To the Economic Commission of the Sovnarkom
November 23, 1921
To L. B. Kamenev

Copy to Comrade Khinchuk
Yesterday, the Sovnarkom referred the matter of the agreement with Steinberg to your commission—No. 113. Today, in Izvestia, Gorsky calculates that Steinberg will pocket 194 billion Soviet rubles from a mere 100,000 kilograms of saccharin (the cost to him is 600,000 rubles per kilogram; thus, the entire 100,000 kilograms will amount to 60 billion—60 million times 1,000; the profit margin, therefore, comes to 194 ÷ 60 = 323%).
If Gorsky’s calculations are correct, the profits are nothing short of colossal. It would seem that the RSFSR is entitled to a share of this superprofit—after all, shouldn’t we regard as “superprofit” any gain exceeding 250%?
Is it not possible to…
(1) negotiate so that we secure a special share of the superprofit, counting superprofit as anything above 100 or 200%?
(2) take special measures to ensure that we can train our own personnel—especially within the Centrosyuz—in the techniques and organizational principles of trade?
(3) make special provisions to enable us to terminate the agreement at an earlier date, once we, the fools, have learned from the wise?
In my view, despite having haggled a hundred times and scrutinized the terms a hundred times, we should still conclude the agreement—after all, fools must pay a high price for their learning. I await your feedback.
Chairman of the Council of Labour and Defence, Lenin
First published in 1945 in Lenin Collection XXXV

Printed from manuscript