V. I.

Lenin

233

To:   THE ALL-RUSSIA CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS [1]

January 16, 1920

To Comrade Tomsky, with a request to bring this before the All-Russia C.C.T.U.
and the Communist group in the All-Russia C.C.T.U.

Dear Comrades, I send yon herewith a report on the astonishing red tape ,
carelessness, bureaucracy and helplessness displayed in
a most important practical matter.

I have never doubted that there is still very much bureaucracy in our Commissariats, in all of them.

But I did not expect that there would he no less bureaucracy in the trade unions.

This is the greatest disgrace. I very much ask you to read all these documents in the Communist group of the
All-Russia C.C.T.U., and to work out practical measures
for combating bureaucracy, red tape, idleness and helplessness.

Please be good enough to let me know the results.

Melnichansky himself rang me up about these 10,000 metalworkers. I made a fuss at the People’s Commissariat
of Railways, and now Comrade Melnichansky has let me down....

With communist greetings,
V. Ulyanov (Lenin )

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Notes:
[1]
At the end of 1919, Lenin gave instructions that 10,000 qualified
metalworkers should be sent to repair the railways. The leaders of
the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions and the Moscow
City Council of Trade Unions were slow in arranging; the transfer
of metalworkers to the Moscow railway system, and the delay
prompted Lenin to write this letter.