Date: 1922-02-27
Source: ru:PSS/v54

Source: PSS, Volume 54

Deputy Chairman A. D. Tsyurupa. Chairman of the All‑Union Council of National Economy
Copies: To Pyatakov (Gut*)
To Morozov (Main Torf Committee**)
To the People’s Commissariat for Finance
To the People’s Commissariat for Agricultural Affairs

I hereby issue a reprimand for failure to fulfill official duties and for the bureaucratic conduct displayed in the matter concerning Hydrotorfa.
To Comrade Pyatakov, Comrade Morozov, and Comrades Zaks and Gorbunov.

Comrade Pyatakov, acting as head of Gut, should not have “asked me to believe” (as per his letter dated February 22nd)
nor should he have “begged me either to approve Hydrotorfa’s expenditures beyond the budget or to authorize a reduction in its activities”—such a “request” directed at me reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the rudiments of state relations—but rather, he ought to have considered how best to implement the Sovnarkom resolution (not my personal directive) on Hydrotorfa, adopted on October 30, 1920, No. 309.

If Pyatakov was unaware of this resolution, then those numerous specialists at Gut—and those officials who are supposed to know their duties, to provide guidance, and to remind Pyatakov—must be placed under arrest. To fail to bring such scoundrels to justice is to condone the very bureaucracy that is strangling us.

From the Sovnarkom resolution dated October 30, 1920, it is clear that, when faced with a difficult situation, Pyatakov was not to respond with a mere memorandum bearing No. 00770 (dated February 22nd), but instead to convene—immediately, or to request that the Chairman of the All‑Union Council of National Economy, or A. D. Tsyurupa, convene—a meeting of People’s Commissars.

* Main Administration for Fuel, All‑Union Council of National Economy. Ed.

** Main Torf Committee, All‑Union Council of National Economy. Ed.

The All‑Union Council of National Economy, together with the People’s Commissariat for Finance and the People’s Commissariat for Agricultural Affairs, should promptly draft a resolution for the Council of Labor and Defense and the Sovnarkom (appropriating so much from Tsutorf* or the Main Torf Committee, allocating so much from Gut for Hydrotorfa,
approving additional funding beyond the budget, and reducing Hydrotorfa’s program by so much).

This was the task Pyatakov was duty-bound to carry out in fulfillment of the Sovnarkom resolution dated October 30, 1920,
a resolution that mandated all People’s Commissariats, in practice, to recognize Hydrotorfa

as “of extremely vital national importance” and to extend to it “all available concessions”...
Comrade Morozov was obligated to urgently petition for the convocation of such a meeting (and to protest even the slightest delay), rather than to compose a purely petty, quarrelsome note dated February 22nd (No. 184/l, incoming book: February 22, 1922), in which the author whines in an utterly inappropriate manner instead of offering constructive, businesslike proposals.

Comrades Zaks and Gorbunov, had they understood their duty as members of the administrative body,
rather than allowing themselves to be governed by a spirit of exchanging empty, trivial papers, would have been obliged to locate the Sovnarkom resolution dated October 30, 1920, and to extract from it the only truly correct, the only legally sound path: the immediate convening of a meeting of People’s Commissars. The documents held by Zaks and Gorbunov are both outwardly sloppy—for there is neither a reference to the relevant law, nor a concise two‑line summary of Hydrotorfa’s request, nor the date of that summary, nor my own marginal note. Should such sloppiness recur, I will remove both Zaks and Gorbunov from their posts.

I respectfully request you, Comrade Tsyurupa, to immediately obtain written acknowledgment from the aforementioned comrades that a reprimand has been issued against them, and to instruct the People’s Commissars of the All‑Union Council of National Economy, the People’s Commissariat for Finance, and the People’s Commissariat for Agricultural Affairs to convene, as soon as possible—preferably on Tuesday, February 28th, and in any case no later than Wednesday, March 1st, early in the morning—a meeting attended in person by the People’s Commissars themselves (and, in cases where attendance is absolutely impossible due to valid, compelling reasons, to arrange for full and proper delegation).

* Central Administration for the Peat Industry, under the Main Administration for Fuel, All‑Union Council of National Economy. Ed.