Source: Tom 17

August 21, 1929

Greetings, Comrade Molotov!

1) On England. Litvinov is wrong. Litvinov does not want to understand that Henderson has substituted the question of procedure with the question of resolving (and not merely negotiating) all disputed questions. To agree to this means to cross out our achievements on the diplomatic front, arm our enemies against us, and drive ourselves into a dead end... I think that the transfer of the question from the Presidium to the TsIK session will not be necessary, since if Henderson abandons his position, the matter can be settled in the Presidium, and if he does not, we can decide the question directly at the TsIK session (bypassing the Presidium), tacitly proceeding from the assumption that by "plenum of the Presidium" we mean the TsIK session. Therefore, your question about "highlighting the transfer from the Presidium to the TsIK session" falls away.

2) On Azerbaijan. Gikalo must be supported in every way, since he is right on the fundamental point (preserving more or less capable people from the old cadres of local workers). Artak and Shatunovskaya interpret the removal of Mirzoyan by the CC VKP as their victory, just as Shatskin interprets the Party's victory over the rightists as his own victory over the Slepkovites. All this is nonsense and stupidity. It would be advisable to send both Shatunovskaya and Artak back to Moscow to the Communist Academy (to which they had previously been seconded and from which they have now returned to Baku "by decision of the Baku aktiv"). No good can be expected from them in Baku...

Bagirov (despite his past sins) will have to be confirmed as chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka: at present he is the only person capable of coping with the Musavatists and Ittikhadists who have raised their heads in the Azerbaijani countryside. This is a serious matter, and it cannot be trifled with. It is a pity (a great pity) about Kasumov. He is one of the best workers, capable of becoming a major figure in the future. Request: do not decide the question of his reassignment without my participation.

3) On the Transcaucasian Regional Committee. The Transcaucasian Regional Committee is not leading the national Central Committees. It is incapable of leading them. It must be thoroughly cleaned up and renewed. This is a complicated question. It will have to be postponed until autumn.

4) I.N. Smirnov's "statement" is a vile thing. No concessions can be made to these gentlemen, who want to get out from under Article 58 and then settle in Moscow for their wrecking "work."

5) You are right when you say that Bukharin is sliding downhill. Sad but true. Well then — evidently it is "fate." It is only strange that he hopes to fool the Party with petty swindling "maneuvers." A typical representative of a spineless intellectual nobody in politics, with a leaning toward the Kadet lawyer type. God be with him...

6) The proposals on grain procurement have been adopted by the Politburo. That is good. But this, in my opinion, is not enough. The matter now is in the execution of the Politburo decision...

7) Pay serious attention to the oil business in the Urals. They have decided, it turns out, to set up only 10 drilling rigs for the entire year. The drilling equipment is mostly percussion rather than rotary, meaning the rate of drilling will be murderously slow... We must, in my opinion: a) organize right now a special "Uralneft" trust, freeing the Urals from its "patrons" who are ready to smother oil production in the Urals; b) place an experienced Communist oil specialist at the head of "Uralneft," driving the wrecker Dobrynsky (I think that's his name) from the Urals — he was assigned by the "patron" Grozneft (here, God, take what we don't need); c) oblige the VSNKh to install this very year from 40 to 80 drilling rigs with rotary equipment. Without such and similar measures, the business will be delayed (or even die out) and there will be no real exploration in the Urals.

Well, that is all for now. I shake your hand.

J. Stalin.

P.S. On the Cotton Committee. According to reports, both the Cotton Committee officials and the Gosplan officials (especially the Cotton Committee) do not believe in the correctness of the Politburo's decision to expand the cotton five-year plan and want to wreck it in practice in order to prove their own rightness. If this is true (and I think there is a large degree of probability in this), then we must acknowledge that such an "idea" of the Cotton Committee officials is the most vile form of wrecking, deserving the most severe punishment...

August 21, 1929.

J. Stalin.

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Source: Letters of J.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925–1936. P. 144–148.

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