August 9, 1921

In your letter about Shelekhes (Yakov Savelyevich) you say:
"people are interceding for him" right up to Lenin and you ask me to permit
you "to pay no attention whatsoever to any petitions
and pressure concerning the Gokhran case."
I cannot permit this. The inquiry I sent is
neither "intercession," nor "pressure," nor a "petition."
I am obliged to make inquiries when doubts are raised about the correctness of a decision.

* The last phrase of the telegram is written in V. I. Lenin's hand.
* * The document was dictated by V. I. Lenin over the telephone. Printed
from a typewritten copy.

1921

You are obliged to answer me on the substance: "the arguments or evidence
are serious, such-and-such; I am against release, against mitigation,"
etc.
That is precisely how you must answer me on the substance.
Petitions and "intercessions" you may reject; "pressure"
is an illegal act. But I repeat, your confusion of an inquiry
from the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars—with a petition, intercession, or pressure
is mistaken.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Printed from a typewritten copy.

ON IMPROVING THE HOUSING ECONOMY