Source: Tom 17

June 15, 1926

June 15, 1926.

Greetings, Molotov!

Greetings, Bukharin!

Returned to Sochi today, June 15. In Tiflis I fell ill with a stomach ailment (food poisoning from fish) and am now recovering with difficulty. Today I read your letters (undated) and Bukharin's letter (also undated).

My opinion:

1) Your theses turned out well. It would be good to also expose Grisha on the Polish question — he himself pushed through Warski, and now tries to foist him onto you. Really, Grisha's insolence knows no bounds.

2) It was not necessary to note that the theses passed in the ECCI unanimously. The unanimity was formal, whereas in reality there was no unanimity whatsoever. To conceal disagreements with Grisha now means helping Grisha in his anti-Party work and putting ourselves in a foolish position.

3) If Lashevich is organizing illegal meetings, Grisha Zinoviev is arranging Ruth Fischer's escape to Germany, and Sokolnikov is being sent to France for the congress — then it means that together with Trotsky they have conceived a plan to blow up the Party through the ECCI. I do not very much believe in the possibility of an explosion, but a major shake-up is entirely possible. And from this it follows that we are heading, we must head — if we want to safeguard the Party from surprises — toward the necessity of a new regrouping of people from the opposition. Regarding measures against Lashevich, you are right. It would be good to also prepare the question about Zinoviev in one way or another. The best means, I think, would be to give the Plenum a report from the Politburo on matters from the special file, and here, during the discussion at the Plenum, to mention all the fights in the Politburo, so that the Plenum has its say.

4) If Trotsky tells Bukharin that he hopes to soon have a majority in the Party, this means he is trying to intimidate and blackmail Bukharin. How little he knows and how low an opinion he has of Bukharin! And I think that in the near future the Party will punch Trotsky and Grisha with Kamenev in the face and make outcasts of them, like Shlyapnikov.

5) Sokolnikov should be recalled from France immediately, and the Central Committee of France should be informed that Sokolnikov has no mandate on French affairs either from the CC of the VKP or from the ECCI.

6) Economic affairs do not frighten me. Rykov will handle them. The oppositionists will gain nothing, absolutely nothing, on economic questions.

7) It is very good that Bukharin has decided to make reports in Moscow and in Leningrad.

Well, so long for now.

I shake your hands.

J. Stalin.

June 15, 1926.

P.S. Rudzutak proposes, together with Mikoyan, to postpone the Plenum until July 20. I have no objection.

J. St.

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Source: Letters of J.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925–1936. P. 70–71.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5388.

NOTE: The reference is to Ruth Fischer's departure from Moscow to Germany for medical treatment without the sanction of the Comintern Executive Committee. The 5th Congress of the French Communist Party took place in Lille, June 21–26, 1926.