Stalin. Joseph

Autograph letter signed ("Koba"),in Russian, 1 page (4 1/2 x 7 in.; 110 x 175mm), Moscow, 29 October [1925], to Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze, a high ranking Soviet military and political leader; on stationery of Dr. V. Rozanov; washed and pressed, traces of previous mounting on verso.

This note was omitted from the official Soviet edition of Stalin's Collected Works which Stalin himself revised. According to Robert H. McNeal, "There are plausible reasons enough why Stalin chose to forget this letter, but one wishes that one know what considerations were crucial in suppressing it." "Caveat Lector. A preface to Stalin's Sochineniya, Survey." London, October 1963, p.145. Completely quoted in: Montgomery Hyde. Stalin. The History of a Dictator, London, 1971, p. 220.

Stalin makes a hospital visit. On 29 October 1925, surgery was performed on Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze at the Moscow Military Hospital. A high ranking military and political leader, Frunze replaced Leon Trotsky as Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs and as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in 1925. Stalin and Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan paid a visit to the hospital but they were not admitted to the patient's room. Stalin left Frunze an affectionate note to commemorate the visit. Signed "Koba" —Stalin's early nickname, he writes: "Dear Friend! Today at 5 p.m. we came to see comrade Rozanov (me and Mikoyan). We wanted to see you—he didn't let us, Ulcer. We had to submit to authority. Cheer up little dove! Greetings. We'll come again, we'll come again." Stalin adopted the name "Koba" after the famous Georgian outlaw who was known as a fighter for the rights of the people.

Neither Stalin nor Mikoyan ever saw Frunze alive again. Thirty hours after the operation he died. The autopsy and medical reports published in Pravda on 1 November 1925 were inconsistent and vague. The circumstances surrounding Frunze's death were so unclear and veiled, it gave rise to speculation and rumors involving Stalin. According to Trotsky and others, Frunze had displayed too much independence and countered Stalin on all too many occasions. Rumors quickly spread that the end of Frunze was deliberately engineered by Stalin.