275. TELEGRAM TO P. P. MYSHKIN

First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXIV. Printed from the original. · page 200

8. III. 1919

Myshkin, Chairman of the Gubernia Extraordinary Commission
Tsaritsyn

You cannot arrest people for disfiguring a portrait. Free   Valentina Pershikova at once, and if she is a counter– revolutionary, keep an eye on her.^[1]

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

Notes

[1] Valentina Pershikova, a member of the staff of the Tsaritsyn Housing Department, was arrested for daubing a portrait of Lenin which she had torn out of a pamphlet. Requests for Pershikova’s release were sent in telegrams to Lenin from V. S. Usachov, chief of one of the Tsaritsyn militia stations, and from Minin, a Red Army man. On Minin’s telegram Lenin wrote the following instruction to his secretary: “Remind me when the reply comes from the Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission (and afterwards hand all the material over to the topical satirists).” (Lenin Miscellany XXIV, p. 172.)