Document 96

Letter from Red Navy sailor I. Kotov to Stalin on confiscations of books and postcards, 1940

RGASPI, f. 17, op. 121, d. 26, l. 43.Typewritten copy.

Dear Iosif Vissarionovich!

On 31 August an inspection of the premises aboard the battleship Marat of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet was conducted, and in the process lockers, belongings and training manuals were inspected and I don't understand why textbooks that the Red Navy sailors need were taken away and they were forced to tear them up and burn them.

Iosif Vissarionovich! I decided to describe to you how this business was organized in the artillery subunit, where the political leader was Comrade Sheptunov. [A demand that works by Stalin and Marx that the sailors purchased be turned into the ship's library has been omitted.]

Iosif Vissarionovich! Most of the sailors in our subunit had a third or fourth grade education, more than fifty percent of the personnel, many sailors had acquired textbooks, some had taken them out of the library, Red Army sailors, they said during the inspection, Aturn in all textbooks to the library, and whoever doesn't want to is to dump them out of his locker, tear them up, throw them in the sack (in the middle of the crew's quarters), carry the sack aboard the tugboat Yakobinets, which is standing alongside the battleship, and burn them.

Iosif Vissarionovich! Petty officer Kovtun of the [inspection] group found a postcard in sailor Yusov's locker which pictured you with Comrade Voroshilov in front of the Kremlin building. The petty officer asks what is this for? The sailor replies what do you mean this is allowed it's Comrades Stalin and Voroshilov. The petty officer flings the postcard onto the deck at people's feet. Comrade Stalin, why did this happen?

The sailors had postcards, they bought them in the city of Kronstadt, you and Comrade Voroshilov are in a submarine, then a postcard of Comrade Voroshilov and Comrade Kirov in military construction, and they were ordered to tear them up and throw them out, for heaven's sake why?

Iosif Vissarionovich! I had a postcard of Sergei Mironovich [Kirov] among Young Pioneers, I've had it for a long time since I was a Pioneer and I saw Sergei Mironovich a few times, but they are not allowing me to keep it, they go so far as to order me, well of course sailors are not happy to throw them in the garbage bag. I ask Comrade Sheptunov, the senior political leader, why can't we have them? What's the reason? I say these are our supreme leaders, loved by all the people and by the working people of the whole world. It's an order, says comrade political leader, an order from the People's Commissar, not to have anything extraneous. Have two or three notebooks, a textbook on the history of the peoples of the USSR, since I'm in my second year of service, and then I can also have The Short Course in the History of the VKP(b).

Iosif Vissarionovich! The crew's quarters had framed portraits of Comrades Voroshilov, Molotov and Kalinin, under glass, so they broke the frames, ripped up the portraits and burned them in the tugboat's furnace, the politburo of the VKP(b) was also framed, they gave orders to break it, rip it up and burn it [Omitted is an account of the destruction and burning of posters and slogans that the Red Navy sailors had prepared for the celebration of International Youth Day, extra blank notebooks, and so forth.].

There are a great many such examples. You ask the commanders, they reply it's an order from the People's Commissar, but Iosif Vissarionovich I don't know, I don't think the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy gave orders to break, rip up and burn the portraits of beloved great people who we sailors treasure, so why does this happen?

Comrade Stalin maybe I didn't write smoothly, but I wrote the truth about everything that I would like to say.

Red Navy sailor I. Kotov