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Inquiry from the procurator of the USSR, Bochkov, to Dimitrov regarding Petko N. Petkov, and Dimitrov's reply

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By Bochkov, Viktor Mikhailovich Dimitrov, Georgi Dimitrovich

Enemies Within the Gates?: The Comintern and the Stalinist Repression, 1934-1939

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Document 64

Inquiry from the procurator of the USSR, Bochkov, to Dimitrov regarding Petko N. Petkov, and Dimitrov's reply, 13 October 1940–21 January 1941. RGASPI, f. 495, op. 73, d. 122, ll. 7–10. Original in Russian. Typewritten on letterhead with handwritten notations.

[Written by Dimitrov: To c. Bogdanov, c. Belov. Prepare an answer. 19.11.40 G.D.] TOP SECRET “13” October 1940

The letter was received in Dimitrov's Secretariat on 16 November 1940.

No. 55373 TO THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMINTERN com. DIMITROV

[In response] to your No. 377 of 17 July 1940.

On 11 July 1940, Dimitrov sent a letter to the procurator of the USSR, M. Pankratov, in response to his 16 June 1940 request for information about Petkov. That letter contained a brief biography of Petkov and a letter of reference from the delegation of the Bulgarian CP in the ECCI. It stressed that the delegation did not believe that Petkov could commit an “anti-Soviet or anti-party act.” Mikhail Ivanovich Pankratov was the procurator of the USSR in 1939–1940. On 7 August 1940, Viktor Mikhailovich Bochkov was named the procurator of the USSR. Bochkov must have made a mistake when he referred to Dimitrov's letter. Dimitrov's letter to Pankratov (No. 377) was dated 11 July 1940 and sent on that day. Three copies were made; two of them are stored in Dimitrov Secretariat's file.

Due to a need that has arisen in connection with the continuing verification of the case of PETKOV, Petko Nikolov (aka YANTAROV, Ognian), please provide

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the information that you have about PETKOV's signals regarding the unmasking of individuals with counterrevolutionary moods.

In his declarations and testimony, Petkov states that between 1934 and 1937 he wrote multiple declarations exposing a number of individuals as enemies of the party, in particular: In late 1934 or early 1935, [he] sent a statement to the Foreign Bureau of the CPBul [Bulgarian CP] and to the International Control Commission in which he outlined the anti-party actions of GENCHEV, Khristo.

In August 1937, [he] sent a statement to the Bulgarian section of the ECCI regarding the anti-party moods of the former worker of the CC VKP(b) YURDAN-MARIN.

Presumably Yurdan T. Tutundzhiev, who is discussed below.

In an August 1937 statement sent to you, he informed [you] about the anti-Soviet, Trotskyist declarations of PAPENCHEV (ATANASOV), Boyan Ivanovich, who was his predecessor at work. In August 1937 [he sent] to the Foreign Bureau of the CPBul a statement exposing the anti-Soviet moods of certain individuals. If PETKOV indeed sent such statements, please send copies of them.

In addition to this, please send a copy of PETKOV's 1937 statement in which he condemns the factional policy of the former sectarian leadership (ISKROV-BOIKOV-ROSSEN, etc.)

The case of the so-called factionalist, left-sectarian group of Iskrov, Boikov, Rassen, B. Popov, B. Tanev, and other Bulgarians who were members of the VKP was falsified by the NKVD. In 1941 the Military Board of the Supreme Court of the USSR convicted the former head of the Sixth Department of the Main Board of State Security of the NKVD, V. S. Bril, for falsifying this case.

and criticizes himself for failing to actively participate in exposing the promoters of this line.

PROCURATOR OF THE USSR

BOCHKOV

[Dimitrov's reply:]

Sent on 21.I.41 in package No. 11

Tatarenko

Top secret.

TO THE PROCURATOR OF THE USSR

COM. BOCHKOV.

[In response] to No. 55373 of 13 November 1940, I inform you that in his letter of 22 August to the CPB[ul] delegation in the ECCI, PETKOV, Petko Nikolov, wrote: “In order to clearly present my political essence, I consider it necessary, although to the detriment of secrecy, to convey to you the following regarding my activities, if I can call it such, to unmask counterrevolutionary, Trotskyist bandit-spies.

1. I exposed the Trotskyist spy Boyan Ivanovich Papenchev (Atanasov) to NKVD organs. I exposed him in such a way that, through him, a large number of our other Bulgarian Trotskyists and spies were exposed. I had already declared everything in my statement to the NKVD on 20 May 1936, i.e., before the Kamenev and Zinoviev trial. He was a scoundrel who got in with our leaders and did nasty things behind their backs.

2. Georgy,

Probably Georgy Tsanev.

if I am not mistaken, was a carpenter from Plevna, a Trotskyist double-dealer, the same kind of a scoundrel. I exposed him already in late

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1934 or early 1935. I sent [my] statement to c. Iskrov through Yankov. He was put on trial a long time ago, and it is known to c. Boian Bolgarinov.

3. In my statement of 20 May 1936 about Papanchev, I pointed out evidence against Pyatnitsky, which helped guide the NKVD to the final unmasking of Pyatnitsky.

4. With my statement [sent] to the party collegium (com. Katchenko), I exposed the former SR Kenig, director of the party house.

I consider it unnecessary to write about those people whom I have already exposed, but I am not sure whether they have been arrested or are still being investigated by NKVD organs.

Comrades, by telling you some of what I have done to expose the Trotskyist bandit-spies I am far from boasting before you, and I do not think that I did something heroic. I only fulfilled my duty to the party and workers. I feel very uncomfortable talking with you about it, but I was compelled to … .

Ask the following comrades: 1.) Andreev, the former deputy people's commissar of the NKVD in Kazakhstan, currently head of the Sixth NKVD Department in Moscow. 2.) People's Commissar of the Internal Affairs c. Yezhov. 3.) Katchenko, member of the party collegium in Alma-Ata.”

Since PETKOV stated in his letter that he had exposed Papanchev and others directly to NKVD organs, the delegation considered it unnecessary to forward PETKOV's statements anywhere.

In addition, the representative [to the ECCI] received PETKOV's letter of 26 August 1937, in which he accused c. Yurdan Tutundzhiev of supposedly counterrevolutionary declarations, about which he learned from Papanchev (aka Atanasov) and from someone else, whom Petkov did not remember.

The representative did not forward the statement about Yurdan Tutundzhiev anywhere because the contents of this statement are a stupid insinuation and slander by the already arrested Papanchev against c. Tutundzhiev. The CPBul delegation in the ECCI knows c. Tutundzhiev well and considers the statements attributed to Tutundzhiev by Papanchev to be impossible.

The delegation received two letters from PETKOV, on 28 January 1935 and on 11 June 1935, in which he accuses Khr. Genchev of “desertion (he had left Bulgaria supposedly without the party's permission), careerism, and moral degeneration.” These letters by PETKOV were sent to the International Control Commission.

PETKOV wrote about himself in a letter of 26 August 1937, a copy of which is enclosed.

ENCLOSURE: Copy of a letter from PETKOV of 26 August 1937.

The original of this letter could not be found.

(for the addressee only)

p/p DIMITROV. G. M. “21” January 1941.

No. 579.

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Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleInquiry from the procurator of the USSR, Bochkov, to Dimitrov regarding Petko N. Petkov, and Dimitrov's reply

AuthorBochkov, Viktor Mikhailovich; Dimitrov, Georgi Dimitrovich

RecipientDimitrov, Georgi Dimitrovich; Bochkov, Viktor Mikhailovich

RepositoryRGASPI

ID #f.495, op.73, d.122, ll.7-10

DescriptionN/A

Date1941 Jan 21

AOC VolumeEnemies Within the Gates?: The Comintern and the Stalinist Repression, 1934-1939

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