V. I.

Lenin

194

TELEPHONE MESSAGE TO I. S. UNSCHLICHT [1]

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Urgent. Secret

Comrade Unschlicht, Deputy Chairman, All-Russia Extraordinary Commission

Make inquiries and let me have precise and exhaustive answers to the following questions not later than tomorrow:

1) Is it true that arrests were made in Petrograd on May
27 of: Prof. P. A. Shchurkevich (Electrotechnical
Institute), Prof. N. N. Martinovich (University and Oriental
Institute), Prof. Shcherba (University, Professor of
Comparative Linguistics), Prof. B. S. Martynov (University,
Professor of Civil Law), Senior Zoologist A. K. Mordvilko (Academy of Sciences), Prof. Tikhanov’s wife (Institute
of Civil Engineers) and Prof. B. Y. Vorobyov (First
Polytechnical Institute)?

2) Is it true that Prof. Pantelei Antonovich
Shchurkevich is being arrested for the fifth time, and Prof. Boris
Yevdokimovich Vorobyov, for the third?

3) What is the reason for the arrests, and why is arrest
used as the measure of suppression—after all, they will
not run away?

4) Do the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission, the
Gubernia Chekas or any other Chekas issue warrants not for
personal arrests, but for “discretionary” arrests, and if
they do then specify to which personnel (degree of responsibility, post, political maturity)?

V. Ulyanov (Lenin )

Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars