Penza. To Minkin, from the Governorate Executive Committee.2
August 14, 1918, 2:15 PM.
I have received two complaints concerning you: the first alleges that you are showing leniency in suppressing the kulaks; if this is true, then you are committing a grave crime against the revolution. The second complaint states that you are scaling back agitation efforts, reducing the circulation of leaflets, and citing a lack of funds. We will spare no expense in funding agitation—demand money without delay from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee; there will be no shortage of funds, and we will not tolerate such excuses. [679]
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lepnin.
1 The date is determined by outgoing telegram number “No. 677” and by the telegrams Lenin mentions in the text—those sent to Bosch and Minkin on August 12, 1918 (see p. 204).
2 After receiving the above-mentioned telegram, E. Bosch wrote to Lenin about the difficulties she was encountering in her work. A few days later, she received a letter delivered by courier, in which Lenin, addressing all Communist Party members in Penza, argued for the necessity of “unrelenting suppression” of the kulak uprising in the five volosts, emphasizing that this was essential in the interests of “the entire revolution,” since “now, after all, we are engaged in the final, decisive battle” against the kulaks. He advised her to seek out “more resolute” comrades and requested that she telegraph him “regarding receipt and implementation.” The letter was framed as a comradely piece of advice and was signed—“Yours, Lenin” (“Proletarian Revolution,” No. 3 [26], 1924, p. 169). While this letter has apparently not been preserved, a similar appeal—published only in 1925 under the title “Comrades, Workers! Let Us Advance into the Final, Decisive Battle!”—was, as is well known, penned by Lenin at that time (see Collected Works, Vol. XXIII, pp. 205–208). It is possible that this very appeal was written in response to the letter addressed to the Communists of Penza.
The letter from E. B. Bosch, which was likely received on August 14, 1918, evidently served as the impetus for Lenin’s telegram.