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.

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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...

"Deportations of this kind create only unnecessary embitterment among people who cannot yet be considered lost and to whom the party in the past has quite often been a stepmother rather than a mother. They strengthen whispering about the similarity between our present regime and the old police regime, as well as about the fact that 'those who made the revolution are in prison and exile, while others rule'..."

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 consists in the fact that I consider myself entitled to have an independent opinion on separate questions and to express this opinion (sometimes, in the most acute cases, only personally to you, or to you and Rykov, as you remember, during the congress).

"Recently I have received two lessons in this respect. Regarding grain procurements Rykov said that I should 'fill my throat with lead.' You returned my letter to me. Well, if even this is not allowed, I will take it into account.

"And yet what could be simpler: let me go abroad to work for a year on a book, and there will be no bother from me at all..."