Document 135

Memorandum to Stalin, Andreev, and Kosarev on suicide of teacher in Omsk Oblast, 31 July 1935

TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 1129, l. 63. Typewritten copy.

On 8 May of this year Komsomol member Vorob'yov, a teacher at the local first-stage school, committed suicide under the Sedinsky Village Soviet in Novo-Zaimka Raion. In a suicide note that Vorob'yov left, he wrote that he was unhappy with the local Soviet authority, since he was in financial need. Agents of the [state-security] organs who investigated the suicide performed an autopsy for the purpose of confirming that Vorob'yov was in financial need. The result of this farce was recorded as follows: "During the autopsy on Vorob'yov no food was found in his stomach. The investigation also determined that Vorob'yov lived in very bad conditions, and local teachers sometimes were not issued their wages for several months at a time."