Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), 1934: Secretary of the Leningrad Soviet, Sergei Kirov was assassinated, presumably at Stalin's order. Kirov has made two mistakes: the first, he became too popular, and the second, he who was Stalin’s protégé started lately to criticise Stalin’s policy. Stalin used the Kirov murder to launch the party purges and to give the NKVD full freedom to pursue any chosen domestic enemy. Millions of party members or ordinary people were executed or imprisoned in labour (death) camps.