PREFACE
40
The principal task of NEP was to ensure a strong al-
liance between the working class and the peasantry, as the
highest principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the
basis of the Soviet power. Socialist construction could not
be a success unless all the toiling peasantry was involved.
Elaborating NEP, Lenin marked out the concrete forms
of the link-up between town and country, and the ways
of rehabilitating all the branches of the national economy,
and laying the foundation of a socialist society.
Lenin tackled this intricate task after making a thorough
analysis of the political and economic state of the country,
and a deep study of the state of the peasant economy. This
volume contains a record of Lenin’s talks with the peasants
I. A. Chekunov and A. R. Shaposhnikov, and shows his
concern for boosting agriculture. Thus, in a letter to I. A.
Teodorovich, Lenin says that the combating of the drought
was a great task before the whole state (see p. 134 of this vol--
ume). It was he who initiated the decree of the Council
of Labour and Defence (C.L.D.) recognising the efforts to
combat the drought as “an undertaking of primary impor-
tance for the country’s agricultural life, and measures
taken in that direction, as being of great urgency”.
The documents contained in this volume shed light on
the activity of Lenin, the Party and the Government in
rehabilitating industry and transport, normalising the oper-
ation of the Donets coal-fields (Donbas), developing metal-
lurgy, etc. They also show Lenin’s concern for implement-
ing the GOELRO plan, and his handling of various mat-
ters arising from the construction of the Kashira, Volkhov
and other electric-power stations. Many of Lenin’s telegrams
and notes contain instructions for providing these early
projects in the Soviet electrification drive with the neces-
sary materials, equipment and foodstuffs.
One of the most complicated tasks in the first year of
NEP was establishing normal economic ties and starting
an exchange of goods between industry and agriculture. The
documents in this volume reveal Lenin’s role in solving
the tasks of developing domestic and foreign trade, and
creating a stable financial and monetary system on that
basis. He wrote: “The important, the most important, the
basic task is to make a practical start on this.” It is the only
41
PREFACE
way to transform NEP into “a base for socialism, a base
which, this being a peasant country, no power on earth can
vanquish” (pp. 446, 477).
Lenin gave concrete instructions on measures to develop
trade, called for information on the growth of trade, espe-
cially in the countryside, and welcomed the successes- of
the co-operative movement. He devoted much attention to
matters of financial policy, the need for regular stock-
taking of commodities throughout the state, kept an eye
on the state of the gold reserve, and urged its sparing
use.
The crop failure of 1921 brought about starvation for
millions of people in the country, especially in the
Volga area. One of the urgent tasks of the Soviet state
was to organise famine relief. Documents in this volume
reflect the main measures taken by the Party and the
Government to muster and correctly distribute the domestic
foodstuff resources, create a stock of goods to be exchanged
for grain, improve the supply of food from the grain-rich
gubernias, and the purchase of foodstuffs abroad.
The Soviet Government resolutely opposed every attempt
on the part of world imperialism to make use of the famine
to put political pressure to bear on the Soviet Republic,
and Lenin’s letters show him exposing these imperialist
manoeuvres. In a letter to the members of the Political
Bureau, he wrote: “This game is an extremely intricate
one. There is rank duplicity on the part of America, Hoover
and the League of Nations Council” (p. 250).
Lenin devoted a great deal of attention to the working-
class movement in the capitalist countries to provide
assistance to the starving people of Russia.
A large section of the material deals with efforts to over-
come the fuel crisis. Lenin headed the C.L.D.’s fuel com-
mission, which took a number of urgent steps to increase
the extraction of coal and oil, and to extend hydraulic
peat-digging and firewood cutting.
The transition to NEP called for a restructuring of
economic management, strict practice of the principle of
democratic centralism, improvement in planning, develop-
ment of local initiative, extension of the rights of enter-
prises, introduction of material incentives and economic
PREFACE
42
accounting, and operation of enterprises at a profit. All
these matters are dealt with extensively in Lenin’s
letters.
The documents testify to Lenin’s great emphasis on the
organisation and style of work in Party, government and
economic establishments, improvement of the state appa-
ratus, reduction of staffs and running costs, and introduc-
tion of scientific principles in all its work. Lenin urged
that a struggle against bureaucracy and red tape should be
conducted “in a business-like manner, according to all the
rules of warfare”. Lenin insisted that malicious bureaucrats
should be subjected to strict administrative penalties,
removed from their posts and put on trial. Lenin repeatedly
stressed that everything depended not on institutions, but
on people and the verification of practical experience.
He called for the strict practice of the principle of col-
lective leadership, observance of Party and state disci-
pline, with personal responsibility for assignments. Lenin
himself never adopted any decisions alone on matters which
were subject to collective discussion, and took counsel with
the members of the Party’s Central Committee, the Peo-
ple’s Commissars, and other leading workers on all matters
of any importance.
Lenin marked out a programme for reconstructing the
government and economic apparatus in his “Instructions
of the Council of Labour and Defence to Local Soviet
Bodies”. A number of documents show the thoroughness
with which Lenin prepared the Instructions, the draft of
which was widely discussed.
Lenin devoted exceptional attention to the correct
selection and appointment of personnel. This is clearly seen
from his letter to Y. M. Yaroslavsky of December 24, 1921,
concerning a prospective candidate for the post of People’s
Commissar for Agriculture. Lenin asked him to obtain answers
to the following questions as regards this comrade: “Age?
Experience? Respect of peasantry? Knowledge of economics?
Strength of mind? Brains? Loyalty to the Soviet power?”
(pp. 419-20). Lenin valued vigorous men, who had knowl-
edge and displayed initiative. He sharply condemned
“administration by fiat”, the ordering of people about, and
rudeness to colleagues and subordinates; he fought against
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