NOTE TO E. M. SKLYANSKY
August 14, 1919
T. Sklyansky!
Please ascertain: what exactly is this commission (“top secret”)?¹

Why was this fellow² not assigned to the “Hotchkiss”³ and so on?
Is it true that we do not possess such machine guns?
Please send me your reply.
Lenin
1 It has not been possible to determine which commission is being referred to.
2 It remains unclear who is being discussed.
3 We are talking about the Hotchkiss machine gun, named after the American firearms designer Benjamin Hotchkiss.
The Hotchkiss machine gun was in service with the Red Army.