Hello Russia, how is the weather today? Did Stalin kill Kirov?

I look at my stat page every month or so, strange as it sounds, Russians are almost always the second biggest source of visitors, and they are a lot sometimes.   I don't know why, maybe I am the "next blog" from a popular Russian blog, that little button up top you click and it jumps.

So, my Russian friends, why don't you make a comment, no one ever has, and how did you find "the yellow fringe"?  By the way, I am currently reading a book, "Who killed Kirov?"  I am enjoying it very much.  I must say Kirov lived in a very complicated time, so many characters and so many factions, it is amazing that anyone survived those destructive decades.  What do you think, did Stalin have a hand in the plot?
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For most in the US, like me didn't know who Kirov was, he was Stalin's #2, and many assumed would take over if Stalin fell.  He had blood on his hands, but by standards of the day, not much, he was one of the few working for Stalin who had been a Menshevik before coming over to the Bolsheviks.  Most died by bullet or exposure after the Bolsheviks won the day.  He defied Lenin and others for a long time by working with the Mensheviks and compromising with them.  The major difference was Lenin and the Bolsheviks wanted (and got) a full scale revolution and brutal put down of any who stood in the way, the Mensheviks wanted a go slow transition to socialism, work with the old government and land and business  owners to bring them slowly with them.  Kirov compromised for as long as he could get away with.  Kirov was killed in Dec. 1934, following his death Stalin began the purges, first (and for some time) the purges were for plotting to kill Kirov, and by the number executed for it you would think it was the biggest collection of killers ever committed to shooting one man, later it turned into nationwide terror and the killing of millions of innocents for imagined sins and plots of all kinds, extending to distant family members and associates of anyone caught up in the chaos of the era.  And so, many suspect Stalin had a hand in it, with Kirov becoming more popular all the time and having a history of compromise.  It's interesting.  Compromise, then as now, is seen by some extremist as the most destructive failure.