Posted by Ian E-N on March 02, 2005 at 10:56:02 from 148.88.149.8 user IanEN.
In Reply to: Re: Evgenia (was : Ransome & the British Secret Services) posted by Duncan on March 02, 2005 at 10:32:35:
Ransome regularly returned to Russia, and met many of the prominent
Bolsheviks after this time, with no apparent concern about his 'smuggling' of one of their civil servants.
as the diamonds and pearls that he and she had also smuggled had
been delivered to the relevant Parties ( rather than being used as a deposit on Lakeland property ).
Revelations From The Russian Archives
edited by D.P.Koenker and R.D.Bachman
Library of Congress. Washinton 1997
ISBN 0-84444-0891-3
Document 265 NKVD account of diamonds smuggled abroad to support foreign Communist parties, 1919
Secret
to Comrade Piatnitskii
NKVD
Business Manager
B.I.Kantorovich
October 16, 1922
E.Shelepina is the wife of Arthur Ransome. The two of them left together then,
according to the instructions given to me by Comrades Chicherin and Karakhan.
I took these valuables at the appropriate time from Comrade Ganetskii at the
People's Bank and handed them over to A.Ransome's wife, to which the list attests.
B.Kantorovich
[The above note is a later attachment to the following documents.]
No. 1512 4 diamonds 12.20 carats 150,000 rubles
No. 1510 9 diamonds 13.20 carats 158,000 rubles
No. 1443 3 diamonds 5.70 carats 69,000 rubles
No. 1510 2 diamonds 4.45 carats 45,000 rubles
No. 1510 9 diamonds 13.20 carats 152,000 rubles
No. 1443 8 diamonds 10.50 carats 115,000 rubles
No. 923 3 strands of pearls (206 pearls) 350,000 rubles
total 1,039,000 rubles
I received seven packets of diamonds and pearls totalling thirty-five diamonds
and two hundred six pearls with a total value of one million thirty-nine thousand
rubles for the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
B.Kantorovich
October 24, 1919
(Handwritten:) to receive money from Kantorovich
INVENTORY
Valuables received by me for England:
No. 1512 4 diamonds weighing 12.20 carats worth 150,000 rubles
1443 8 diamonds 10.50 carats 115,000 r
1510 2 diamonds 4.45 carats 45,000 r
1510 9 diamonds 13.20 carats 158,000 r
1510 9 diamonds 13.20 carats 152,000 r
1443 3 diamonds 5.70 carats 69,000 r
923 3 pearl strands (206 pearls) 350,000 r
in all 1,039,000 r
one million thirty-nine thousand rubles
All valuables were received in full by E.Shelepina
Moscow, October 25, 1919