Samara.
To the Chairman of the Cheka, Birn.
December 10, 1918.
I received your telegram of yesterday at the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission; please continue the investigation, adhering to the conditions outlined in my previous telegram—until such time as the departing delegation from the VChK arrives. [1208]
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin.
1 See p. *236 of the Collection.

TELEGRAM TO G. E. ZINOV’EV.
Ixonun — to the Chairman of the Petrograd Branch of the V. Ch. K.
3.
December 1918.
Comrade Zinoviev!
Comrade Karl Moor!, a Swiss citizen, has sent me a lengthy letter requesting that Nalchiksky² be released, since he is a young man of considerable technical and organizational talent, the author of numerous works, and so on.
I have heard and read about Palchinsky as a speculator and the like during the Kerensky era.
But I do not know whether there are now any concrete charges against Palchinsky.
What are they? Are they serious? Why has the amnesty law not been applied to him?
If he is a scholar, a writer, could we not—should serious evidence against him come to light—grant him particularly favorable conditions (for example, house arrest, access to a laboratory, and the like)?
I request that you respond in writing, and promptly.
Comrade V. Ulyanov (Lenin), Chairman of the SNK.
1 K. Moor was a long-time member of the Swiss Social Democratic Party. After the October Revolution, he lived in Russia, sympathizing with the Bolsheviks.
2 Palchinsky was a prominent engineer who served as the Administrative Director of the Provisional Government in 1917. Shortly before the October Coup, he was appointed Commandant of Petrograd, effectively concentrating dictatorial power in his hands. Accused of sabotage, he was executed in 1930 (in connection with the Shakhty Trial).

TELEGRAMS TO THE SAMARA GOVERNORATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
December 6–9, 1918.
i.
83G31
Samara.
To the Governorate Executive Committee.
Copy to the Samara Cheka.
December 6, 1918.
I hereby order that Rizenkampf and the representatives of the Control Commission be released without delay; in cases of extreme necessity, limit yourselves to house arrest or military oversight of the hotel. You may only keep in prison those against whom you possess solid evidence. Please telegraph their names to me immediately. You bear full responsibility for the safekeeping of plans [and] documents, as well as all other property.
Please report on the execution of this order. [1188]
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin.
1 Pro<t>. Rizenkampf—the head of the irrigation expedition to the Turkestan region (“Iptur”)—a large group of specialists dispatched by the SNK to Turkestan in October 1918 with the aim of developing a cotton base for the textile industry.
By the time the first detachments of “Iptur” arrived in Samara, the Samara Extraordinary Commission had begun receiving reports indicating the counterrevolutionary nature of this expedition, which, according to preliminary investigations, sought to exploit its presence in Turkestan to facilitate British intervention. Once these facts were established, a joint meeting of the Samara Governorate Committee, the City Executive Committee, and the Extraordinary Commission resolved to arrest the entire “Iptur” organization, deeming its continued presence in the theater of military operations to be highly dangerous.
The findings of the investigation were immediately reported to the SNK, which endorsed all actions taken by the Cheka and instructed that the inquiry should proceed along its original course. In early January 1919, by order of the All‑Union Central Executive Committee and the SNK, all cases related to “Iptur” and the arrested members of the “Turkestan Irrigation Works Administration” were transferred to Moscow.
Rizenkampf, who had been released in 1919, was later exposed as a saboteur in 1930.
The telegram to the Samara Governorate Executive Committee, printed above, was dispatched by Lenin prior to his receipt and review of the investigative findings produced by the Samara Cheka.

TELEGRAMS, NOTES, AND DIRECTIVES