V. I.

Lenin

In connection with the report that several ex-ministers had
accepted directorships of big banks, Pravda asked:

“ In how many banks do the present ministers, Guchkov, Tereshchenko, and Konovalov—have an interest (in the
capacity of directors, shareholders, or actual owners)?”

And added:

“ Our comrades, the bank employees (who, by the way, should
organise a union of their own as soon as possible), would do
well to gather material on this subject and publish it in the
labour press.” [1]

Alarmed by this, Birzheviye Vedomosti , a paper which, as we know, savours strongly of banks, writes:

“ The ‘comrades employees’ are asked to organise a detective service, to rummage about in the tills of the
bourgeois ministers for the purpose of checking the cash in
them. With the same effrontery the Bolsheviks are rummaging
about in other people’s convictions. May we not soon see
Pravda advising the comrades to set up a secret police department of their own. Room for it will be found in the
Kshesinskaya mansion....”

Why are the gentlemen from Birzheviye Vedomosti so perturbed?

What has “detective service” got to do with it, gentlemen?

We have nothing whatever against the bank employees publishing
lists of bank bosses of all parties. Why, gentlemen, shouldn’t the people have a right to know who are the chief
owners of such institutions as the banks—those powerful
institutions on which the country’s whole economic life depends,
and which have such a say in deciding the. issues of war and
peace?

What are you afraid of, gentlemen?

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Notes:
[1]



[ Banks and Ministers ]

— Lenin