Memorandum from G. G. Yagoda to I. V. Stalin on the meeting of the All-Union Trotskyist Center. May 8, 1929
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| Trotskyite Opposition 1927, Eltsin behind Trotsky |
RGASPI. F. 17. On. 171.D. 157.L.216-217. Script. Typescript
May 8, 1929
Top secret
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) comrade. Stalin
NOTE
From a completely reliable source, we know the following: on May 7 of this year, in the afternoon at the apartment of Boris Mikhailovich Eltsin, in the 1st House of Soviets, a meeting of the All-Union Trotskyist Center took place. 5 people attended.
In addition to the members of the center, Eltsin's son, Joseph, a student of Moscow State University, was in the room. The meeting discussed a draft directive letter on the results of the April plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the 16th All-Union Party Conference and a draft article on the results of the April plenum of the Central Committee and the 16th All-Union Party Conference.
The directive letter has been approved and slated for release. The article was proposed to be revised by a member of the center, Max, who is its author.
BM Eltsin, who is the head of the All-Union Trotskyist Center (General Secretary), reported to the center about the "left" sentiments in the ranks of the opposition. He said that one member of the center spoke with a man who is the leader of a troika or five that is raising the question of Stalin's assassination. Eltsin said that he was surprised how this comrade, an old oppositionist, a party member, not a bad Marxist, a scientist who worked at the Institute of Marx and Engels, could raise such a question. This oppositionist brought a leaflet to a member of the center, which he demanded to be printed in the printing house and issued.
According to Eltsin, this leaflet, written on the occasion of May 1, lacks only a direct call for an armed uprising.
Eltsin gave the members of the center to read this leaflet, the main idea of which boils down to the fact that on May 1, past Lenin's mausoleum, a "latent state", and not a proletarian dictatorship, was demonstrating.
Eltsin said that this group is very original and confused in justifying its decision.
The leader of this group says that the revolution has already gone downhill, that the bourgeois state has already formed, that tomorrow other forces may be demonstrating with the same success on Red Square, that only a sign of the proletarian dictatorship remains.
The leader of the group, in support of his terrorist theory, cites a number of points from the history of the great French Revolution.
The leader of this group told a member of the center with whom he negotiated that if he was not given permission to commit a terrorist act against Stalin, the group would do it on its own, "not as oppositionists, but as revolutionaries."
They believe that it is necessary to kill Stalin and thereby cause the rise of the revolutionary wave. They are aware that solo terrorist attacks are not the Marxist method.
But they are by no means metaphysicians and believe that the current situation requires just such an act to defuse the political atmosphere.
According to Eltsin, the member of the center failed to convince the supporter of terror of the absurdity of his question.
Deputy Prev OGPU Yagoda
Deputy Beginning SOOGPU Agranov
RGASPI. F. 17. On. 171.D. 157.L.216-217. Script. Typescript.
Published: Politburo and Leon Trotsky. Collection of documents (1923-1940). Prague, 2013.
Translated from Russian, Svitlana M.
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