[lbo-talk] A small piece of brown colored mass

[Chris Doss]

One of the very small number of Russia-themed blogs I
look at a lot is Sean's Russia Blog, run by Sean
Guillery, who is a PhD student at UCLA doing his
dissertation on the Komsomol in the 1920s. Sean's a
cool guy. Anyway, he came across the following amusing
historical document and translated it. Enjoy!

Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation, f. 3,
op. 3, d. 65, l. 25-26

To: Cde. Stalin
Copy to Cde. Kaganovich

On 16 October an employee of the Special Department,
Cde. Sentaretskaya, opened the daily mail addressed to
Cde. Stalin.

In one of the open packages there seemed to be a
letter with a small piece of brown colored mass, which
appeared to be excrement. According to Cde.
Sentaretskaya and other employees, a strong order
emanated from the opening of the package.

Appalled and upset Cde. Sentaretskaya, taking the
mass, carried it to the bathroom, where she threw it
in the toilet. According to her, Cde. Sentaretskaya
got dizzy upon exiting the bathroom. Entering the
room, she fell on the floor hitting the back of her
head. Coming to after several minutes, she said that
she was blind. A doctor was sent for, who looked at
Cde. Sentaretskaya and not finding any sign of injury,
declared that it was necessary that Cde. Sentaretskaya
go to the hospital for further observation and
examination.

After Cde. Sentaretskaya was taken to the Kremlin
hospital, an envelope with leftovers of the mass was
taken for examination in the NKVD laboratory.

According to the medical examination (enclosed) and
observation in the hospital Cde. Sentaretskaya’s
blindness was allegedly caused by hysteria and not
from the effects of a chemical substance.

At the present time, since 22 October her sight
gradually returned to her.

In regard to safety precautions for employees, workers
who open mail are taking the following measures.

1. Those who open mail will be provided with rubber
gloves which must be worn with opening letters.

2. A supply of disinfectants has been acquired.

26.10.1935

Deputy OS TsK Poskrebyshev

There is a resolution on the document: “To Cdes.
Molotov, Andreev, Mikoian, Kaganovich” The document
was sent to Molotov, Andreev, and Mikoian.

This document was published in Istochnik, 3, 1993.

       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. 
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/