Date: 1920-04-19
Source: ru:LS/v35

90
LENIN COLLECTION
4985
NOTE TO A. V. LUNACHARSKY
April 19, 1920 – To Lunacharsky and the Small Council
Sculptor S. Merkurov finds it profoundly unjust and fundamentally wrong that the cancellation of the commission entrusted to him by the Sovnarkom
(December 30, 1919) was carried out (1) without a personal summons, (2) without formal written notification, and without the provision to him of a copy of the Sovnarkom resolution rescinding the commission.
For this reason, Merkurov insists that by April 15, 1920— the deadline set by the Sovnarkom resolution of February 23, 1920, for Alešin and his collective—Merkurov be granted the right to submit a new design once again*.
Chairman of the SNK
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
*
The initial sketch proposal for the monument, submitted by sculptor Merkurov, was not approved by V. I. Lenin; on February 23, 1920, the Small Sovnarkom adopted a resolution transferring the commission to sculptor Alešin: “In principle, approve the monument project for Karl Marx submitted by sculptor Alešin. Direct Comrade Alešin to develop the monument in detail, with the participation of a collective of sculptors, utilizing available resources and under the overall supervision of the Department of Visual Arts within the People’s Commissariat of Education. Likewise, instruct him to execute the monument in granite and bronze.”
A report on the progress of preparatory work was to be submitted by April 15 of this year, by which date he was also to present the final design, specifying a firm completion date for the construction of the monument” (Minutes No. 426, Clause 17).
On April 20, 1920, after reviewing Lunacharsky’s report on the progress of preparatory work for the erection of the monument to Karl Marx, the Small Sovnarkom resolved:
“Approve the allocation of 800,000 rubles from the People’s Commissariat of Education to the May Day Commission under the Moscow Department of Public Education, to cover expenses related to the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone for the monument to Karl Marx” (Minutes No. 458, Clause 2).

1919
10030
RESOLUTION ON THE DRAFT RESOLUTION
CONCERNING PETROGRAD THEATERS
Prior to December 25, 1919
Having established the general principle that all theaters—except for the academically recognized state theaters specifically mentioned in the decree—namely the Moscow theaters: the Bolshoi, the Maly, and the Art Theater; and the Petrograd theaters: the Mariinsky, the Alexandrinsky, and the Mikhailovsky—are to be subsidized—Centertheater failed to take into account an entire group of theaters operating under special conditions, namely the so‑called Petrograd municipal theaters, which, from their very inception, have been national theaters, financed and endowed with a substantial common property base—including central warehouses, centralized costume departments, scenic workshops, prop shops, stencil studios, makeup facilities, shoemaking workshops, and other specialized ateliers.
To split these theaters into separate, autonomous or semi‑autonomous entities would be highly irrational—not only because it would undo the recently implemented, rigorously enforced centralization of the entire administrative and material apparatus, but also because it would prove counterproductive in terms of economizing both human effort and financial resources.
In light of the foregoing, it is hereby resolved:
The Petrograd municipal theaters—the Grand Opera House, the Grand Drama Theater, the Small Drama Theater, and the Petrograd Drama Theater—are to be regarded as national state theaters, placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Petrograd Theater Department, and financed according to budgets submitted by the PTO and approved in accordance with prescribed procedures.
Speak with Lunacharsky (for the Small Council).
Anatoly Vasilyevich, what is your opinion?
Lenin
Remind me when M. F. Andreyeva arrives.
23235 and 15386
TELEGRAM TO M. M. LITVINOV
COPENHAGEN
December 28, 1919
From Lenin to Litvinov
We place the utmost importance on all documents, resolutions, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and speeches pertaining to ideological currents within left‑wing socialism and communism—especially those of anarcho‑syndicalist persuasion.