YAKOV SVERDLOV (1885 - 1919) Bolshevik party leader and an official of pre-Soviet Union Soviet Russia. A close ally of Lenin, Sverdlov played an important role in persuading leading Bolsheviks to accept the controversial decisions to close down the Constituent Assembly and ordered the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family on July 16, 1918. Very rare A.L.S. as Chairman of the Central Committee on official letterhead, 1p. 4to., Moscow, June 17, 1918, to Lev Davidovich (very possibly Leon Trotsky), in Russian. Largely untranslated but makes reference to Comrades Moshzharov and Shevchenko being given an official dispatch from the Central Committee permitting them to travel to the Don River. Pinholes at left margin, with a large blue docket across text, else very good.