AMENDMENTS TO THE CIRCULAR
ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSIONS AND ALL 1.
Circular to all People’s Commissars.
To the Commissar of the State Bank, and to the Commissar in charge of private
banks.
^1 February (19 January) 1918]
The Council of People’s Commissars decreed:
1.
No department shall be authorized to establish or reorganize any body tasked with regulating economic affairs without the prior
knowledge and consent of the Supreme Council of National Economy. All
institutions and organizations engaged in the regulation of economic life,
regardless of the department to which they may belong, must immediately

AMENDMENTS TO THE CIRCULAR ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSIONS AND ALL 1.

establish contact with the Supreme Council of National Economy [and submit to its guidance] and, in the event of
disputes or conflicts, bring the matter before the Council of People’s Commissars.
2. No [order] governing general policy, nor any provision regulating the country’s economic life, may be
issued [by anyone] independently by individual [commissariats] without the prior
knowledge and consent of the Supreme
Council of National
Economy.
[In particular, without the knowledge and consent of the Supreme Council of National Economy, the expropriation of factories, plants, buildings, and the like cannot be carried out.]²
3. All departments whose activities intersect with the regulation of economic life are hereby required to enter into the closest possible
contact with the Supreme Council of National Economy and, through their designated representatives, to remain fully informed of its work. [The Council of People’s Commissars particularly urges the Commissariat of Finance—especially the State Bank and the Commissariat of Private Banks—to take this directive to heart.]
4. In turn, the Supreme Council of National Economy may not adopt any resolution that infringes upon or alters the jurisdiction or functions of institutions under the purview of any given commissariat without first notifying the relevant commissariat, which is obligated to submit its opinion on the draft resolution to the Supreme Council of National Economy within one week.
The Council of People’s Commissars requests that the Supreme Council of National Economy promptly develop and submit to the Council of People’s Commissars draft decrees concerning the compulsory consolidation of the population into consumer–productive associations,
the revolutionary income tax, the mandatory deposit of funds in banks, and measures aimed at withdrawing money from the circulation of fixed assets held by private individuals.

On 1 February (19 January) 1918, during a session of the Council of People’s Commissars, a report was presented by V. V. Osinsky-Obolensky, Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy, on the activities of the Supreme Council of National Economy, accompanied by a supplementary report on the same topic delivered by Yu. M. Larin. During the discussion of this issue, it became clear that there was a pressing need to eliminate parallelism in the work of various departments; accordingly, a resolution was adopted: “to issue the appropriate decree” (for the purpose of providing instructions to the departments).
The draft circular submitted by the rapporteurs prompted a series of remarks from Lenin, which he recorded on a separate sheet. Beneath the text of his remarks, Lenin appended an addition to § 4 of the draft. Several provisions of this addition were elaborated by Lenin in his “Draft Decree on Socialization”
*
All amendments pertaining to §§ 1, 2, and 3 were accompanied by the following remarks from Lenin, which he penned on a separate sheet: “Amend the [end of] § 1” (followed by the text of the amendment. Ed.), “Remove § 2; remove the second sentence of § 3.” Pi O.