Document 52

Memorandum from L. Mekhlis to TsK secretaries "Concerning the Political Dictionary for Workers and Collective Farm Members," 28 December 1937

RGASPI, f. 17, op. 11, d. 833, ll. 115-117. Verified typed copy.

To the Secretaries of TsK VKP(b), Comrades Stalin, Kaganovich, Andreev, Zhdanov, and Yezhov.

Concerning the Political Dictionary for Workers and Collective Farm Members

On 10 May 1935, TsK VKP(b) passed a resolution about publishing a political dictionary intended for workers and collective farm members. Tal, Knorin, and Kh. N. Kantor were appointed as its editorial board.

Even before the TsK VKP(b) resolution, Tomsky and his associated Trotskyite spies did "a good deal of work" on this dictionary. Of the 16 section editors both Tal and Knorin enlisted, chose, and presented to TsK VKP(b) for approval, the overwhelming majority were Trotskyite spies. Many other persons who in the process of work were enlisted as editors or senior staff members also turned out to be enemies.

The editors of the following sections were arrested:

Butkevich, editor of the military section.

Gorin, editor of the history section.

Fainberg, editor of the Komsomol section.

Smoliansky, editor of the Comintern section.

Tivel, editor of the international section.

Ioelson, editor of the world economics section.

Gurevich, editor of the agricultural section.

Berman, editor of the Soviet construction and law section.

Tulepov, editor of the Soviet nationalities section.

Kozlov, editor of the general history section.

The following section editors were expelled from the party:

Dinamov, from literature,

Kostko, from Leninism,

Zenkevich, from the general section.

The writing staff was also infested with enemies of the people: Tankhilevich and Tumanian (both arrested) who wrote entries about topics in party history; Frolov and Vanag (both arrested) who wrote on topics in the history of the USSR; Gurevich and Iosifov (both arrested) who wrote on topics in agriculture.

On the editorial staff of the dictionary two technical staff members were left, both non-party members. The rest, politically discredited, have been dismissed.

This hostile editorial staff recommended counterrevolutionary, anti-Marxist entries and deliberately delayed publication of the dictionary. In the entry "Organized Capitalism," for example, a detailed account is given of this counterrevolutionary theory and it is also contended that the theory failed only "as a consequence of the crash brought about by the world economic crisis and as the result of fascist rule in >democratic' Germany and other capitalistic countries." The words "Counterintelligence" and "Gestapo" are used as if they function solely within the borders of their own countries; not a word is said about their subversive anti-Soviet activities. There are counterrevolutionary concoctions in other entries written for the dictionary. An associate of Tal, the bourgeois nationalist and spy Tulepov, who edited the nationalities section, did not include in the subject matter of the dictionary such topics as "Nationalism" and "Bourgeois Nationalism."

During three years of work, 450,000 rubles were expended on preparing the dictionary. The material prepared will have to undergo serious alteration; much will have to be written all over again. The list of terms needs to be gone over and supplemented with new items resulting from the Stalin Constitution, election campaigns for the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, from changes in the international and domestic situation, resolutions of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, and events in Spain and China.

The Department of the Press and Publishing Houses of TsK VKP(b) considers it necessary to

1. Entrust leadership of all work pertaining to the publication of the political dictionary to the Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation;

2. Approve a new editorial board for the dictionary consisting of N. L. Rubinshtein, V. P. Potemkin, and Klimov (Kh. N. Kantor);

3. Approve sections editors in accordance with the enclosed list;

4. Oblige the Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation and the new editorial board to finish all the work of publishing the dictionary within a three-month period.

Director of the Department of the Press and Publishing Houses of TsK VKP(b)

L. Mekhlis

28 December 1937.