12/VII

т. Kamenev!

In view of the extremely favorable fact reported to me yesterday by Stalin from the inner life of our Central Committee, I propose that the Central Committee be reduced to Molotov, Rykov and Kuibyshev, with the candidates Kamenev, Zinoviev and Tomski. All others to rest, to be treated. Stalin to be allowed to come to the August conference. Slow things down - advantageous by the way and from the diplomatic point of view.

Your Lenin.

P.S. I will invite you to my place one of these days, and I will brag about my handwriting; it is a medium between calligraphic and paralytic (in confidence)1.

PPS. I have just heard from my sister1* about the bulletins you have issued about me. And laughed out loud! "Listen, you must know the measure of a lie!"

Published - "Izvestia of the Central Committee of the CPSU", 1991, No. 4, p. 188.

Fund 2, op. 2, d. 1238 - autograph.

1* M.I.Ulyanov

1According to M.I.Ulyanova, the first time after the exacerbation of the disease, Lenin's handwriting differed from his usual handwriting, "was uneven and quite small, and sometimes "crazy", as Vladimir Ilyich himself called it .... some small vessels of the brain, thanks to thrombosis, took away his ability to write and count correctly... Such was the evil irony that the disease played on him.... But he tried with persistence to overcome these deficiencies and steadily progressed in this." (Izvestiya TsK CPSU, 1991, No. 4, pp. 180-181).