V. I.

Lenin

142

To:   N. P. BRYUKHANOV AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF THE FOOD COMMISSARIAT

Bryukhanov and other members of the Board of the Food Commissariat

I gather from your note that the Food Commissariat understands and applies the decrees incorrectly.

“ No special desire is noticeable among the workers ...”
(to join harvesting detachments).

Where are the proofs? Where is the appeal of the Food
Commissariat? What is the date of it?

In which factories was it distributed? When and in how many copies?

I am afraid the Food Commissariat did none of these things (judging by Comrade Bryukhanov’s silence), but
occupied itself with the devil knows what bureaucratic red tape. For without the help of the workers the Food
Commissariat is nil.

Nothing bad is to be seen from the quotation (from
Nevsky’s telegram of 8. VIII), for it does not touch on the
question of % of trade union members, or of the leading
organisation, or of participation and harvesting (§ 7 of the
decree on collective trains), i.e., the business questions
are not dealt with.

What’s bad about Nevsky’s telegram besides the good?
Nevsky calls on the workers: go out and help (he says nothing about conditions, but we indicated these conditions
and indicated good ones). But the Food Commissariat cavils
at a word (when there’s nothing to cavil at) ... and itself
does nothing!

Either we rouse the mass of the workers to join in a serious movement for grain (and for crushing the kulaks)—
this the Food Commissariat does not do

— or else, no Food Commissariat at all is needed.

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