# NOTES ON ECONOMIC POLICY ISSUES

Source: ru:PSS/v54

ECONOMIC POLICY

For the record:

Establishment of consumer cooperatives. Consumer and labor booklets.

Start with the wealthy: consumer–labor booklets at 50 rubles each.

* This option is included in the “Draft Amendments to the Theoretical, Political, and Certain Other Sections of the Program” (see Collected Works, 5th ed., vol. 32, p. 141). Ed.

PLAN OF THESES ON THE IMMEDIATE CONCLUSION OF PEACE

Apartment owners earning 2,400 rubles and those with a number of rooms corresponding to the number of inhabitants, whose real estate value exceeds 25,000 rubles.

State and public service employees receiving a salary of 3,000 rubles and above (with a 10-ruble booklet).
((1) Preparation for universal labor conscription and (2) combating sabotage) + ((3)
class-based unification of rural workers and the rural poor.)

Private railways (to be nationalized) are confiscated.

Joint-stock companies are nationalized.

Factories and plants employing more than 20 workers or having an annual turnover exceeding 100,000 rubles.
are confiscated.

Bolshevik faction of the Central Executive Committee: one representative from each district appointed as “on duty” or “whip” or “enforcer.”

Faction bureau: subordination in voting.

Control and organizational commissions or groups of roving controllers and organizers (from the Bolshevik faction of the Central Executive Committee).

Roving accounting teams: banks and other offices.

Written no earlier than December 14 (27)

First published in 1959.

in the Lenin Collection XXXVI

Printed from the manuscript

PLAN OF THESES ON THE ISSUE

OF THE IMMEDIATE CONCLUSION OF A SEPARATE

AND ANNEXATIONIST PEACE

9. Arguments in favor of an immediate revolutionary war (and their fallacies)
9. - (ggs) (1) “promised”... (cf. October 13, 1915) — — — — (our duty was to prepare for a revolutionary war)
“Whip”

10. - (aas) (2) international obligations...*
11. - (vvs) (3) demoralization...
(bb) (4) “agreement” with German imperialism.*
11 bis | “Agreement” with German imperialism?

False. Example of a strike.
12. Against an immediate revolutionary war and in favor of an annexationist peace:
(.) objectively = Wilson’s agent (100 rubles per soldier).
13. (.) all-in (capture of Revel and Estonia, loss of artillery, and perhaps Petersburg).
14. (.) impossibility of solving the tasks of the socialist revolution in Russia while continuing the war.
14. (.) army fatigue and mood (now democratic).
15. (.) first exhaust the Russian bourgeoisie and reorganize Russia along socialist lines, then begin the revolutionary war without ever ceasing preparations for it.
16. .. If a revolution occurs in Germany within the next quarter to half-year, we will win despite the hardships of the revolutionary war.

If the revolution comes later, there is a 99 out of 100 chance that our power will be overthrown by an exhausted worker and peasant, handing authority over to adventurers who will then conclude an even worse annexationist peace.
17. We have no right to make the fate of Russia’s socialist revolution dependent on such shaky, completely unverifiable conditions.
18. Which is better: losing Poland + Lithuania + Courland + etc., or losing the socialist revolution in Russia?

Further:
Risk losing the socialist revolution because of Poland, etc.?

* Items “10. - (aa) (2)” and “11. - (bb)(4)” were crossed out in the manuscript. After item “11. - (bb) (4)”
Lenin added: “see 11 bis on the reverse side,” and also wrote in the margins: “see 11 bis.” Ed.

DRAFT THESIS ON BANKING POLICY

There can be no doubt about the answer to this question.

19. Do not gamble everything on a rapid (within a quarter to half-year) revolution in Europe; instead, systematically and without recklessness, prepare for a revolutionary war by exploiting
the “employment” provided by both imperialist giant blocs through warfare.

20. | The danger of the moment lies in policies of beautiful gestures and revolutionary rhetoric.

21. Objectively: alliance with Wilson or defeat, but no alliance whatsoever with the imperialists.

22. The forces of both giant blocs are roughly equal, without us. Let them exhaust themselves (until the revolution explodes among them), while we consolidate the socialist revolution. This is the more reliable path toward an international socialist revolution. It is the only way free from adventurism, recklessness, and all-in gambles.

Written in early January,

no later than January 7 (20), 1918.

First published in 1929.

in the Lenin Collection XI

Printed from the manuscript

DRAFT THESIS ON BANKING POLICY*

1. Compile an account of funds held in banks.
2. Invite a sufficient number of experienced workers to expedite this task.
3. Nationalization of banks remains in effect.
4. All banks are merged into a single People’s Bank of the Russian Republic.
5. Opening of a greater number of branches is possible.
6. Declaration of inviolability of deposits (which, of course, does not diminish the state’s right to collect taxes).
7. Free check circulation.
8. Full maintenance of workers’ control (including in the disbursement of funds).

* See Collected Works, 5th ed., vol. 36, pp. 219–221. Ed.