RESOLUTION ON A NOTE FROM A. D. TSYURUPA¹
[1920, February, not earlier than 18]
Vladimir Ilyich,
I and those members of the collegium with whom I managed to confer are very
distressed by the non-inclusion of Yuryev in the list of collegium members. This is unjust. Yuryev is a loyal person; diligent and devoted to the cause,
a faithful worker.
In the political sense he is more restrained, firm and consistent than some of those who got into the list. Excluding him
from the list now, when people who permitted disorganising
activities have been included, will only cause offence and deprive the Comprod* of a devoted
worker. I do not exaggerate his abilities. He does not catch stars from the sky. But
to be honest: which of us, Comprod workers, does? The wave of the revolution raised
us high, but by ourselves we are small people. Is it not possible to reconsider** the
question?
18/II
A. Tsyurupa

I
am for retaining Yuryev.²
Lenin

¹ A. D. Tsyurupa — member of the R.S.D.L.P. since 1898. From the beginning of 1918 — People’s Commissar
for Food. From the end of 1921 — deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars
and the Council of Labour and Defence.
² A. A. Yuryev entered the collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Food, approved
on 24 February 1920 at a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars.