According to archival evidence (OGPU informer's report, 11 July 1931), Stalin read "For Future Use" carefully after its publication, adding marginal comments about the author ("fool, idiot, scoundrel") and his literary style ("this isn't Russian but some incomprensible nonsense") to his copy of the magazine. In a note to the publishers, the "Krasnaya nov" monthly, Stalin described Platonov as "an agent of our enemies" and suggested in a postscript that the author and other "numbskulls" (i.e. the editors) should be punished in such a way that the punishment served them "for future use".