December 14, 1920

Comrade Frumkin!
I am writing to you concerning your (and Svidersky's) exclusion from the Collegium. The resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee concerning such members should, in my opinion, have been carried out pedantically—and the Central Committee so decided. Political conditions demand extreme caution in this matter, as in the question of workerization. I hope you fully understand that these political considerations, which the Central Committee approved, must in no way be interpreted (even if gossipy attempts to do so have been made) as a lack of personal trust, an underestimation of personal abilities, and so forth.

It is necessary to accept the new composition of the Collegium without you, as a political necessity, and to achieve through work (I am personally confident that it will be not only easy for you and Svidersky to do this, but that it will be achieved naturally by the continuation of your work)—to achieve through work that distrust and suspicion (of unwillingness to "workerize," of unwillingness for greater democratism, etc.) are dispelled. Without an official high rank (member of the Collegium), act so that your work refutes all slanders, all apprehensions of the workers and trade unions: this is the essence. I repeat, I am confident that you and Svidersky will understand this and easily succeed. In this, and *only* in this, lies the essence of the matter.

With Communist Greetings, Lenin