V. I.

Lenin

To:   V. M. MOLOTOV FOR MEMBERS OF THE POLITBUREAU OF THE R.C.P.(B.) C.C.

Received after Politbureau sitting.

Please circulate urgently to all members of Politbureau for a written vote

10.X.

Comrade Molotov:

I have an arrangement with Comrade Unschlicht to delay execution of the sentence on Nazvanov, and am taking
the question to the Politbureau.

In the summer of 1921, I had a letter about Nazvanov from Krasin (before Nazvanov’s arrest). Krasin requested
that this very valuable engineer, as he put it, should be
recruited for our work.

Krzhizhanovsky told me that ho, being acquainted with
Nazvanov, had repeatedly had sharp arguments with him after 25.X. 1917, and had very nearly thrown him out of the
house for his anti-Soviet views. He said, however, that in the
spring or summer of 1921 he had noticed a change in
Nazvanov, and had taken him to work at the Stale Planning Commission.

After this I had two comrades from the C.C. of the sugar industry workers who, in reply to my question, gave
a positive opinion of Nazvanov, an opinion which they confirmed in writing as well. On the strength of the
aforementioned, I am taking the matter to the Politbureau.

I propose: if necessary, Krasin’s letter and a written reference of the two workers should be found. I shall find
both these documents if the Politbureau so decides.

For my part I propose: to cancel the Petrograd
Gubernia Cheka’s sentence and apply the sentence proposed by
Agranov (it is here in the record of the case), i.e., two
years with the possibility of conditional release. [1]

With communist greetings, Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
M. K. Nazvanov , a technological engineer, a specialist in the
sugar industry, and the State Planning Commission’s consultant,
was arrested by the Petrograd Gubernia Cheka, together with a
group of professors and engineers, on charges of having
connections with V. N. Tagantsev, head of a counter-revolutionary
combat organisation in Petrograd. Nazvanov was sentenced to
be shot.

Lenin must have learned about the case from a letter sent in by
Nazvanov’s father on June 26, 1921, requesting clemency for
his son (Central Party Archives). Another request for Nazvanov’s
release came from G. M. Krzhizhanovsky in his letter of
September 18.

Members of the Politbureau of the R.C.P.(B.) Central
Committee who took a vote on October 10 came out for Lenin’s proposal.
On October 14, the Politbureau confirmed its decision of October
10 to have the decision of the Petrograd Gubernia Cheka reversed.
On December 17, after the investigation of the Tagantsev case
was completed, Nazvanov was released. On January 26, 1922,
Lenin phoned an assignment to his secretary to ask V. A.
Smolyaninov to check up whether Nazvanov had been given a job at
the State Planning Commission, and to require it to submit a
report within two months about Nazvanov’s work and to remind
him about this.