Source: Tom 17

January 3, 1928

Comrade Osinsky!

If you think about it, you will probably understand that you have no grounds whatsoever — neither moral nor of any other kind — to malign the Party or assume the role of an umpire between the Party and the opposition. I am returning your letter to you as insulting to the Party. As for concern about Smirnov and other oppositionists, you have no reason to doubt that the Party will do everything possible and necessary in this regard.

J. Stalin.

January 3, 1928.

---

Source: Istochnik. 1994. No. 6. P. 88.

AP. F. 45. Op. 1. D. 780. L. 15.

NOTE: The note is a reply to Osinsky's appeal of January 1, 1928, in which the author draws Stalin's attention to the circumstances of V.M. Smirnov's deportation: "In his time, Lenin saw Martov off abroad with every convenience... All this was because Martov had once been a revolutionary. Those now being deported, our former comrades in the Party, are people who are grossly mistaken politically, but they have not ceased to be revolutionaries — this cannot be denied... The question therefore is whether it is necessary to drive them to the north and in effect pursue a line toward their spiritual and physical destruction? In my opinion, no..." On January 4, 1928, Osinsky replied sharply: "Comrade Stalin, I do not need to think much or little about whether I can be an arbiter between the Party and the opposition or anyone else. You understand my point of view and my psychology completely wrong... My psychology is such that I consider myself entitled to have an independent opinion on certain questions and to express that opinion..."