Telegram to P. P. Myshkin, March 8, 1919

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8. III. 1919

Myshkin, Chairman of the Gubernia Extraordinary Commission

Tsaritsyn

You cannot arrest people for disfiguring a portrait. Free Valentina Pershikova at once, and if she is a counter– revolutionary, keep an eye on her.[1]

Lenin

Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

  1. ↑ Valentina Pershikova, a member of the staff of the Tsaritsyn Housing Department, was arrested for daubing a portrait of Lenin which she had torn out of a pamphlet. Requests for Pershikova’s release were sent in telegrams to Lenin from V. S. Usachov, chief of one of the Tsaritsyn militia stations, and from Minin, a Red Army man. On Minin’s telegram Lenin wrote the following instruction to his secretary: “Remind me when the reply comes from the Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission (and afterwards hand all the material over to the topical satirists).” (Lenin Miscellany XXIV, p. 172.)