The idea of Stalin's complicity in Kirov's assassination has been backed by Robert Conquest and Amy Knight but challenged by revisionist historians who argued that this theory relies primarily on circumstantial evidence and Khrushchev-era investigations. Robert W. Thurston argued that Kirov was in agreement with Stalin on all major issues and that on the Seventeenth Party Congress, at least 86,5% of voting delegates were in favour of Stalin's membership of the Central Committee; hence, Stalin had little to fear from Kirov. Moreover, nothing in Nikolaev's personal diary indicates that he did not carry out the assassination on his own.
The idea of Stalin's complicity in Kirov's assassination has been backed by Robert Conquest and Amy Knight but challenged by revisionist historians who argued that this theory relies primarily on circumstantial evidence and Khrushchev-era investigations Robert W Thurston argued that Kirov was in agreement with Stalin on all major issues and that on the Seventeenth Party Congress, at least 86,5% of votin.g delegates were in favour of Stalin's membership of the Central Committee; hence, Stalin had little to fear from Kirov Moreover, nothing in Nikolaev's personal diary indicates that he did not carry out the assassination on his own.