Serebyakov to Stalin

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

Stalin Correspondences

L. P. Serebryakov to I. V. Stalin

March 27, 1926

T. Stalin!

I spoke with several comrades about the desire you expressed on behalf of several members of the Politburo to explain the situation in the Party and create conditions for more friendly work under the leadership of the Central Committee .. This proposal met, of course, with the full sympathy of the few comrades with whom I spoke. But all of them at that time posed the question that [and] I posed to you. If the Central Committee wants to eliminate superfluous and unnecessary hindrances to the work of those who took part in the opposition [19]23, then how can one explain that just in recent weeks the persecution against the former opposition [19]23 has intensified so much, especially in the Moscow organization, and everyone sees that this campaign is being carried out from above, from the Moscow Committee, without any reasons or pretexts, and no one can believe that this is being done without the knowledge of the secretariat of the Central Committee. You spoke several times about the Party's wariness, but this wariness is being created from above, baseless suspicions are being sown from above, and the atmosphere in the Party is deteriorating. All comrades ask: if the Central Committee wants to facilitate coordinated work, why is it that a campaign that has not been provoked by anything is aggravated just at this time? Since you want to speak frankly, I considered myself obliged before the congress to tell you frankly my greatest misgivings about the real causes of anxiety and wariness in the Party. I spoke with Trotsky, Pyatakov and Radek. They expressed their full readiness to continue the conversation that Bukharin and you had with Comrade Trotsky and you with me, with the aim of bringing this conversation to positive practical results. It is best to agree on the time and place with Comrade Pyatakov. Pyatakov and Radek. They expressed their full readiness to continue the conversation that Bukharin and you had with Comrade Trotsky and you with me, with the aim of bringing this conversation to positive practical results. It is best to agree on the time and place with Comrade Pyatakov. Pyatakov and Radek. They expressed their full readiness to continue the conversation that Bukharin and you had with Comrade Trotsky and you with me, with the aim of bringing this conversation to positive practical results. It is best to agree on the time and place with Comrade Pyatakov.

With communist greetings Serebryakov.

March 27, 1926

RTSKHIDNI. F. 85. Op. 1/S. D. 171. L. 1. Uncertified typewritten copy.

Notes:

one. After the break with Zinoviev and Kamenev, Stalin began maneuvers to prevent a possible bloc between Zinoviev and Kamenev and Trotsky. Stalin made certain hints about cooperation to Trotsky personally and through Serebryakov. Trotsky, apparently, really counted on a change in his position. On April 2, 1926, he wrote to Serebryakov: “I understood the matter in such a way that a private conversation was aimed at eliminating accusations and insinuations about the stone in the bosom and creating conditions for more friendly work, of course, on the basis of the decisions of the Fourteenth Congress. True, it seemed to me somewhat strange that Stalin, with whom we work together in the Politburo, turns in such a roundabout way after we had a conversation with him on the same topics. But I thought it would be absurd for formal organizational reasons to refuse to talk,