537. TELEGRAM TO G. Y. ZINOVIEV

First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXIV. Printed from the original. · page 349

28. II. 1920

Zinoviev
Petrograd

Pokrovsky tells me that the library of the former Free Economic Society^[1] is being pilfered and books are even being burned. I emphatically request you to verify this, put a stop to the scandal, and let me have the name of the responsible local inspector. Have him send me without delay an official telegram re fulfilment.

Lenin

Notes

[1] The Free Economic Society was founded in 1765, with the object, as laid down in its statutes, “of disseminating within the country information useful for agriculture and industry”. The society carried out surveys by questionnaires and expeditions for studying various branches of the economy and regions of the country.   It possessed a large library of some 200,000 volumes. After the October Revolution the library became part of the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad.