassinated, allegedly on orders from Stalin. Kirov himself was very popular in the party, with a strong base of support in the moderate faction. Kirov's death would be used as justification for Stalin's Great Purge which cemented his position as the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union.
Yet it is possible Kirov could have caught wind of the assassination plot if an NKVD agent friendly to him discovered and leaked the information to him in time. What if Kirov caught wind of the assassination and was able to use it to turn the tables on Stalin?