V. I.

Lenin

766

To:   L. B. KRASIN

Comrade Krasin:

You have working for you a man called Yermakov (head of the transport-materials department?) with the rights of
member of the Collegium. I saw him two or three times during the Civil War years, carrying out the most difficult,
responsible and dangerous assignments. He is no ordinary
man. It turns out that he is most gravely ill (bleeding from
the throat). He has tried to receive treatment, but has
never completed the full course, because the local “boys”
have always diverted him to local work. He has a big family; his salary is 200 million—next to nothing.

This won’t do. It is our duty to provide treatment for such men and see that it is completed. He should be sent
to Germany for a few months, and his family should be helped. (Write me a couple of words
confidentially.) [1]

Yours,

Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
That same day, October 4, 1922, L. B. Krasin replied to Lenin
(Fiat he had no objections to sending V. S. Yermakov abroad,
to give him a chance to go to Italy and receive medical
treatment while making a study of the operation of ports, unloading
mechanisms, etc. On October 16, Lenin instructed his secretary
to check up whether Yermakov had received the money, and was
informed by him that all the necessary arrangements had been
made.