•208

Throughout 1918–1919, Lenin repeatedly drew the attention of the Council of People's Commissars to the question of organizing library work on a new basis. On April 26, 1918, the Council heard a report on the organization of central management of archives and libraries and created a commission "for developing a detailed project for the organization of archives, and also, in particular, a project for the reorganization of all library affairs according to the Swiss-American system" (Prot. SNK No. 101, p. 5, arch. IMEL No. 11399). The commission's work proceeded at far too slow a pace. On June 7, 1918, during discussion in the Council of the "Regulations on the Socialist Academy of Sciences" (see p. 207 of the Collection), Lenin drafted the following resolution, which was adopted by the Council (Prot. SNK No. 134, p. 2, arch. IMEL No. 11577). The first part of the resolution was published in *Izvestia VTsIK* No. 11 of January 17, 1919.

3315
LETTER TO THE COMMISSARIAT OF EDUCATION AND THE COMMISSARIAT
OF STATE PROPERTY OF THE REPUBLIC

To the Commissariat of
People's Education and State Property of the Republic

[Before July 8, 1918]¹

I propose that you immediately submit information on exactly what has been done to fulfill the decree of April 13,
1918, especially concerning: 1) the removal of old monuments, 2) the replacement
of them, if only with temporary new ones, and 3) the replacement of old inscriptions
on public buildings with new ones (§ 5 of the decree)².

The two-month delay in carrying out the decree—equally important from the standpoint
of propaganda and from the standpoint of providing employment for the
unemployed—is unforgivable.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

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¹ Justification of the date: the text speaks of a "two-month delay"
with respect to the decree "On the Removal of Monuments Erected in Honor
of the Tsars and Their Servants, and the Development of a Project for Monuments to the
Russian Socialist Revolution," adopted in April; consequently, the letter was written in July, before the 8th, as Lenin
in his letter dates the decree with an inaccurate date. (On the date see p. 205 of the Collection, note 1), whereas on July 8
(see the following document, p. 209) he already knew the exact date and number in "Sobr. Uz. i Rasp.," in which the decree was published.

² § 5 of the decree: "The same commission is entrusted with the urgent task of preparing the
decoration of the city on the occasion of May 1st and the replacement of inscriptions, emblems, street
names, coats of arms, etc., with new ones reflecting the ideas and sentiments of
revolutionary laboring Russia."