Document 53

Letter of denunciation from S. A. Drakin to TsK, 18 August 1936

RGASPI, f. 17, op. 100, d. 39599. l. 9. Original letter.

How are you, Ivan Alekseevich? I send you greetings from the North Caucasus and congratulate you on your recovery.

I write as a senior comrade wanting to share the following with you:

Having learned from the press how the Trotskyite-Zinovievite gang continues its counterrevolutionary work proceeding now to terror, making attempts on the lives of our leaders, organizing counterrevolutionary groups [The sentence is grammatically incorrect in the original-- Trans]. The press speaks about the unmasking of a counterrevolutionary group at the Kharkov Locomotive Works where participation in and complicity of members of the party has been brought to light. That has compelled me to write you and to cite an example of protection of a Menshevik and a Trotskyite on the part of party member Comrade Aleksandr Davidovich Bruskin, appointed Deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry from 8/7/36. His protection of these individuals consisted of the following:

Bruskin, after graduating from the Kharkov Technological Institute, worked at the Kharkov Locomotive Works together with his Institute comrades Efros, who has been expelled from the Party for being a Menshevik, and Dusavitsky, who was expelled from the Party for being an ardent Trotskyite. When Comrade Bruskin was transferred to the Kharkov Tractor Plant, Efros and Dusavitsky also transferred there to work, and this protection expressed itself even more obviously in the following example: After Comrade Kirov was killed by the Trotskyite Nikolaev, Trotskyite Dusavitsky transferred from the Kharkov Tractor Plant to the Cheliabinsk Tractor Plant, where Comrade Bruskin at the time was director, though Comrade Bruskin was well aware that Dusavitsky was a Trotskyite. Perhaps I am mistaken about something or other, Ivan Alekseevich, but I wanted so badly to share my thoughts with a senior comrade since at the current moment one needs to be more sensitive and vigilant.

Respectfully with comradely and Communist greetings,

S. Drakin.

Ivan Alekseevich, you must be surprised when you see who has written you this letter. I think you'll recall me. When you were chairman of the Provincial Department of Miners in Artemovsk and later chairman of the VUK [Vseukrainskogo komiteta (All-Ukrainian Committee)] of miners, I was the representative of the students of the Mining Departments in the city of Kharkov since at the time I was studying at the Kharkov Technological Institute. I had often to discuss certain questions with you concerning student matters, and that's why I decided to approach you now. I await your response.