I have read Comrade Ermler's screenplay ("The Great Citizen"). It is unquestionably composed with political literacy. Its literary merits are also beyond dispute.

There are, however, errors.

1. The representatives of the "opposition" appear physically older and with greater party seniority than the representatives of the CC. This is not typical and does not correspond to reality. Reality presents the opposite picture.

2. The portrait of Zhelyabov must be removed: there is no analogy between the terrorist pygmies from the Zinovievite and Trotskyist camp and the revolutionary Zhelyabov.

3. References to Stalin must be eliminated. Instead of Stalin, one should put the CC of the Party.

4. Shakhov's assassination should not serve as the center and high point of the screenplay: any given terrorist act pales before the facts uncovered by the Pyatakov-Radek trial.

The center and high point of the screenplay should be the struggle between two programs, two positions: one program -- for the victory of socialism in the USSR, for the liquidation of all remnants of capitalism, for the independence and territorial integrity of the USSR, for anti-fascism and rapprochement with non-fascist states against fascist states, against war, for a policy of peace; the other program -- for the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and the rollback of socialist gains, against the independence of the USSR and for the state dismemberment of the USSR to the benefit of fascist states, for rapprochement with the most powerful fascist states against the interests of the working class and to the detriment of the interests of non-fascist states, for the intensification of the danger of war and against the policy of peace.

The matter must be arranged so that the struggle between the Trotskyists and the Soviet government appears not as a struggle between two coteries (groups united by random interest -- Ed.) for power, in which one "got lucky" and the other "didn't," which would be a gross distortion of reality, but as a struggle between two programs, of which the first corresponds to the interests of the revolution and is supported by the people, while the second contradicts the interests of the revolution and is rejected by the people.

But it follows from this that the screenplay will have to be reworked, making it more contemporary in content, reflecting all the essentials uncovered by the Pyatakov-Radek trial.

With communist greetings,

I. Stalin

January 27, 1937

RGASPI. F. 71. Op. 10. D. 127. L. 188-189.