On instruction from the Committee on Arts Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers, the USSR Muzfond publishing house has released 400 copies of the score (libretto and music) of V. Muradeli's opera Commissar Extraordinary (libretto by G. Mdivani). This opera is being prepared for performance at the present time by about twenty of the country's opera theaters, including the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. This opera will be the principal work staged in opera theaters for the thirtieth anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution.

The Propaganda Administration has familiarized itself with the content of this opera and feels that it is faulty and gives a distorted notion of the Bolsheviks' struggle in the northern Caucasus in the years 1919–1920 and of the revolutionary activities of Com. Ordzhonikidze during those years.

The content of this opera in brief is the following: a young Lezgin, Murtaz, and a Cossack girl, Galina, fall in love at first sight. As he is trying to get into the encampment for a tryst with Galina, Murtaz kills a sentry and hides in Galina's house. Cossacks appear at the dwelling led by the White Guard officer Pomazov. They are looking for Murtaz and express their hatred for the mountain dwellers who have risen up at Ordzhonikidze's call to the defense of Soviet power. Pomazov is calling for a struggle against the mountain dwellers and for the murder of Ordzhonikidze (the commissar extraordinary). Galina's mother discovers Murtaz in the house by accident. Galina's furious father, Fedor, and the other Cossacks fall upon Murtaz. However, Pomazov, learning of Murtaz's love for Galina, suggests to Murtaz that he kill Ordzhonikidze, for which he promises to arrange his marriage to Galina. The entire specified scene (chorus, orchestra) creates a distorted notion, as if all the Cossacks rose up as a monolithic reactionary mass against Soviet power.

Murtaz sets out for the mountains, where in his father's hut he meets Ordzhonikidze, who is calling upon the mountain dwellers to rise up. In contrast to the previous scene, the mountain peoples are shown in this scene as a unified revolutionary mass. The opera's authors show no class differentiation among the mountain dwellers. And if in the previous scene all the Russians, in the grip of the somber emotion of vengeance, are depicted only in black, then all the mountain dwellers are shown in idyllic tones, as bearers of a bright, progressive principle.

That night, Murtaz's father has him guide Ordzhonikidze out of the village. En route, Murtaz fires at Ordzhonikidze, but misses. In a cave where mountain shepherds are sheltering from a storm, Murtaz shows up, followed by Ordzhonikidze. To Murtaz's surprise, Ordzhonikidze extends his hand to him and says: “You have a strong arm, comrade, but a bad aim.” After talking with the mountain dwellers, Ordzhonikidze goes to bed, demonstratively turning his back to Murtaz. In the next scene, Murtaz repents his action and true to his love for Galina once again comes to the Cossack encampment. For incomprehensible reasons, Galina's father greets Murtaz joyously, from his short aria we learn about his unexpected defection to Ordzhonikidze's side. However, Fedor's and Murtaz's joy is premature: Pomazov shows up and demands that Murtaz keep his promise to kill the commissar, threatening otherwise to take his revenge on Galina. The final scene depicts “The Gathering of the Peoples,” of which the bulk shown are dzhigit [skilled horse riders] mountain dwellers and the rest are a group of Cossacks and Red Army soldiers who have turned up seemingly from nowhere. Everyone joyously greets Ordzhonikidze. Pomazov is present, and seeing that Murtaz has not kept his promise, fires at Ordzhonikidze himself. Murtaz shields the commissar with his body and dies from Pomazov's bullet.

In this concluding scene, the authors show that the leading revolutionary force is not the Russian people but the mountain dwellers (Lezgins and Ossetians). With the exception of the young girl Galina, who participates only in the development of the love intrigue, we do not meet a single positive Russian character in the opera. Ordzhonikidze is developed not as the leader of the Bolshevik-oriented mountain-dwelling and Cossack poor, not as the organizer of partisan struggle in Denikin's rear, as actually happened, but merely as the leader of the mountain dwellers. In addition, in several arias Ordzhonikidze mentions that he is the envoy of Lenin and Stalin.

It should be noted as well that if the music characterizing the commissar and the mountain dwellers makes broad use of national melodies and is, on the whole, successful, the musical characterization of the Russians lacks any national coloring, is pale, and one often hears alien oriental intonations.

For my part, I would consider it essential to confiscate the published scores of Commissar Extraordinary and instruct the Committee on Arts Affairs (Com. Khrapchenko) to ban work on the opera based on the published score.