V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v51;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Comrade Nikolayev,

After examining your materials and consulting with Comrade Stalin, who has also examined them, I request you to inform me additionally:

1) Details about all three of your candidates for membership of the commission, namely:
(a) the post of each of them; (b) their technical experience (radio work or only knowledge of electrical engineering; length of their service);
(c) are they Communists? if so, since when? if not, your opinion as to how far they can be trusted?

2) Did you give Botin the assignment to reproduce the Tiflis experiment? if not, what other assignment exactly? if yes, was it orally or in writing? immediately or later, and when exactly?

3) Did Botin tell you precisely that he can neither explain nor formulate his invention theoretically, but hit upon it by chance? (I request you to state more precisely his statement on this subject, about which you informed me.)

4) What sums? By whom and when were they assigned to Botin for expenses? From what funds? From the funds of the Nizhni-Novgorod Radio Laboratory or from others?

5) On what basis could the “Commissar of the Moscow High-Power Undamped-Wave Radio Station” (surname illegible) speak of 500,000 rubles? (his document of 28. IX. 1920)

6/X. Lenin

P.S. Please answer on this same sheet and return it to me. 343