26 APRIL 2008, Page 25

Ideological fanaticism

Sir: Igor Toronyi-Lalic (Arts, 19 April) correctly raises the question of fanaticism of some ideological movements. According to him, in the 1920s the USSR was advocating struggle against capitalists even in space. When the Red army in 1919 invaded Estonia, Lenin instructed them to execute all Estonian capitalists on the spot. On the question of who should be regarded as capitalists, he said: pharmacists, shopkeepers, lawyers, civil servants, librarians, policemen, teachers and similar.

Oleg Gordievsky

London WC1