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Letter to the People´s Commisar of Internal Affairs N. I. Yezhov* Mikhail Gerasimov** (1889-1937) __________________________________________ I am grateful to the investigation which was able to take the veil from my eyes and showed me that I was on the edge of the abyss, my face was awash with the heavy tears of repentance. I sincerely and heartfully admitted everything in the investigation. What spurred me on to do this was that I saw you, Nicolay Ivanovich. One night you looked into the room where I was giving testimony. Such an undescribable fatherly kindness shone from your eyes, such a power of light and truth emanated from you. The sun rose on the midnight horizon. I was blinded, destroyed, completely melted. I realized that in the face of such truth I could not hide a single stroke or a single dark speck of my soul. Do not destroy me. I beg for mercy. Allow me to make up for my crimes with severe but diligent work so I may have back the high, honorable title of a very old proletarian poet and citizen of the URSS. Give me the opportunity to develop my creative powers. I feel a tempestuous lyrical flowering within me and I want to be needed by the revolution with a whole series of poems and long poems. I want to put my naked heart at the feet of the leaders and the great homeland. I want to bring up four children in the spirit of unlimited love for Stalin, the greatest object of worship of humanity, whose immortal name flares with an unextinguishable flame in the hearts of the people and on the virgin snows of the pole, and with a blindly starring shining burns in the cosmic space of the world. I am overwhelmed by suffering and pain.
Prisoner Mikhail Gerasimov 18 June 37 Lubyanka
* NKVD chief at the height of Stalin's Great Purge (1936-39). He was removed of all his posts and executed in 1939. ** Russian poet, member of the Bolshevik party. He was arrested and executed in 1937.
(From "Written in Prison". XX Century.Russia") Bilingual edition - English/Russian.
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