707. To A. I. RYKOV AND A. D. TSYURUPA
26.IV.1922
Top secret
Comrades Rykov and Tsyurupa
I am sending you Varga’s German letter.
I am sure that we have a great many scandalous things of this kind.
Varga is apparently right (I have written to him to say that in future he must let me know his informant’s name). Please appoint (through Krestinsky? or otherwise) a strict inquiry at Berlin to catch the guilty persons at this B.F.S.T. and then to reorganise it radically.
Make sure that Yevgeny Varga is on the commission for inquiry and restructuring.[1]
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
Chairman, C.P.C.
Notes
[1] On the commission to examine the activity of the B.F.S.T. (Bureau for Foreign Science and Technology) were Y. B. Pashukanis, Y. S. Varga (representing the embassy), V. N. Ipatiev, M. Y. Lapirov-Skoblo, B. E. Stuynkel (representing the S.E.C.) and V. V. Starkov (representing the foreign trade mission).
In its conclusion, the commission described the state of the B.F.S.T., making a number of criticisms, and came out in favour of retaining it but on a much smaller scale.