Lenin's purge of anti-Soviet intellectuals was sparked by a letter from the minister of health (since 1918), N. A. Semashko. Semashko, himself a physician, was upset by the "anti-Soviet” attitude of the Congress of Physicians in May of 1922, prompting him to send, on May 23, 1922, the following letter to Lenin:
To Comrade Lenin and Members of the Politburo:
Respected comrades. The recent All-Russian Conference of Physicians took such a significant and dangerous turn that I consider it necessary to inform you about tactics being used with success by Kadets, Monarchists, and Social Revolutionaries [three opposition parties]. My information suggests this tendency is wide-spread not only among doctors but among other specialists (agronomists, engineers, technicians and lawyers). Even responsible persons do not recognize the danger.
What went on at the Congress can be summarized as follows: 1. A movement against Soviet medicine, 2. The demand for "freely" elected officials and grassroots independent organizations (an exact resolution of the Congress) according to formulations advanced by Kadets, Monarchists, and Social Revolutionaries, 3. A clear intent to remain outside the professional worker movement, and, 4. An intent to organize independent publishing organizations.
Semashko proposed limiting the independence of professional organizations, banning independent publishing, and imposing the obligation to practice "Soviet" medicine. He ends his letter to Lenin: "The removal of those Monarchist and Social Revolutionary doctors [gives their names] making presentations from positions of leadership should be agreed with the OGPU." In other words, the offending "anti-Soviet" physicians were to be dealt with by the secret police.
Lenin directed the letter to Stalin, who, in his position as General Secretary of the Central Committee, submitted it to the Politburo. Lenin's handwritten "question" for the Politburo reads:
Comrade Stalin. I believe it necessary to show this letter to Dzerzhinskii [the head of the OGPU] with extreme secrecy (no copies) and to all members of the Politburo and to prepare a directive: "To direct Dzerzhinskii's OGPU to work out measures with the assistance of Semashko and to report to the Politburo (two-week deadline?)"
Stalin submitted Lenin's proposal for a Politburo vote (for repression of physicians) on the same day. Lenin's proposal, which opened the door for the suppression of any type of independent thinking or inquiry, received approval from all Politburo members (Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Aleksei Rykov, and V. M. Molotov) except the handwritten abstention from Mikhail Tomskii (the trade union head): "I withhold my vote because the issue of the Congress of Physicians needs to be presented in a different framework. We are guilty ourselves for much of this and Semashko is the most guilty."
Following the Politburo decree, Dzerzhinskii submitted to the Politburo (within the required two-week period) his OGPU report "About Anti-Soviet Groupings Among the Intelligentsia," which identified a wide range of "anti-Soviet activities in professional organizations,
Poster of Lenin sweeping away marginals and former people, entitled "Lenin purges the land of the unclean."
Universities, scientific societies, administrative conferences, and in trusts, cooperatives, and trade organizations.”1
On the basis of Dzerzhinskii's report, the Politburo issued a "Decree About Anti-Soviet Groupings Among the Intelligentsia” of June 8, 1922, which called for "filtering” incoming university students with strict limits on non-proletarians and checks of political reliability, restrictions of meetings of students and of professors, and bans on independent publishing activities. These checks were to be carried out by the OGPU, the personnel administrations of the higher education ministry, and the political department of the state publishing office.
The June 8, 1922, Politburo decree created a special "conference” comprised of representatives of the ministry of foreign affairs and justice department empowered "to exile abroad or to points within Russia, if a more stern punishment is not required.” A commission comprised of a Politburo member (Kamenev), a ranking OGPU official (Unshlikht), and a high official of the revolutionary-military tribunal (Kurskii) was to do the final review of the list of leaders of hostile intellectual groups to be punished and the list of publishing operations to be closed.
What started as an operation against "non-communist” physicians broadened into a general witch hunt against intellectuals and professionals.
The Politburo received the list of offending physicians on June 22. It took until July 20 for the special conference to submit the names of anti-Soviet intellectuals, but the Politburo declared its work "unsatisfactory because of the small size of the list and insufficient substantiation.” On the same day, Stalin received an urgent request from the OGPU to speed things up because word of impending arrests was circulating both within the country and in emigre circles.2 A list of 186 names of anti-Soviet intellectuals was submitted on August 2, 1922, by the OGPU representative, apparently based upon a selection committee meeting of July 22. They were scheduled for arrest and then were to be deported.
The list of 186 doctors, engineers, professors, and literary figures does not follow a uniform format. The most complete cases give the name and address, the charge, and the vote of the commission, often based upon the recommendation of the personnel department of the organization for which the person worked. The sentence, in the majority of cases, was exile abroad, although a number, particularly physicians, were exiled to remote regions where they were to practice medicine. In some cases, the commission decided that the person represented no danger and was not scheduled for punishment, but the name remained on the list anyway ("The commission is against exile because he is harmless”). With these few exceptions, the others were scheduled for internal or external exile. Among the names were:
No. 23 (in the list of those investigated under case 813). Abrikosov, V. V.: A priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Moscow. The son of the owner of a confectionary factory. The initiator of illegal meetings of Catholics in his home for the unification of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. A close friend of the Patriarch Tikhon and the head of the Catholic congregation in Petrograd. Carry out a search and arrest and send him abroad. He lives at Prechistenskii Boulevard House 29, Apartment 3.
No. 9 (in the list of "anti-Soviet intelligentsia” in Petrograd). Zamiatin, E. I.: a concealed White Guardist. Author of an illegal resolution, which he presented at the House of Literature, in which he defamed Andrei Bely for his defense of the fatherland. He is fully against Soviet power in his writings. He is a close colleague of the enemy Remizov, who has already fled. Remizov is a known enemy and Zamiatin is as well. If he is sent abroad, he could become a dangerous leader. It is necessary to send him to Novgorod or Kursk; in no case can he be sent abroad.
No. 31 (in the list of agronomists and workers of cooperative enterprises). Kondrat'ev, N. D., Professor: Noted and close collaborator of "Journal of Agricultural Economics”—an organ of anti-Soviet agronomists. A Social Revolutionary involved in the case of the "Tactical Center.” Sentenced to death for participation in the "Union of Rebirth.” Death sentence changed to prison. Maintains ties with Social Revolutionaries although he officially left the party. Arrest and exile abroad. The entire commission is in favor.3
Eight days later (August 10), the Politburo accepted the list, ordering the OGPU to arrest the most dangerous and place the others under house arrest.4 On August 22, the ever accurate OGPU submitted a budget to Stalin for the projected cost of exiling 217 persons abroad. On August 22 and again on August 26, 1922, the OGPU sent Stalin reports on the progress of the exile campaign with statistics on arrests, exiles, and numbers held in prisons, house arrest, or released on their own recognizance after agreeing to pay the cost of exile.
Not all sentences were carried out. Kondratyev, instead of being sent abroad, was held in a prison. According to OGPU reports, of the 67 Moscow intellectuals scheduled for exile, 12 were under house arrest, 14 were in prisons, six had not been arrested, and 21 were on their own recognizance. The most active and dangerous intellectuals were exiled in convoys of six.5
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