July 19, 1919.

The delay in approving the instruction concerning requisitions from the army{37} represents the most outrageous and intolerable manifestation of bureaucratic red tape.

It is necessary to establish those responsible and to investigate this case thoroughly and precisely, first, for the purpose of fixing responsibility, and second—and this is the main point—for the development of practical measures to ensure that nothing of the sort can be repeated. Therefore, I propose to the undersigned institutions, which were obliged to concern themselves with the speediest implementation of the law on requisitions, that is, with putting it into practice, to investigate immediately with all severity and precision, having collected all documents and interrogated all persons who have had anything to do with the matter, the causes of the red tape, and to present their report, together with proposals for practical measures to eliminate the red tape, to the Council of People's Commissars by Tuesday. The institutions are the following:

Secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars and Council of Defense

Central Committee of Food Supply for the Army

Food Committee

People's Commissariat of Military Affairs

People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraph.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

First published in 1942 in Lenin Collection XXXIV

Printed from the manuscript