Source: Tom 17

September 6, 1929

Greetings, Comrade Molotov!

1) I am sending you the letter from Mirzoyan that I just received. You know that I am not an advocate of a policy of "leniency" toward comrades who have committed gross errors from the standpoint of the Party's interests. I must say, however, that it is not in the Party's interest to finish off Mirzoyan. You yourself, it seems, wrote to me the other day about Mirzoyan in precisely this spirit. His letter deserves attention, and his request should be granted.

I think it would not be a bad idea to appoint Mirzoyan secretary of the Perm (Urals) district committee, giving him a combat assignment — to push forward the oil business in the Urals. He knows the oil business well, and together with Rumyantsev (I propose appointing Rumyantsev as head of Uralneft) they could develop Ural oil production. And oil in the Urals is a most important matter, which our VSNKh people refuse to understand.

2) I supported Kabakov and Oshvintsev on the question of Zubarev for two reasons: a) in the Urals, despite its ever-growing colossal significance for the USSR, there are frightfully few responsible workers, and one cannot "rob it endlessly"; b) Zubarev is an expert on agriculture, and in Arkhangelsk there is, strictly speaking, no agriculture.

Well, so long.

September 6, 1929.

J. St.

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Source: Letters of J.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925–1936. P. 158–160.

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