Sergey Kirov was the first victim to the great purge. Kirov was an old Bolshevik leader who was the head of the Party organization in Leningrad. Kirov was assassinated in 1934 by Leonid Nikolayev. At first, it was a mystery who organized the murder. No one knew the motives of the assassin and how he was able to slip past security. Soon it was uncovered that Stalin was behind this assassination for his own personal gain. Stalin needed to have Kirov assassinated to begin with the great purge. With the assassination, this marks the beginning of the actual purge because Stalin now had the right to accuse people for his murder and bring them to trial to execute them and get rid of undesirables. Stalin was the only man who benefited from Kirov’s murder. He decided to arrange for the assassination of Kirov and to lay that crime at the door of the former leaders of the opposition. Kirov once worked closely with Stalin and he had no issues against him. Stalin only saw him as a pawn that needed to get rid of to better the Soviet Union and even better Stalin himself. Stalin had a "the ends justify the means" method and it showed how the security of people’s own lives were absent.