Date: 1918-08-15
Source: ru:LS

1917 (DECEMBER) - 1918

Explain to me, as soon as you learned about the protest of the provincial soviet and the workers' complaints. Telegraph about the execution.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin
1 The inquiry by V. I. Lenin was prompted by telegrams from the Tula Provincial Soviet and workers from the "Socialist" mechanical plant protesting against the illegal decision of the Tula Extraordinary Commission to arrest E. N. Kislyakov, head of the provincial department of the people's economy, who became a victim of slander by bourgeois elements. P. P. Pyurijainen, secretary of the labor section of the factory committees, telegraphed V. I. Lenin on August 13, 1918, that E. N. Kislyakov had not been arrested, and that he, along with A. Arsenyev, head of the labor department, was being sent to Moscow to give a detailed report to V. I. Lenin on the affairs of the Tula people's economy and to clarify his own case.
LETTER TO FRITZ PLATTEN

August 14, 1918
Comrade Fritz Platten, Dear Comrade Platten!
Of course, it would be very good if you came to us again. They say that the Swiss atmosphere has a bad influence on you (this atmosphere is too petty-bourgeois, too "calm," too "friendly") — I allow myself to hope that our atmosphere can have a different influence.
Goodbye
Yours, Lenin
P.S. All counter-revolutionary forces are gathered against us. The uprising of the kulaks is raging. But I hope and am confident that we will defeat them.
Printed according to the text in the journal "Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte" 1968, No. 1, translated from German
Published in Russian for the first time
1 The letter was sent by courier together with a letter to Ya. A. Berzin (see V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 50, p. 150).


NOTES TO A. K. PAIKES

[August 15, 1918]

Comrade Paikes — try to influence, otherwise they will exclude or remove him, as they were sent after him by a resolution of the SNK.

To Paikes
Now the question will have to be raised here, as this is the decision just made. Lander is doing such foolish and insolent things that everyone's patience is running out, and no one can find a single argument in his favor. You take the floor.
1 A. K. Paikes was at this time a member of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat of State Control. These notes were written during a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on August 15, 1918, in connection with the examination of a conflict between K. I. Lander, the People's Commissar of State Control, and A. V. Galkin, a member of the collegium of this commissariat, and K. I. Lander's refusal to come to the SNK meeting for an explanation.

TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF FINANCE

[August 20, 1918]
To the Commissariat of Finance
Comrade Krestinsky

Please consider this application and inform me tomorrow, August 21, 1918, of the conclusion of the People's Commissar of Finance.
1 The resolution was written on the application of A. L. Shaternikova — the widow of a zemstvo doctor who died during the fight against an epidemic of typhus. A. L. Shaternikova asked for help in obtaining money stored in the safe of the Moscow Bank, received from the zemstvo for the upbringing of children after her husband's death, and a loan belonging to her father. On the application, there is a note by V. M. Bonch-Bruevich about the Shaternikovs as revolutionary workers, completely unprovided for, known to her since her youth, and a note by N. K. Krupskaya: "Shaternikova's address: Higher Women's Courses. I join Vera Mikhailovna Bonch-Bruevich's request. N. K. Ulyanova."
2 N. N. Krestinsky — People's Commissar of Finance.

NOTE TO L. D. TROTSKY

[August 1918, not earlier than 20th]
Comrade Trotsky!
Think about this.
Shouldn't Vatsetis be appointed Supreme Commander?

Lenin
1 The note was written on a document from the military commissioner A. I. Egorov about the need for immediate unification of the management of combat operations under one authority, the appointment of a Supreme Commander responsible to the Council of People's Commissars, and the formation of the Supreme Commander's Staff.
1 I. I. Vatsetis — a colonel of the old army. After the October Revolution, he sided with the Soviet power. He participated in suppressing the Left SR revolt in Moscow as the commander of the Latvian Rifles Division. Then he was the commander of the Eastern Front, and from September 1918 to July 1919 — the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the RSFSR.

NOTE TO G. I. PETROVSKY

[Between August 21 and 28, 1918]
To Petrovsky
Ispolatov complains that he is being unjustly arrested. You know what it's all about.
1 G. I. Petrovsky — People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR.
2 N. N. Ispolatov — Chairman of the Usman Soviet of Tambov Province.
3 In response to this note by V. I. Lenin, G. I. Petrovsky replied that he did not know the substance of the matter but had information characterizing