Letter from the old Bolshevik M. S. Olminsky to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR V. I. Lenin on the issue of ensuring the safety of the valuables of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin (May 7, 1922)

Abstract

In the autumn of 1921 — in the spring of 1922, the Soviet government initiated a large-scale confiscation campaign. The jewels brought to Moscow from all over the country were destined for subsequent sale on the foreign market. Seizures were made (among other things) from operating liturgical buildings and prayer rooms of various denominations, as well as from some museums. Employees of the Main Committee for Museum Affairs and the Protection of Ancient Art and Nature Monuments of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR took part in the seizure procedure. Museum workers interpreted the normative documents in force at that time as the right of the museum community to fundamentally influence the course and scale of the confiscation process (up to the right of veto). Party and Soviet functionaries were convinced that among the museum workers there were many persons closely associated with church circles, counter-revolutionary seeking to disrupt the work of seizing church gold. On May 7, 1922, in the midst of a “conflict” between museum staff and state structures, the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR V. I. Lenin receives a letter from M. S. Olminsky, one of the oldest figures in the Russian revolutionary movement, about the need to prevent the possibility of theft of the values of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin by museum workers. For the first time we publish 6 documents concerning the discussion. These documents were found in the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History among the materials of one of the “thematic folders” of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RKP(b) — VKP(b) — CPSU: 21st “group of documents”. The archivalsources clarify the role played by the Glavmuseum (and its local branches) in saving the country’s cultural heritage during the large-scale confiscation measures of 1921–1922.