V. I.

Lenin

Draft Decision for C.P.C. on The Irregular Actions of People’s Commissar for Justice I. Z. Steinberg and Member of the Board of the People’s Commissariat for Justice V. A. Karelin [2]

The Council of People’s Commissars considers that no changes in the decisions of the Dzerzhinsky Commission or any other
commission appointed by the

Soviets [3] are permissible other than by way of appeal to the Council
of People’s Commissars, and on no account by way of personal order of the
Commissar for Justice.

The Council of People’s Commissars considers further that the act of
comrades Steinberg and Karelin, who released the arrested men on the night
of 18.XII was illegal both in form and substance, since it contravened not
only the privileges of the Dzerzhinsky Commission but the direct decision of the
Council of People’s Commissars adopted on the evening of 18.XII which
ordered the arrested men to be detained for identification.

Lenin [1]