V. I.

Lenin

Draft Decision for the C.P.C. on The Question of Following a Socialist Policy in the Economic Field [1]

1) Two or three engineers shall be sent to the Special Defence Council
for the purposes of control and the drafting of a general plan of
industrial demobilisation (Kozmin to be charged with forming this group); [2]

2) A 3-5-man commission of C.P.C. members (and non-members) shall be
set up to discuss the major problems of the Government’s economic policy
(Pyatakov and Bukharin to be charged with forming this commission);

3) A conference of food-supply men shall be organised to discuss
practical measures for combating marauding and improving the condition of
the most needy sections of the population (Shlyapnikov + Manuilsky to be
charged with organising this conference).

---
Notes:
[1]
This draft was written by Lenin in connection with the discussion at a
meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars on November 27 (December 10),
1917 of his proposal for organising “a special commission to carry out a
socialist policy in the financial and economic fields”. The draft was
adopted with slightly altered wording.

[2]
The Special Defence Council was formed on August 17 (30), 1915 “to
discuss and co-ordinate measures to defend the state and ensure a supply of
munitions and other materials for the Army and Navy” (Osobiye
soveshchaniya i kornitety voennogo vremeni [Special Councils and War-time
Committees], Petrograd, 1917, p. 7).

By a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars dated
Decem-ber 11 (24), 1917 the Special Defence Council was charged with “the
annulment of defence orders or their reduction to a normal peace-time
level, and, in connection therewith, the demobilisation of the factories
and their switchover to peace-time production” ( Dekrety Sovietskoi Viasti [Decrees of the Soviet Government ], Vol. 1, Moscow, 1957,
p. 214).