AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE DRAFT DECREE
ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES BY
[September 4, 1919]
1) Establish precise accounting and oversight for all libraries that have been left in the hands of their former owners to serve their professional needs.
2) [Immediately] Seize these libraries and place them under the administration and control of the appropriate educational institutions—specifically, all libraries for which protective letters were issued to their former owners, who in fact no longer require these libraries for their professional pursuits [including all libraries formerly belonging to estate owners]. To this end, consult the list of protective letters.
3) Immediately seize all libraries belonging to individuals who have fled to Crimea or to other regions within territory occupied by White Guard forces, or who have disappeared without a trace.
4) As a general rule, remove from library management those former owners whose libraries have been transferred to the jurisdiction of the People’s Commissariat for Education and made available for public use.
5) Of all former private libraries that have been placed at the disposal of the public or left temporarily in the care of their former owners, [seize and transfer] all books of great historical, scholarly, and literary significance [and concentrate them] in specialized public book repositories [such as the Rumyantsev Museum or the Historical Museum] (the Rumyantsev Museum, the Historical Museum, and the like), as decided by the People’s Commissariat for Education.
6) Revise the instructions governing the procedure for the requisition of libraries…
7) Entrust the People’s Commissariat for Education with the task of *increasing the staffing levels and the number of librarians* in the public [Soviet] state libraries.
*
Here, Lenin omitted the words: “take measures.” These words are included in the official minutes. Ed.

1 The draft was adopted by the Council of People’s Commissars on September 4, 1919, following a report by V. A. Avanesov (Deputy People’s Commissar for State Control) entitled “On the Results of the Audit of Scientific Libraries” (Minutes of the Council of People’s Commissars, No. JMS 316, September 4, 1919).

LETTER TO V. V. VOROVSKY \
Comrade V. V. Vorovsky 1.
To the State Publishing House.
October 24, 1919
After reviewing the pamphlet “The Third International, March 6–7, 1919,” published by the State Publishing House, Moscow, 1919 (price: 8 rubles; 99 pages), I hereby issue a stern reprimand for such a publication and demand that all members of the State Publishing House’s collegium read this letter of mine and devise serious safeguards to ensure that such disgraceful conduct cannot be repeated.
The pamphlet is abominably produced—it is nothing but a shoddy piece of work. There is no table of contents. Some idiot—or perhaps a sloppy, illiterate scribe—clearly assembled all the “materials,” articles, speeches, and miscellaneous pieces in a drunken, haphazard manner and printed them in complete disorder.
There is no preface, no official minutes, no precise text of resolutions; not even a clear distinction between resolutions and speeches, articles, and notes—nothing at all!
What a scandalous shame!
A momentous historical event has been besmirched by such a pamphlet.
I demand: 1) Correction through insertion of missing material. (Those responsible should be imprisoned and compelled to insert the missing content into every copy.)
Please provide me with the following information:
2a) How many copies were printed?
2b) How many copies have been distributed?
3) Reissue the pamphlet in a proper, well-edited form. Show me the proofread version.
4) Establish a rule whereby each published work is assigned to a specific individual responsible for its production (maintain a register of accountable persons).
5) Develop additional measures for organizational improvement and submit them to me.
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
1 V. V. Borovsky managed the State Publishing House and served as a member of the collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Education.
*
The letter, printed on the official letterhead of the Council of People’s Commissars, was typed on a typewriter. The signature and date were written in Lenin’s own hand. Ed.

QUESTIONS OF CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION