31.
8249/1649
DRAFT DIRECTIVE REGARDING THE WORK OF STO
and SNK, as well as the SMALL SNK*).
The main shortcoming of the indicated] institutions is their
preoccupation with trifles.
In connection with this, they drown in bureaucratism instead of fighting it.
The causes of this evil:
1) weakness of the administrative office; 2) inability
of party members to get out of the quagmire of trifles and bureaucratic] details;
3) the desire of the People's Commissars (and even more: the bureaucrats of the department pushing them) to shift responsibility to the SNK;
4) — the last and most important — the lack among responsible] workers of awareness that the struggle
with the paper sea, distrust of it and of the eternal "reorgani-
zations" has now come to the fore, that the primary task of the moment is not decrees, not
reorganizations, but the selection of people; establishing individual responsibility for what is done; verification of
actual work. Otherwise, we will not get out of the bureaucratism and red tape
that are suffocating us.
The Small SNK, STO, and SNK must exert every effort to free
themselves from vermicelli, accustoming the People's Commissariats to decide trifles themselves
and be more strictly responsible for them.
The administrative office apparatus of the SNK must make it its main task to
actually implement this: reduce the number of cases in the Small
SNK, STO and SNK, to ensure that the People's Commissars (separately and
*) At the top of this document, in Lenin's hand, underlined
with three lines: "A. D. Tsiurupa."

DRAFT DIRECTIVE REGARDING THE WORK OF STO AND SNK
jointly) decide more themselves and be responsible for this; to shift
the center of gravity to verification of actual execution.
For the same reasons, the deputy Chairmen of the SNK, Comrades Rykov and Tsiurupa
must make every effort to free themselves from trifles and from commissions; fight against drawing them (the deputies) into matters subject to
resolution by the People's Commissars; devote 2 - 3 hours a day, at a minimum,
to personal acquaintance with responsible] workers (not
officials) of the most important (and then all) People's Commissariats for
verification and selection of people; use the apparatus of the administrative office of the SNK and
part of the members of the Small SNK, as well as RabKrin, to verify actual
work and its success; in a word, become practical instructors in state work, of whom we are most lacking.
Distrust of decrees, of institutions, of "reorganiza-tions" and
of officials, especially from among the communists; the struggle with the silt of bureau-
cratism and red tape by checking people and checking actual
work; the ruthless expulsion of superfluous officials, the reduction of
staffs, the removal of communists who do not seriously study the business of management - such should be the line of the People's Commissars and the SNKom, its
Chairman and deputies.
27. II. [1922]
Lenin.