Letter to L.M. Kaganovich, August 26, 1931

Source: Tom 17

Greetings, Comrade Kaganovich!

I am writing about Transcaucasian affairs. In recent days, members of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, secretaries of the Georgian CC, and some officials from Azerbaijan (including Polonskii) have visited me. The infighting among them is incredible, and it will apparently not end soon. From my observations, the protracted character of the infighting and the stubbornness of those involved is explained, among other things, by their confidence in the impunity of their anti-Party "work," since they count on Sergo "bailing them out" "if things come to that."

I reconciled them after a fashion, and the matter has been settled for now, but not for long. Almost all of them lie and scheme, beginning with Kartvelishvili. Those who do not lie are Beria, Polonskii, and Orakhrelashvili. But Polonskii, for his part, commits a number of tactless blunders. The most disagreeable impression is made by Mamulia (secretary of the Georgian CC), who by some right unknown to me serves as Kartvelishvili's deputy. A comical impression is made by the chairman of the Georgian Council of People's Commissars, Sukhishvili -- a hopeless dunce. It is simply astonishing that both of these types were recommended by Sergo.

If we do not intervene, these people may, through their stupidity, ruin the cause. They have already damaged matters with the peasantry in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Without serious intervention by the CC VKP, Kartvelishvili and the Transcaucasian Regional Committee in general are powerless to improve things -- assuming they even want to improve them.

What is to be done?

It is necessary to:

1) Schedule now, for the end of September (to coincide with my arrival), a report to the Orgburo by the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, the Georgian CC, and the Azerbaijani CC on the state of affairs;

2) Give them a thorough dressing-down at the Orgburo session and remove a number of persons of the Mamulia type;

3) Appoint a third secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee (I propose Meerzon), giving him appropriate instructions;

4) And so forth in this vein.

Without such measures, affairs in Transcaucasia will rot.

I. Stalin

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Source: Stalin and Kaganovich: Correspondence, 1931-1936, pp. 68-69.

RGASPI. F. 81. Op. 3. D. 99. L. 7-11.