Document 35

Letter from Narkomtorg workers opposing colleague's reinstatement in party, 1930

RGAE, f. 8043, op. 11, d. 11, ll. 11-12. Typed copy.

In essence, we insist that the matter be reviewed for the following reasons: Citizen Gar declared to MKK (Moskovsky kontrol'nyi komitet [Moscow Control Committee]) that he was a left-wing SR (Socialist Revolutionary) while in VIKZHEL' (Vsesoiuznyi Ispolnitel'nyi Komitet Zheleznodorozhnikov [All-Union Executive Committee of Railroad Workers]) when he was chairing the strike committee of the railroad workers (September 1917). In fact, Gar was an inveterate right-wing SR, treating Bolsheviks and the proletarian revolution with fury and spite. As chair of the strike committee he kept calling off strikes to please [SR leader] Chernov and Kerensky. Therefore, his declaration actually conceals and blurs his true counter-revolutionary role. In the October Days of 1917 in Moscow he worked at the Kadet headquarters of Colonel Riabtsev whom he undoubtedly was actively helping. As a result of Gar's activities and those of the counter-revolutionary wing of the Moscow VIKZHEL' Bureau, a group of White Guards from Briansk Station broke through the rear line of our Red Army supporters during the October Days and on account of this treachery we lost many Bolshevik-Red Army men. After the October Days, had Gar fallen into Bolshevik hands he would have got it good, but he managed to sneak away in time. Many were ready to shoot him.

According to his petition, he actively helped the Bolsheviks in Kharkov. To back this up, he gives as a reference a member of the underground revolutionary committee, Comrade Saveliev. Comrade Saveliev has written the following in response to a note from Amosov: "In my opinion Gar is not a counter-revolutionary but someone who looks after his own interests." Now this is actually what he is currently doing, as has been corroborated by the Narkomtorg Purge Commission. His departure for Kharkov after the October Revolution is suspicious. He "slipped away" for sure from the Bolsheviks and only after Denikin made it hot for the Mensheviks and SRs did he carry out a couple of insignificant acts against Denikin, and now makes these acts out to be very Revolutionary and unabashedly Bolshevik in nature.

He makes himself out to be a fully qualified engineer. He was elected to VIKZHEL' when he was a stationmaster on the Kazan line. At any rate, it turned out that he is not a fully qualified engineer.

The fact that he is now the chief mechanic at the Ridder zinc industrial complex in Kazakhstan apparently played a prominent role in TsKK's decision to rehabilitate him. However, he got there thanks to the patronage of Ridder's chief engineer, Comrade Stamo, an ex-left-wing SR, now a Communist working with the railroads, also a member of VIKZHEL', very confused about his left-wing SR days and in general a gullible person. Before this Gar was a Narkomtorg bureaucrat. Apparently he understands very little about what goes on at Ridder since this line of work is not something he has ever done before; his basic profession is that of a railroad worker and even here he is not fully qualified as an engineer. Again his characteristic sleight of hand is evident.

I have conversed more than once about Gar with my comrades in the Revolutionary Five who were in charge of seizing control of the railroads in the Moscow Division in October 1917 (Piatnitsky, Zimin, and others). All of them, along with the 1917 Bolsheviks of this region, become extremely indignant when they recall Gar, and consider it erroneous and utterly wrong for the Party to accept such a"Bolshevik" in its ranks, if you can call him that.

Therefore, we request that the Party board (partkollegiia) review this matter anew, summoning all interested parties, for example, Comrade Karavaev from TsKK, Piatnitsky, Zimin, ex-left-wing SR Konstantin Lapsher, now a Bolshevik, and other persons. If the Party board decides not to review this matter, I ask that it be submitted to the TsKK's Presidium.