Enclosed please find a sealed file from the prisoner RAZUMOVA-KHIGEROVICH, Anna Lazarevna addressed to you, with the reference information on her.

ENCLOSURE: as described.

DEPUTY HEAD OF THE SPECIAL DEPARTMENT OF THE NKVD USSR

COPY.

TO THE MEMBER OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF THE USSR GEORGY MIKHAILOVICH DIMITROV.

From the prisoner RAZUMOVA-KHIGEROVICH, A. L. In the Ukhta women's corrective labor camp, Komi ASSR Ukhta, OLP 7.

On 7 April 1938, I was arrested in Moscow by NKVD organs and, thirteen months later, on 5 May 1939, I was sentenced by the Military Board of the Supreme Court of the USSR to fifteen years in a corrective labor camp under articles 58-II, 6, 7, 8 or 9 (I do not remember) over 17. I did not plead guilty during the trial. To the question of the chairman of the trial, What was correct in the indictment? I replied: “I consider correct only the names of people who worked in the ECCI apparatus and whom I could not but know, since I have worked in that apparatus for eleven years in a row.” I learned specifically about what I was charged with only on 30 April 1939, five days before the trial. During the thirteen months in prison and in the course of daily interrogations, I was not charged with anything. They only suggested that I write a statement in Yezhov's name admitting my “crimes.” Since I have never committed any crimes, in deed or even in thought, it is clear that I could not sign such a statement. These “suggestions” were accompanied by daily beatings, insults, and mockery. The interrogations lasted: one for eleven days in a row; others for three days with fifteen–twenty-minute breaks to eat. During all these interrogations, I had to stand on my feet without any sleep. I suffered from hallucinations, and my feet swelled so much that I was unable to move them. However, all the physical torture could not break me. The moral suffering was the hardest. I was afraid to mention any name because whatever person I could refer to, it was said about him that he was a well-known spy, etc. I mentioned a number of facts that proved my genuine attitude toward work. In particular, I mentioned all the documents that I had sent from abroad that dealt with shortcomings in the work of our apparatus. I was sure that all these materials were held in the Cadres Department or in the Eastern Secretariat. To name a few: my reports on the colonial affairs (about provocation in Indochina with photographs of the provocateurs; about provocation in the Arab Communist Parties in Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine; references for the colonial workers sent to me in Paris, indicating the inadmissibility of sending such people); reports on the Trotskyists in Spain, about the volunteers from the French and other Communist Parties; reports on the inefficient work of the OMS, about poorly written documents, etc. Finally, a series of reports sent to you personally about the inefficient work of some of the workers in the apparatus that could negatively affect all our work. I said that during eleven years of work in the ECCI apparatus (among them, eight years abroad working in the underground), there was not a single failure of any person that I worked with, or of my own. You know about the nature of my trips and of the assignments that I fulfilled. You know that if I had practiced treason in any form, the results of it would have been terrible, and it would have been impossible not to know about it. To all my attempts to defend myself, they responded that I was lying and that the materials to which I was referring did not exist in the ECCI, that the Cadres Department had supposedly informed [them] that they had received nothing from me. These conversations and everything that was going on provoked strange thoughts in my mind: as if there were indeed, in the ECCI apparatus, some enemies who were destroying all of the carefully collected materials that had helped us to restructure [our] work and get rid of provocateurs and Trotskyist elements. It seemed to me that it was essential to remember, to reconstruct, [in order to] to inform the NKVD and the Comintern. Having refused to write a statement to Yezhov, I asked for paper to write about everything. They told me that they would give me paper if I would write a statement to Yezhov as though I knew something about being a member of a counterrevolutionary organization within the Comintern. They even dictated to me the text of such a statement. I again refused to write it, and the investigator again slapped me and threw a stone paperweight at me. After that I stood for eleven days without sleep, was mocked during the day, and was regularly beaten at night. They beat me with the armrests of a chair and punched me in the chest, and then let me stay for one night in my cell. Then these terrible interrogations resumed. My only wish was to commit suicide so as not to remember that I was in a Soviet prison, that I was being tortured and accused of betraying my motherland, which I love more than anything else and to which I have been faithful despite everything. After lengthy consideration, I decided that it was necessary to somehow inform the Comintern and the NKVD about what they supposedly did not know. I decided to obtain paper by writing the statement to Yezhov and later to write another statement to Yezhov from my cell stating that if it was necessary to sacrifice myself in order to reveal what I had to tell, I was ready to do it. I thought that they would shoot me, that I alone would suffer, but [at least] the NKVD would learn how badly prepared for the war our apparatus is, how saturated our apparatus abroad is (in short, everything that I informed about after each trip abroad). And so I did. I wrote the statement dictated by the investigator and got the paper that I had tried so hard to obtain. I started writing. [However,] they ripped up my testimony and instead gave me a plan to follow in which I had to describe everything from the viewpoint of a member of a counterrevolutionary organization within the ECCI. In reply to the question of who sent me to China, France, Spain, etc., they would put, not some ECCI workers, but a member of a counterrevolutionary organization within the ECCI; all the documents and travel money I received [came] not from the appropriate ECCI workers but from the members of a counterrevolutionary organization. In general, all my work ties, relations, and assignments were portrayed as ties and relations within a counterrevolutionary organization. It was reflected in the examination record as follows:

“Q.—Who provided you with money to travel?”

“Ans.—Melnikov and Gregor [Grgur Vujović].” (The examination record: “Money for counterrevolutionary activities received from the members of Melnikov's counterrevolutionary organization, etc.”). Could I go abroad without money, without documents? Who but the responsible workers of the ECCI apparatus could have provided me with all this? Thus, all my work, all my life, all my connections—all of it became counterrevolutionary, although I have never been a member of a counterrevolutionary organization and never even suspected its existence in the ECCI system.

However, despite the totally inadmissible methods of interrogation, I still believed those NKVD officials because I thought it impossible that within the NKVD there were entrenched enemies of the people who were interested in perverting the truth. If that had been the case, I would have behaved differently during the interrogations. I had gotten used to being mentally ready to be captured by fascists, and I knew how to behave at a fascist trial. But here I treated my investigators as comrades whom I had to help to cleanse the party and the country of all sorts of garbage. I could not even think about meeting insult with insult or defending myself when I was beaten, or yelling and cursing the way they did. Only on 30 April 1939, five days before the trial, was I able to read the indictment. I demanded to see the prosecutor for an explanation. They promised me [a meeting], but they never fulfilled that promise. The indictment states that I was recruited into the counterrevolutionary organization by Fokin, that I spied for all the [capitalist] countries, that I plotted something against Manuilsky, etc. I do not remember the details because I only read that rubbish once and was indignant at this material that had nothing to do with me. I never read the verdict, I listened to it as something unrelated to me personally, I did not even remember the article under which I was accused. My file contains testimony by Fokin, Brigader, Melnikov, Rylsky, and some Korean (I do not remember his name)—I think this is it.

Fokin says that he recruited [me] into the counterrevolutionary organization in order to obtain information about colonial work. According to him, I was supposed to pass that information over to Grant. I have never had either revolutionary or counterrevolutionary ties to Fokin. I knew him only because he worked in the KIM and later in the Eastern Department of the Profintern, and I attended the same meetings of the Eastern Secretariat that he attended, and lived in the [Hotel] Lux as he did. Grant was an analyst in the Eastern Secretariat of the Profintern specializing in Indochina, and we used to exchange newspapers from Indochina since we subscribed to different newspapers to save money. This was before my trip to France, which means in 1930. From 1931 to [my] arrest, i.e., for eight years, I neither heard of nor saw those people.

Also, Brigader testified that he had heard from somebody that Arnot had recruited me to spy for England. I have never talked with Brigader or with Arnot about anything but work. I informed you about Brigader shortly before he was arrested. He had provided the NKVD with incorrect information about the American Negro Haiswood, having concealed that the latter was a member of the Lovestone group.

Melnikov testified that he had given me money for trips abroad. Rylsky informed [the court] that he had provided me with a passport, and so on. Both these facts are correct. These people were in charge of providing money and passports, and I received everything necessary from them, not as the members of a counterrevolutionary organization but as workers of the ECCI apparatus. The examination record contains my answers to the question What goals did the counterrevolutionary, rightist-Trotskyist bloc set for itself? All of the Soviet people knew about it, and I knew about it. I described the tasks of the counterrevolutionary organization in the Comintern the way it was depicted at party meetings and at meetings of the ECCI Political Secretariat. It was known to every [Comintern] worker because it was discussed at our meetings.

I implore you to request this examination record for review in order to satisfy yourself of the mythical quality [legendarnost] of the whole case. For example, I was held responsible for the fact that the students who were expelled from the Chinese University were sent, in accordance with the decision of the Orgburo of the CC VKP(b) (after the purge), to work in the factories of Moscow, Vladivostok, and other cities. Of course, you realize that I played no role in that decision. I was accused of surrounding myself with provocateurs in France while I was writing protests against the people being sent to me from Moscow. Besides, being in France, I could not send back people [coming] from Moscow.

Another way to read this sentence: “I could not myself select people from Moscow.” (Trans.).

In general, everything that I wrote, everything that I did to correct the inflexibility of the Eastern Secretariat of the ECCI was turned against me. You remember my confrontation with the Arabs at the Seventh CI Congress and how you yourself dealt with it. That conflict is clear proof that I was fighting for the ECCI line, not for them.

I cannot lay out in sufficient detail everything that I was charged with. Since then, seven years have passed, and I have neither the verdict nor the indictment, and I was interrogated round the clock daily for thirteen months. If I had indeed committed some crime, I would have clearly remembered what it consisted of. However, since I did nothing [wrong], I could not remember this myth.

I know that Moskvin is to blame for my arrest. I stated it at the session of the trial by the Military Board, and it is written down in the minutes. Moskvin several times (jokingly) threatened me with arrest.

I ask you to initiate a petition to review my case. I have little faith that it will be successful, but maybe our procurator and the Supreme Court will be able to investigate all these problems better than before the war. In any case, whatever the result of this appeal may be, nothing can possibly change my attitude toward the party and the Soviet government. I have been, and will be, loyal to them until the end of my days. Unfortunately, I cannot prove my devotion with anything but my work. Therefore, despite repeated offers to change my work assignment, I continue to perform hard physical labor [as I have done] for all these seven years, dedicating the last of my strength to it. Even in dying, I will be able to say to myself that, even under the worst circumstances, I glorified the party and Soviet power, and gave all my efforts to them.