Letter to Joseph Stalin, May 22, 1922

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Comrade Stalin

I think this should be shown in strict secrecy (without making any copies) to Dzerzhinsky and all the members of the Politbureau, and a directive issued: “Dzerzhinsky (G.P.U.) is authorised to work out, with Semashko’s assistance, a plan of measures and report to the Politbureau within a period of ——— (2 weeks?).”[1]

22/V. Lenin

  1. Written under the text of a note from N. A. Semashko, People’s Commissar for Public Health, to members of the Politbureau of the RCP(b) CC about = “important and dangerous (Lenin’s emphasis.—Ed.) trends” in the medical world, which had come to the surface at the Second All-Russia Congress of Medical Sections under the CC of the Medical and Sanitary Workers’ Union (held in Moscow from May 10 to 14, 1922). Reporting the anti-Soviet speeches by some “top” doctors, who were Mensheviks and S.R.s, Semashko said it was necessary to take resolute measures against them.
    On May 24, 1922, the Politbureau adopted Lenin’s proposal instructing Dzerzhinsky and Semashko “to work out a plan of measures and to report to the Politbureau within a week” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU Central Committee).