# Libraries. September 4, 1919

QUESTIONS OF CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION

12741
AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE DRAFT RESOLUTION
OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS ON SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES.
[September 4, 1919]
1) Establish precise accounting and supervision over all libraries left at the disposal of their former owners to satisfy their professional needs.
2) [Immediately] Requisition [them] and transfer for the use and disposal of the relevant educational institutions all libraries for which protective charters were issued to their former owners who do not actually need these libraries for their professional pursuits [including all libraries of former estate owners]. For THIS purpose, re-examine the list of protective charters.
3) Immediately requisition all libraries belonging to persons who have fled to Crimea and other areas located on the territory occupied by the White Guards, or who have generally disappeared to unknown locations.
4) Remove, as a general rule, from the management of libraries the former owners of these libraries that have been transferred to the disposal of the People's Commissariat of Education and made available for public use.
5) From all former private libraries made available for public use or left in the temporary disposal of their former owners, [remove] and transfer all books representing great historical, scientific, and literary interest [and concentrate them] in special [public] book depositories [in the Rumyantsev, or Historical museums] (Rumyantsev, Historical Museum, etc.), according to the decision of the [People's] Commissariat] of Education].
6) Revise the instruction on the procedure for requisitioning libraries. . .
7) Instruct the [People's] Commissariat] of Education] *
to increase the staff and number of libraries [public] [Soviet] state libraries.
*
Here, Lenin omitted the words: "take measures." These words are given in the minutes. Ed.

1 The draft was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on September 4, 1919, based on the report by V. A. Avanesov (Deputy People's Commissar of State Control) "On the Results of the Audit of Scientific Libraries" (Minutes of the Council of People's Commissars № 316 dated September 4, 1919).

LETTER TO V. V. VOROVSKY
To Comrade V. V. Vorovsky
To the State Publishing House.
October 24, 1919
Having reviewed the pamphlet "The III International, March 6-7, 1919," published by "State Publishing House," Moscow 1919 (price 8 rubles), 99 pages, I am issuing a strict reprimand for such a publication and demand that all members of the board of the State Publishing House read this letter and develop serious guarantee measures to prevent such a disgrace from happening again.
The pamphlet is published abominably. It is some kind of messy work. There is no table of contents. Some idiot, or sloven, obviously illiterate, collected exactly as if drunk, all the "materials," articles, speeches, and printed them in disorder.
No preface, no protocols, no exact text of decisions, no separation of decisions from speeches, articles, notes, nothing at all! An unprecedented disgrace!
A great historical event has been disgraced by such a pamphlet.
I demand: 1) Correction by means of inserts. (Put the culprits in jail and force them to insert into all copies).
Report to me:
2 a) How many copies were printed?
2 b) How many were distributed?
3) Re-publication in a decent form. Show me the proofreading.
4) Establishment of a rule that a specific person is responsible for each published item (start a record book of responsible persons).
5) Other measures of streamlining; develop them and send them to me.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
1 V. V. Vorovsky headed the State Publishing House and was a member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Education.
*
The letter is printed on the Council of People's Commissars letterhead using a typewriter. The signature and date are in Lenin's handwriting. Ed.

QUESTIONS OF CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION

23914
EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH M. N. POKROVSKY.
November 11, 1919
NOTE TO LENIN FROM POKROVSKY.
Comrade Pokrovsky! In my opinion, it follows from the attached 1 that everything
belongs to the People's Commissariat of Education. Return with your review.

Your Lenin.
LENIN'S NOTES ON M. N. POKROVSKY'S NOTE.
If there are party comrades who are interested in library
affairs and understand it, they need to be involved in our library department,
which suffers greatly precisely from the absence of its own people — but do not create
"party" libraries parallel to "Soviet" libraries.
LENIN'S RESPONSE.
I agree. Give a formal conclusion from the People's Commissar (or
Deputy People's Commissar) on this issue to the Central Committee (copy to me).
1 Lenin is referring to a draft sent to him for review by one of the library workers on the organization of a Central Party Library in Moscow.
M. N. Pokrovsky is the Deputy People's Commissar of Education.
NOTES ON P. P. BLONSKY'S PAMPHLET "LABOR SCHOOL".
[1919]
... 22. Industrial-Socialist culture. — Through the education it gives, the school introduces its student to the world of this or that culture.
The question is, what culture is presented before us, teachers of the industrial-labor school?
This is, first of all, the culture of a technically strong humanity. For
me, it sounds somewhat wild when I am reproached for being a technicist. Is it really bad
to be strong? Is it really bad to subdue the forces of nature? Is it really bad
to be able to work in the most successful way? Is industry not the
pride of human genius? Or do we still cherish the ideals
of rustics? Only in one case is technology evil: this is when it

*
The notes were made by Lenin on page 57 of Blonsky's pamphlet. On
the cover of the pamphlet, Lenin noted: "NB p. 57." Ed.

is directed by man against man. But perhaps it will no longer be so difficult for the reader to agree that huge technical
tasks presuppose precisely unification and cooperation, and that capitalism is rejected primarily due to its technically reactionary
role. An inevitable consequence of consistent industrialism is
precisely socialism, and at a certain stage of development, as we see in the "Introduction" to our book, capitalism holds back industrialism in its technical and cultural achievements. The factory is the cradle in which
collectivism is inevitably nurtured. A technically advanced society closely merges with a socially advanced society. The culture
of the future is an industrially collectivist culture, and only that education that is attached to this culture is a genuine education. ...

23915
NOTE TO M. N. POKROVSKY.
To the Deputy People's Commissar of Education
January 15, 1920
I request that you issue an order that our state libraries (Rumyantsev Museum, Petrograd
Public, etc.) immediately begin collecting and storing all White Guard
newspapers (Russian and foreign). Please give me a draft
instruction so that all military and civilian authorities
collect and submit these newspapers to state libraries.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
P. S. Maybe you will find it appropriate, in this same
order (or better separately?) to order and verify the collection of complete sets of our newspapers from 1917 onwards.

25059
TELEGRAM TO G. E. ZINOVIEV.
Petrograd
To Zinoviev
February 28, 1920
Pokrovsky informs me that the library of the former Free Economic Society is being looted and even books are being burned. I strongly
request that you check, stop the outrage, and inform me of the name
of the responsible inspector on the spot. Let him send me immediately an official telegram regarding the fulfillment. [170]
Lenin.