V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:ND; en:Pipes; es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Comrade Stalin!

On the question of expelling Mensheviks, Popular Socialists, Cadets and the like from Russia, I would like to put a few questions, in view of the fact that this operation, begun before my leave, has not been completed even now.

To “exterminate” all the Popular Socialists decisively? Peshekhonov, Myakotin, Gornfeld? Petrishchev and others. In my opinion, expel them all. They are more harmful than any Socialist-Revolutionary, for they are more cunning.

The same applies to A. N. Potresov, Izgoyev and all the contributors to *The Economist*² (Ozerov and many, many others). Mensheviks: Rozanov (a physician, cunning), Vigdorchik (Migulo or something of the sort), Lyubov Nikolayevna Radchenko and her young daughter (according to hearsay, the bitterest enemies of Bolshevism); N. A. Rozhkov (he must be expelled, he is incorrigible); S. L. Frank (author of *Methodology*).³ A commission under the supervision of Mantsev, Messing and others should submit lists, and several hundred of such gentlemen should be mercilessly expelled abroad. We shall cleanse Russia for a long time.

As for Lezhnev (formerly of *Den*⁴), think it over carefully: should he not be expelled? He will always be the most insidious, as far as I can judge from the articles of his I have read.

Ozerov, like all the contributors to *The Economist*, are the most ruthless enemies. All of them—out of Russia!

This must be done at once. By the end of the trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries,⁵ not later. Arrest several hundred and, without stating reasons—get out, gentlemen!

All the authors of the *House of Writers*⁶, of the Petrograd *Mysl*⁷; search Kharkov thoroughly, we do not know it, it is “abroad” for us. The purge must be carried out quickly, not later than the end of the trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Pay attention to the writers in Petrograd (addresses in *Novaya Russkaya Kniga*, No. 4, 1922, p. 37) and to the list of private publishing houses (p. 29).

With communist greetings,
Lenin

Published in *Komsomolskaya Pravda*, February 12, 1992.

Fund 2, inventory 2, file 1338, sheet 1—autograph.

¹The published letter, as well as document 402, are devoted to the formulation and implementation of the decision of the highest Soviet leadership to expel abroad representatives of the intelligentsia who were in political opposition to Soviet power and were considered conduits of bourgeois ideology. Fearing the strengthening of bourgeois influence on the RCP(b) and Soviet society in connection with the introduction of the NEP, the leading party bodies carried out a system of measures of an ideological-political and agitational-propaganda nature, designed, in particular, to win over to the side of the new power groups of the democratic intelligentsia that showed a tendency towards cooperation, and to politically and morally discredit opponents of the Soviet regime. At the same time, the practice of repression continued (its justification was given in the resolution of the Twelfth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b) “On Anti-Soviet Parties and Trends”—August 1922), and not only against Cadets, Mensheviks, and Socialist-Revolutionaries (these parties had been subjected to systematic repression since 1918), but also against the elite of non-party scientists, engineers, teachers, doctors, economists, etc., against whom the party apparatus and the GPU brought charges of anti-Soviet political activity. Those expelled were accused of speaking out against Soviet power for restricting democracy, curtailing freedom of conscience and creativity, interfering in the competence of specialists, etc. (such speeches and resolutions were characteristic, for example, of a number of all-Russian congresses of specialists: agronomists, doctors, geologists, etc., held in the first half of 1922); articles on philosophy, economics, literature expressing disagreement with the ideas of Marxism, etc. (see: *Znamya*, 1990, No. 3, pp. 128-130). The question of expulsion was discussed at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) in May 1922, at meetings of the Politburo and the Orgburo of the Central Committee. On May 19, 1922, V. I. Lenin warned F. E. Dzerzhinsky of the need for the most thorough preparation of the expulsion, relying on collected information about the political record, work, and literary activity of professors and writers. Members of the Politburo and some communist writers were to analyze and give written opinions on the political orientation of individual publications and press organs (see: Lenin, *Complete Works*, Vol. 54, p. 265). For example, Lenin’s reviews of the journals *Novaya Rossiya* and *Ekonomist* are known (see: Lenin, *Complete Works*, Vol. 45, pp. 31-32; Vol. 54, p. 256). On June 8, 1922, the Politburo heard I. S. Unshlikht’s report “On Anti-Soviet Groupings Among the Intelligentsia” and created several commissions on unions of specialists, on delegates to the Second All-Russian Congress of Doctors, etc. These commissions were obliged to name specific candidates for expulsion abroad. On July 31, a Politburo commission consisting of L. B. Kamenev, D. I. Kursky, and I. S. Unshlikht consolidated the proposals received (see doc. 402). In August, these lists were discussed in the Politburo. Another commission was created in the GPU under the chairmanship of F. E. Dzerzhinsky to consider petitions from state institutions and enterprises for retaining in Russia those specialists whose services were necessary to the state. For example, doctors could be sent to remote areas of Russia to combat epidemics. Those expelled abroad were provided with an allowance in foreign currency for travel and for living expenses until they found employment.

The published letter was written by V. I. Lenin on July 16, 1922, and sent to I. V. Stalin the next day. A. M. Kozhevnikov noted in his diary on July 17: “Wrote the envelope for the letter to Stalin, written the day before” (RCKhIDNI, f. 16, op. 2, d. 13, l. 47).

²*The Economist*—a journal of the XI Department of the Russian Technical Society. Published in Petrograd from December 1921.

³V. I. Lenin refers to S. L. Frank’s book *An Outline of the Methodology of the Social Sciences*. Moscow, “Bereg”, 1922. This book was in Lenin’s library in the Kremlin.

⁴*Den*—a daily liberal-bourgeois newspaper, published in St. Petersburg from 1912. It was closed by the Military Revolutionary Committee under the Petrograd Soviet on October 26 (November 8), 1917.

On I. G. Lezhnev, see doc. 390.

⁵The trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries took place in Moscow from June 8 to August 7, 1922. The Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced the twelve main defendants to the supreme penalty, and the rest to various terms of imprisonment with strict isolation. The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, confirming the sentence, resolved to carry out the supreme penalty if the Socialist-Revolutionary Party did not renounce the methods of armed struggle and terror against Soviet power.

⁶Refers to the Petrograd House of Writers. It was headed by a committee that published the literary-research and critical-bibliographical journal *Letopis Doma Literatorov*. It appeared twice a month from November 1921 to February 1922.

⁷*Mysl*—a journal of the St. Petersburg Philosophical Society. V. I. Lenin’s library in the Kremlin contained issues 1-3 of this journal.