TO V. M. MOLOTOV FOR THE POLITBURO OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RCP(b), WITH DRAFT RESOLUTIONS
To Comrade Molotov, for the Politburo
In view of the complete inadequacy—or perhaps lack of sufficient clarity?—of the brief note in Pravda dated January 3, 1922, concerning Oldenburger’s suicide and the investigation into this case, I propose that the Politburo adopt the following resolution:
1) To instruct the Moscow Soviet to petition the Presidium of the VTsIK to bring all individuals identified in the commission’s final report before the courts;
2) To direct the Presidium of the VTsIK to grant this petition without delay; and
3) To publish a full account of this matter throughout the entire Soviet press;
4) To assign the People’s Commissariat of Justice the task of conducting this case with particular care, skill, and solemnity—under the personal responsibility of Comrade Kursky and the public prosecutor to be appointed;
5) To instruct the Organizational Bureau to establish a special party tribunal. All members of the waterworks’ cell should be brought before this tribunal. (Some are to be expelled from the Party permanently or for a specified term; others are to receive a severe reprimand, depending on the degree of their culpability.) The trial must be conducted with great solemnity and in open session.
+ 6) Issue a directive to Izvestia and Pravda: to illuminate this outrageous affair through a series of vigorous articles.
January 4, 1922. Lenin

MEMORANDUM TO V. M. MOLOTOV FOR THE POLITBURO OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RCP(b)
Another draft resolution:
All cases of murder involving engineers (and specialists) at Soviet enterprises are to be reported to the Politburo, along with the findings of the respective investigations—(through the VSNKh, the VTsSPS, and other relevant bodies, via the Sovnarkom)—145.
P.S. This is an utterly scandalous affair: we must sound the alarm loud and clear.
First published in 1959 in Volume XXXVI of the Lenin Collection.

Printed from manuscript