V. I.

Lenin

574

To:   F. E. DZERZHINSKY

16. IV. 1920

Comrade Dzerzhinsky, Give instructions, please, for a very strict check-up.
Cannot impartial people, not Petrograders, be appointed
for the check-up?

I have heard also from another source (besides the present letters+Kalmykova) that in this case the local Cheka
behaved scandalously.

The matter must be sifted to the bottom, and quickly.

Be so kind, when the case is finished, to return to me the enclosed documents and have your secretary send me
a telephone message about the result. [1]

Greetings, Yours, Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
This refers to the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission’s
investigation into the case of a bogus co-operative organisation in
Petrograd. In 1918, the former owners of a publishing house and
print-shop, in order to prevent them from being nationalised,
organised a bogus co-operative which obtained orders from
various institutions by fraudulent means. The matter was
investigated by the Extraordinary Commission in accordance with
Lenin’s directive. The bogus co-operative was abolished. The
print-shop was turned over to the Petrograd Economic Council,
and the publishing house to the Petrograd Branch of State
Publishers.