EXCHANGE OF NOTES with N. N. KRESTINSKY
9 September 1919
Vladimir Ilyich!
A telegram, enclosed herewith, has arrived from Ioffe. He is awaiting a reply. I myself
*
would have answered him, urging him to come—since that is what he desires—but in light of the upcoming discussions concerning the State Economic Council and the Ukrainian government (which are expected to involve placing Dzerzhinsky in connection with the reports brought by the newly arrived Peters 2), I did not dare to do so without first consulting you.
To Krestinsky
^ We must first seek authorization from the Ukrainian Council of Defense.
I am forwarding to you, for your perusal and transmission, the report on Smolny, which I received under receipt. It was brought to me by Comrade Vasily Ivanovich Brusov, a member of the collective of communist employees at Smolny. The report emanates from the minority within the collective, since the majority—totalling around twenty-seven individuals—are responsible for what is set forth in the report. Today, Brusov is departing. His impression is a favorable one. I promised him that I would provide a response after you have read and discussed the report.
This copy is the only one; please remember to bring it along to the dacha.
At your service.
Stalin has sent several telegrams 3 (I do not know whether they have been forwarded to you) stating that he will be present on Thursday. It seems he wishes to return from the front to the State Economic Council; Ioffe objects.
Let us deliberate together on Thursday.
The meeting of the Larin Commission 4 did not take place today: everyone was occupied.
N. Krestinsky
I request that someone else substitute for me, or that the remaining members proceed without me; there is no need to wait for me.
9 September Lenin
1 A. A. Ioffe was, in 1919, a member of the Council of Defense and People’s Commissar for State Control of Ukraine.
2 On 16 August 1919, at a joint meeting of the Politburo and the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), Ya. Kh. Peters was appointed as the representative of the All‑Union Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter‑Revolution and Sabotage (VChK) to the Council of People’s Commissars of Ukraine. He was tasked with facilitating, through the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine, the merger of the All‑Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter‑Revolution and Sabotage (VUKChK) with the VChK.
3 I. V. Stalin, dispatched as a member of the Central Committee and the Council of Defense to the Western Front, telegraphed to the Central Committee of the RCP(b) and to V. I. Lenin on 6 and 7 September 1919, reporting that he had received word from his deputy, K. I. Lander, regarding the breakdown in the work of the State Economic Council—and that, in light of this development, as well as his own exhaustion from frontline duties, he intended to return to the Commissariat within the week.
v 10. Larin was Chairman of the Commission on Utilization and the Committee on Economic Policy of the Supreme Council of National Economy.