Bolshevik Leaders correspondence

Bolshevik leadership Correspondence. 1912-1927
Collection of documents 1996.
Compiled by: A.V.Kvashonkin, L.P.Kosheleva, L.A.Rogovaya, O.V.Khlevnyuk.

No. 227

B. M. Yaroslavsky — G. K. Ordzhonikidze

October 4, 1927

Dear Sergo!

I kept thinking that you would soon be on your own, and that’s partly why I didn’t write, and now they say that the blind gut is holding you and will keep you for a long time, damn it. You know about events. Key facts:

1) the spread of a new platform, which, in fact, is the program of the new party. It is called the "Bolshevik-Leninist" platform. Well, it goes without saying that you and I are no longer Bolshevik-Leninists, although, it’s true, L[ev] D[avydovich] is still speculating that you allegedly disagree with me (he said this at us at a meeting on the case of the printing house, where he acted as a lawyer),

2) printing house (and not one).

They no longer hide the fact of the existence of underground equipment, they say: we have done and will do it (Mrachkovsky), even if you exclude us. “Soon we will expel you” (Mrachkovsky). “But what - you will not judge us all” (Tr[otsk] y). Soon the Party will hit you in the head (Mrachkovsky). In addition to open technology, there is still undisclosed.

3) Collecting signatures for a new platform, mainly workers - a sad experience with 83 taken into account 1 . The plan: to collect so many signatures (they promise to collect at least 5,000 in Moscow), to distribute so much literature of the opposition that "they won't dare to expel it then."

4) Opening the discussion without prior notice. Frantic preparations are underway in the form of underground training of "cadres".

At the same time, a part of the opposition is sobering up—withdrawal. Breslav, for example, is very hesitant. If [you] wrote him a direct letter with a proposal to stop hesitation, it would work. I talked a lot with him on this topic, he disagrees with the opposition in many respects.

I'm being bullied more than before. Wretched verses were printed. L. T[rotsky] declared that I was worse than Pereverzev (in connection with the case of the printing house and another case connected with it).

It is clear that they have decided to break up. They are arguing that we will not dare to take decisive measures, that we will be afraid, because we are, as it were, morally wrong. They don't have much success. In the hottest time, with furious pressure on the Party and non-Party people (their involvement is even greater than before), they will collect a maximum of 10-15 thousand in the entire Party. That is, about 1%.

Sapronovites sent a list of supporters - about 20 people - such a campaign. If the Tr[otskys] you capitulate, the s[aprons] will intensify.

We have taken a resolute course in relation to the underground - to the exclusion. Of course, this creates mutual bitterness.

As for the work plan of the RCT-CCC, it seems that we do not have any major disagreements. All I wanted was not to narrow down the area of Party questions subject to study by the Central Control Commission, not to narrow down the Central Control Commission in general. I think it would be politically harmful now.

Well, that's enough for now.

We are waiting for you. My "bandits" send greetings to you and Zina. Greetings from Marianne and Claudia.

We hope to heat the rooms in Serebryany Bor, so that in winter on Saturday and Sunday we can breathe fresh air and walk around the village. Will be for you with Zina.

Get well, get stronger. There is a tough fight ahead. I have no doubt that the party will win.

Emelyan.

4/X 27.

RTSKHIDNI. F. 85. Op. 27. D. 252. L. 1-5. Autograph.

Notes:

1 "Statement of the 83's" - a letter from opposition members sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in May 1927 (Trotsky's archive. Vol. 3. P. 60-72).

No. 228

M. F. Shkiryatov — G. K. Ordzhonikidze

October 10, 1927

Hello dear Sergo.

Got your letter. And then on the second or third day I received a notice that you were operated on and such an operation makes me tremble and all the devilry starts to resurface, fear for your life, how it all happens, that you don’t even think when, what can happen, what life stands by a thread. You are waiting and so far away. Straight devilry, but howls (most likely - maybe - comp.) Will take you out. You write and you don’t know if you read it, I will hope that you read it. Dear Sergo, how bad it is that you are not at all at this time. I have already been working for several days, I spent the rest of the time with Klim, well, we ended up with pleasure. We chatted in the Crimea, arrived on Wednesday, plunged into work, and now there is so much work and not easy. I know how you are experiencing all these events taking place here. It’s hard and difficult for us to live through these things at the place of these cases, and even more so for you far away. Ah, it would be nice if you were here. Dear Sergo. What are they doing. If there was a period when they hid the fact that they were doing the work of the faction, then at the present time this is no longer the case. They do not hide and involve in their work anyone who would be against the Central Committee. They are fighting in every possible way to undermine the authority of the party and undermine its discipline. You did not get it right by following their documents. They openly fight for the creation of another party. Dear Sergo, there is no other way out than to expel them from the party when they say this, I won’t undertake it today or tomorrow. It is not instilled equally, but they seem to achieve this themselves. As you left, they changed a lot for the worse for the desks. It's not possible to write about everything. It's only possible to talk to you, but I really want you to be here. But as you can see, you won't come for a long time. You will arrive at 11. ride, we are all preparing for your report. We have nothing to do. Only you don't. We have drawn up a new plan just in the spirit of your instructions, and today we will accept it.

There are new people who gave the Central Committee. They took part in the discussion of the plan. The work is progressing little by little. From the list of people approved by the Central Committee, little has yet been given, and some are not given at all, I am afraid that along the line of the Central Control Commission it will go in the same way. Soon we will go to the cities with a report, we will have to coordinate the trip with the Central Committee and we will have to send everyone to the places of member. CCC to the conference. Well, that's enough for now. Greetings from all the guys of Ilyin Emelyan and everyone.

Your Matthew.

Recovering!!!!*

10/X - 27.

RTSKHIDNI. F. 85. Op. 27. D. 241. L. 1-2. Autograph.

No. 229

M. F. Shkiryatov — G. K. Ordzhonikidze

October 29, 1927

Dear Sergo. I read your letters that you write to your comrades, as well as Comrade Krestinsky's messages from which it is clear that your deeds are good and I will see you soon.

Dear Sergo, how glad I am that you are doing well. And it all ended well, now just work. Things are going well for you and we seem to have nothing. They buzz, and the workers cover them. And decently. There is a discussion in the cells is going well for the party, you can be calm. How the workers have grown up, which pleases the "proletarian" heart of the old proletarian. Write to you about party affairs. You probably know from others in general well, you will soon come and talk. I live for nothing, I miss you. But I'm sure I'll see you soon. Throat already dorval. I want to heal. Strike if it's not difficult about yourself. Greetings from Emelyan Ilyin and friend.

Kiss.

Your friend Matthew*.

29/X-27

RTSKHIDNI. F. 85. Op. 27. D. 242. L. 1. Autograph.

No. 230

E. M. Yaroslavsky — G. K. Ordzhonikidze

October 29, 1927

Dear Sergo,

I have just been given a message from Svanidze about your health dated 24/X, that you are starting to blossom, you are drinking in front of the street *, eating and being cheerful. You don't know how happy that made me (and all of us). We have a hope that you will come to the congress. It would be so good. The damned scabs are spreading vile gossip that you were sent somewhere, that you were purposely removed because you allegedly disagree with us, etc., they speculate on the fact that you are not there. But, perhaps, it is good that you were not at the last plenum 1: they behaved so outrageously, so insulted us, the Bolsheviks, that I, having given my word to myself that I would withstand everything, could not stand it and launched at T[rotsky] "the control figures of the State Planning Commission." But I got a "left deviation", and I missed. Friends say that I made "an unsuccessful attempt to bring the control figures of the State Planning Committee into contact with the thinking apparatus of one of the oppositionists." The oppositionists use this, they complain everywhere that they are offended. And T[rotsky] behaved in such a way that he provoked physical violence, shouted “jailers”, “Kerenskys”, “Pereverzevs”, etc. I apologized to the plenum. I said: it's good that you were not at the plenum, because I know your hot character, you, perhaps, would have thrown something at him from above .

Now there is a heated fight at meetings where the opposition is everywhere defeated, even where it has a dozen, two or three supporters. She was killed by the vote against the 7 hour work day 3, she was killed by underground printing houses and the Shcherbakovs more than our criticism. They reward themselves with underground meetings of 30-100 people, at which they speak to Komsomol members, party members, expelled and non-party people Tr[otsky], Zin[oviev], Kam[enev], Rak[ovsky], Rad[ek] , Smilga, Gataev and others. Probably several thousand (no more or hardly more than 10 thousand) throughout the union were on their side until the 15th Congress. If we are firm, this figure will melt away after the 15th Congress to that "cadre" who will take even worse steps. The Sapronovites are definitely moving towards an illegal party, they have recaptured some from T[rotsky], but have also lost some 4 . The buffer has flattened out, it is not there, Shklovsky is just hysterically.

Well, if you would come. For the time being, we decided, just in case, to prepare for the report (or rather, prepare materials for the report) together: Janson and I. It goes without saying that if you come, the report must be made by you 5 .

The workers (non-Party) took very well the latest measure of excluding Z[inoviev] and T[rotsky] from the Central Committee, "it's high time," they say.

And then they fussed, nursed - that's enough.

We live in feverish work - I made two reports in one day, and in the morning - the third, in front of thousands of audiences; grown in their understanding of party tasks, party differences.

In any case, we know that you are recovering, it invigorates and amuses us. Better lie down for an extra few days, if necessary.

Hello Zina.

Claudia has completely gone into her courses, she works from morning until late at night. Marianka is also passionate about the school and the detachment. And the kids dream of going with me to Papkaz (Caucasus), where I am going at the end of December. After all, I didn’t rest in the summer and this thrashing of nerves and a waste of strength exhausted me quite a bit.

Be healthy, dear Sergo!

We are waiting for you, Emelyan.

29/X 27.

RTSKHIDNI. F. 85. Op. 27. D. 253. L. 1-4. Autograph.

Notes:

1 We are talking about the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held on October 21-23, 1927. The plenum expelled Trotsky and Zinoviev from the Central Committee.

On October 24, 1927, Trotsky sent the following statement to the Central Committee Secretariat regarding the transcript of the plenum: “The work of stenographers proceeded under very difficult conditions. A number of remarks are noted, but not all are marked. It is possible that the stenographers avoided recording some of the lines out of a sense of disgust. In no way can I blame them for this. Nor does the transcript indicate that I was systematically prevented from speaking from the rostrum of the Presidium. It is not indicated that a glass was thrown at me from this rostrum (they say that Comrade Kubyak). The transcript does not indicate that one of the participants in the Joint Plenum tried to drag me off the podium by the hand, etc., etc.

[...] My first speech in defense of the proposal to put on the order of the day as a special item the question of the Wrangel officer and the military conspiracy was removed from the transcript by a special resolution of the plenum. As a result, the transcripts of the plenum will not record the fact that a member of the Presidium of the Central Control Commission, comrade. Yaroslavsky threw a volume of check figures at me during my speech. The moral and political meaning of this fact is especially emphasized by the circumstance that a party worker is expelled from the party for a harsh word in a cell during a debate, while one of the organizers and leaders of these exclusions considers it possible in the highest organ of the party, at the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, to resort to methods that cannot otherwise be called fascist-hooligan.

[...] During the speech of comrade. Bukharin, in response to a remark on my part, comrade. Shvernik also threw a book at me. Tov. Shvernik is a former secretary of the Central Committee, now the head of the Ural organization of the party. I hope that his feat will be recorded in the transcript.

[...] None of the above hooligan acts (Yaroslavsky, Shvernik, Kubyak and many others) met even the shadow of condemnation from the Presidium.

That is why the scenes played out at the Joint Plenum cannot be regarded otherwise than as directive instructions from the most responsible body to all Party organizations as to what methods should be used to conduct the pre-Congress discussion” (Archive Trotsky, vol. 4, pp. 230-231).

3 The issue of reducing the working day to seven hours, in connection with the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, was discussed by the country's leadership in October 1927. The opposition opposed this measure, characterizing it as demagogy and adventurism (Ibid., pp. 205-218).

4The group of "democratic centralism", one of whose leaders was Sapronov, began its activity as early as 1918 and took an especially active part in the intra-party discussions of 1919-1921. In connection with the preparations for the XV Congress of the CPSU (b), the members of the group on June 27, 1927, sent to the Central Committee a document known as the "Platform of the 15". Criticizing the policy of the party leadership from the left positions, the authors of the “platform” concluded: “The inner-party regime, which crushes the activity of the working part of the party, tearing the party away from the masses of the working class, leading to the degeneration of the top of the party and threatening to liquidate the party as the vanguard of the proletariat, turning it into an auxiliary body state power - all this suggests that the current leaders of the Central Committee are approaching the last limits of slipping from proletarian positions ”(Izvestiya of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 1991. No. 7. P. 48). The October plenum of 1927 decided to transfer data on the "splitting activities" of the Sapronov group for consideration by the XV Congress (CPSU in resolutions ... T. 4. P. 250). Soon the members of the group were expelled from the party, and its leaders Sapronov and Smirnov were arrested and exiled to the Urals.

We are talking about the report of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the upcoming XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in December 1927.

No. 231

V. G. Feigin — G. K. Ordzhonikidze

[later October 23, 1927]

Dear Sergo!

We read with great pleasure the letter you sent to Redens. We are very glad that you are already writing and that you will arrive soon. We miss you terribly, and Semushkin even sees you in his dreams. He came yesterday morning and says that he dreamed that you were cursing him. He looked radiant all day. The Central Committee removed me from work for a month of discussion 1. Sends to the provinces: to Rostov or to Nizhny to discuss. * If you arrive before me and you need me to prepare materials for the congress - telegraphy, and I will come running. I will fight very hard. It's hard to imagine such a disgrace as the opposition has allowed lately. An underground movement is being organized before the eyes of the Party. Underground, or rather semi-underground meetings (the opposition is no longer taking special precautions to conceal its factional activities) are taking place in full view of the entire party. Trotsky, Zinoviev, Rakovsky, Radek (the latter was already expelled from the party for this) come in cars to carry them out - in a word, everything happens as in any bourgeois-democratic country. That this has a corrupting and demoralizing effect on the Party is beyond doubt. That such techniques call forth a third force to the same course of action,

Yesterday Trotsky held a meeting of opposition activists in Zamoskvorechye. There were about 70-80 communist workers.

A member of the KK Zam[Oskvoretsky] District came. They did not want to let him in, but Trotsky allowed him - let him, they say, listen. And so on in all areas. After Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Central Committee, they tried to organize a street demonstration. Turnouts were at the post office and the theater of the revolution. Whether due to rainy weather or for other reasons, the demonstration did not take place, although about 40 screamers gathered at the Post Office. Things like distributing opposition literature now seem like child's play. The audience went for everything. It is said that opposition workers are being instructed in the spirit of shouting slogans on Red Square during the October demonstration—Down with the Stalinist faction. On our part, the mood is furious. At the core of the Moscow organization, Kamenev and Rakovsky were not allowed to speak. They made noise, banged and whistled so that everything around was shaking.

At yesterday's Krasnopresnensky asset, where Kamenev arrived, the same picture turned out. The same is true in other areas.

I scour the districts and I must say that everywhere the same picture. But in my opinion, this shows not only the condemnation of the opposition, not only the sharp condemnation of the organizers of the faction, but also a number of other points.

Chief among them is that the parties are fed up with impossibly eternal fights since 1923. The economy is growing, the situation is improving, and this not only does not reduce the differences, but, on the contrary, the fight intensifies. Tired of everyone to the extreme limit. This mood has, of course, a number of other aspects, although it is quite legitimate. The bad side is that if the party ever needs a comprehensive discussion of issues in order to influence the governing bodies (and such a situation is not excluded), then in such a mood any minority will be condemned in advance, even if it is right.

Under these conditions, it is necessary that those who stand in the leadership do not bury themselves and become arrogant in politics, knowing that no one will be able to cut them off. It seems to me that this second conclusion must also be drawn for oneself, and not only that the party sharply condemns the opposition. If we confine ourselves to this, then a very serious moment will be overlooked, but it will have an effect.

Frankly, I am now very afraid that the Central Committee will become conceited. If the moods that are now in the bud are not taken into account and the Central Committee is convinced that everything is going very well, then it may become conceited in politics. And such a mood, at least among the leading workers of the Central Control Commission, as I was convinced from conversations, is very strong. The opposition will undoubtedly have to be expelled from the party - there is no other way out, this, on the one hand, will increase the clampdown in the party, and, on the other hand, will strengthen the mood "now everything is very good," and this, in turn, may subsequently lead to large complications. I think that you can and will play a big role in ensuring that, under the existing situation, those elements of arrogance that we have at least do not develop further. How to explain, how not to arrogance this confidence, that the party will always and under all conditions support its Central Committee, that everyone’s mood for the opposition is so furious only because everyone 100% supports the line of the Central Committee quite consciously and with confidence? In my opinion, this is wrong. All points must be taken into account. The bulk of the party activists and the entire party support the Central Committee because, of course, they consider the opposition's factional activity disastrous. But a significant part of the support due to the fact that since the majority has decided - it is right - it must be supported. And the other part supports, being afraid not to support. All this, in my opinion, is useful to see - it will come in handy for the future. I wanted to talk about this with Stalin, but I could not get to him. I will give one example. This week there was a meeting of Komsomol activists in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Komsomol organization (Moscow). Ter-Vaganyan, the organizer of the Zamoskvoretskaya Komsomol organization, spoke. He was not allowed to speak, knowing that he was an oppositionist2 .

Then the concert began, and at 12 o’clock at night the picture was the 10th anniversary of October. Trotsky appears in this picture in the October days. Thunderous applause broke out. Then he appears in Brest-Litovsk, then at the front near Kazan, etc. All the time he was greeted with thunderous applause. Redens and I sat until 3 am in this picture, and then discussed the question of how to explain the fact that Theroux was not allowed to speak, but Trotsky was welcomed in the picture (in the dark). Is this due to the darkness? Is that so, I don't know. I have no doubt at all that the same activist who greeted Trotsky in the picture would not have allowed him to speak if he had appeared alive five hours earlier at a solemn meeting, in the presence of Komsomol leaders. Of course, this (such duality) cannot be said about everyone, but it can be said with certainty that about a significant part of the meeting. And this alone says that one should not be blindly optimistic like Janson and Yaroslavsky. I smell how things are in the province. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems not.

At a meeting of party activists, a note was submitted to Yaroslavsky: is it true that Ordzhonikidze does not agree with the line of the Central Committee regarding the opposition and therefore he was sent on vacation for six months. Yaroslavsky denied this, said that you had an operation, etc.

There was a big storm at the plenum of the Central Committee. This is characterized, if only by the fact that already at the beginning, when Trotsky brought in a request for a military conspiracy, Yaroslavsky fired a book at him. And then someone dragged Trotsky (“gently” hugging his waist) from the podium, Trotsky shouted at him - a fascist, Muralov ran to defend Trotsky, etc. Earlier, someone fired a glass at Trotsky, but missed, etc. Can you imagine the picture.

Zinoviev behaves just as arrogantly as Trotsky. When they came to see him during his stay at the session, he told the workers of St. Petersburg that it was freer in the Hindenburg Republic than in our country—there are no Communists in prisons, but here they are.

I signed too much, and therefore I will finish. Write to me. I will ask Redens to send me letters to the city where I will discuss. * Write in detail about your health: whether the wound has healed, how you feel and when you arrive, according to the doctors, and not according to your own. Hello Zinaida Gavrilovna.

V. Feigin.

PS Don't you think, Sergo, that after the expulsion of the opposition, things will go better for us in terms of a more objective policy. Until now, it has turned out that the opposition has seen only our bad sides and has exaggerated them besides. But we, challenging the infidels, because of their one-sidedness, the overdone position of the opposition, sometimes went to the other extreme, embellishing the situation.

The Central Committee embellished a little, the provincial committees added a little to this, and completely embellished the "theoreticians and propagandists" of the Slepkovian persuasion. The opposition says that we have an extraordinary growth of the kulaks, we reply that the kulaks are growing, but not to the extent that the opposition paints, but until this dispute reaches the provincial cells, it turns out that the kulak is breathing its last.

And so in a lot of ways. Don't you think that the expulsion of the opposition will give a strong impetus to greater objectivity in politics, to directing fire on the moods of overdoing and bureaucratic blindness from the end opposite to the opposition? On this I will definitely end. Be healthy.

RTSKHIDNI. F.85. Op. 1/S. D. 74. L. 1-2. Autograph.

Notes:

1 The decision to hold a pre-Congress discussion on the theses of the Central Committee for the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) was adopted by the October 1927 plenum (CPSU in resolutions ... T. 4. P. 249).

2Trotsky also drew attention to this fact. In one of his letters, in response to accusations of using “anti-Party methods of struggle, such as illegal printing houses, etc.,” Trotsky wrote: “I heard it by chance from the broadcast of a speech at the anniversary meeting of the Moscow Komsomol a few days ago. I will not dwell on official greetings and thanksgiving answers. Not a single living thought! Tov. Ter-Vaganyan tried to make some extremely modest and cautious remarks in his speech. Pointing to the gigantic historical work done by the Komsomol, comrade. Ter stressed the insufficiency of the international moment in the education of the proletarian youth. He pointed out, in particular, that Komsomolskaya Pravda devotes too [little] space to international topics. At these words, they began to angrily interrupt him. Comrade's attempts Thera continued to meet fierce obstruction. Even over the loudspeaker it was clear that a small minority was involved in the sabotage. The majority of the meeting is simply intimidated by the bawlers and whistlers [...]” This, wrote Trotsky, “contains an exhaustive explanation of why the oppositionists are forced to gather at so-called “secret” meetings, i.e., at such meetings where whistlers and in general, hooligans do not disrupt speeches with knocking, noise, whistling and roaring” (Trotsky Archive, vol. 4, pp. 231-232).