Document 2
Telegram
from the Political Commission of the ECCI Political Secretariat to the
Communist Parties of France, Belgium, England, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, the U.S., Greece, on counteracting the
anti-Soviet campaign abroad in connection with the executions related to the
case of S. M. Kirov.
9
January 1935.
It
is essential to make more active and aggressive the unmasking of the
anti-Soviet campaign in connection with the shooting of the
counterrevolutionary terrorists. [It is
essential to] explain better to the masses that the reformists’ and other
[groups’] resolutions of protest against the shooting of terrorists are, in
fact, an open demonstration within the framework of the anti-Soviet bourgeois
front, a defense of and solidarity with the white guards – the worst enemies of
the working class [and] the proletarian state. Explain that the violence
against white terrorists was undertaken in the interests of protecting millions
of workers from a cruel class enemy, and is an act of genuine humanism. While
doing so, it is necessary to make good use of the telegrams published on 5
January in the newspapers. In order to confuse the masses, French reformists
are talking about the execution of hundreds of workers. It is necessary to
decisively refute this insolent lie. Those executed were accessories to Kirov’s
murder and were linked to other white guard terrorists who had infiltrated the
Soviet Union from abroad with bombs and explosive charges with the goal of
organizing attempts on the lives of the representatives of Soviet power. We
cannot limit ourselves to a press campaign only. It is important to raise a
wave of protest among the organizations of Socialist parties, [and] reformist
and other trade unions against the position of these organizations’ leaders.
For this purpose, it is necessary to use these local organizations of the Union
of Friends of the Soviet Union. [It is necessary] to encourage the sending of
telegrams of support, resolutions from delegations of reformist and
revolutionary organizations, from committee meetings, from production
collectives, etc., to Soviet representatives. It is essential to provide better
information about the facts of the white terror, which in some countries has
grown to an unheard of scale, while giving a free hand to the friends of those
who protest against the shooting of the white guardsmen.
Polit[ical]
Commission[i]
Gottwald,[ii]
Knorin, Gerish[iii]
<…>[iv]
RGASPI, f. 495, op. 184, d. 55. Outgoing
telegrams for 1935. General directives.
Original in German.[v]
Typewritten.
[i] The Political Commission of the Political Secretariat was the highest executive organ of the ECCI in 1929-1935. For a discussion, see chapter 1.
[ii] Klement Gottwald (1896-1953). A member of the Social Democratic Party of Czechoslovakia prior to 1921, when he became a member of the CP of Czechoslovakia (CPCz). From 1925, he was a member of its CC and Political Bureau. From 1929, he was General Secretary of the CPCz. After 1929, he was a member of the ECCI, and after 1934, he was a member of the Political Commission of the Political Secretariat of the ECCI. In 1935-1943, he was an ECCI Secretary. In 1945-1953, he was President of that party. In 1946-1948, he was head of the government in the Czechoslovak republic; after 14 June 1948, he was President of the Czechoslovak republic.
[iii] Grigory Moiseevich Gerish (1895-1937). In 1915-1919, he was a member of the Socialist Party of America. In 1919-1921, he was a member of the CP USA. Between 1922 and 1937, he worked in the ECCI. On 14 September 1937, he was arrested by the NKVD; on 14 October 1937, he was sentenced to be shot.
[iv] Other signatures unclear. (Trans.)
[v] The German original was signed by Gottwald, Manuilsky, Pyatnitsky, Knorin, Gerish and two others whose signatures are illegible.