V. I. Lenin

Draft Directive Of The Political Bureau

On The New Economic Policy [1]

Draft

The Political Bureau brings to the notice of all economic bodies that now, after the Party Conference in December 1921 and the Ninth Congress of Soviets, the New Economic Policy has been quite firmly and clearly established.

The maximum effort must therefore be made to test it in practice as quickly and as widely as possible. All general arguments, theoretical arguments and debates on the subject of the New Economic Policy must be relegated to debating clubs, partly to the press. They must be rooted out relentlessly from the Council of People's Commissars, the Council of Labour and Defence and all economic bodies. All sorts of commissions must be reduced to the absolute minimum and commission conferences replaced by the demand for written amendments or counter-drafts from all interested departments within the shortest period (one or two days). The Higher Economic Commission should be turned into a body engaged solely in classifying and pooling the economic acts promulgated by the state, and all sorts of so-called commission discussion should, if possible, be ruled out. The Higher Economic Commission must accelerate and not slow down the general course of the work.

The Political Bureau requires the People's Commissariat of Finance to concentrate all its efforts on achieving the speediest possible increase of the number of taxes and increasing the revenues from them, and also on business-like amendments to the general budget. All arguments about the money policy, the replacement of the tax in kind by cash taxes, etc., should be taken partly to debating clubs and partly to the press.

The Political Bureau requires all People's Commissars to display the utmost speed and energy in eliminating bureaucracy and red tape in the testing of the New Economic Policy in practice; the Political Bureau requires that bonuses be instituted for the largest possible number of persons holding responsible positions for speedily increasing output and expanding both home and foreign trade. This requirement concerns, first and foremost, the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade, then the State Bank (particularly its trade department), the Central Council of Co-operative Societies and the Supreme Economic Council.

After this draft has been endorsed in the Political Bureau, have it read to and signed by all members of the collegiums of all People's Commissariats and all members of the Presidium of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee.

Endnotes

[1] The Draft Directive of the Political Bureau on the New Economic Policy was debated at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on January 12, 1922 and accepted as a basis; It was endorsed on January 16, 1922.