V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v35; en:CW/CW45;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

LETTER TO MEMBERS OF THE POLITBURO**
December 19, 1921

On the question of the purge of the Party it seems to me that the published facts fully prove the gigantic success of the purge as a whole, despite the fairly numerous individual mistakes. It seems to me that as a result of the Party Conference both circumstances should be emphasised. In my opinion, no date should be fixed for a second purge, so as not to tie our hands in any way.

I would advise that the Party Conference should adopt a decision establishing stricter conditions for admission to Party membership: a probationary period of 1½ years for a worker (a worker being one who has worked for not less than ten years of his life in large-scale industry as a simple wage-worker and has been working at the present time for not less than two or three years), and three years for all others.

A reduction of these periods by one-half is permissible in special cases, when devotion to the Party and communist staunchness have been fully proved and when this is certified by a majority of 4/5 of the Party boards that decide the question.

*

The draft theses were amended in accordance with Lenin’s instructions. See *The C.P.S.U.(B.) in Resolutions*, Part I, 1940, p. 405.
The document is printed from a typewritten copy.
* * The letter was dictated by V. I. Lenin over the telephone. Printed from the secretary’s transcript.
The same periods shall be established for the enrolment as candidates of persons expelled from the Party in the present purge, if they have not been expelled for a definite period and if they have not been expelled for disgraceful offences.

I request you to show this little letter of mine to the nearest comrades and, if it is not too much trouble, to send me, care of Fotieva, a brief opinion, if only in the form of underlining in the present letter the points with which you agree and those with which you disagree.

Lenin