April 17, 1920
To the Small
Council:
I request that this be carried out. Indeed, even more than that:
we must accord p r e - s t a n d i n g to teachers.
Lenin
To the Chairman of the Sovnarkom, Comrade V. I. Lenin
You forwarded to me a telegram from Kazan complaining about the shortage of currency. I have received similar telegrams from Vyatka and Vologda Governorates… In all these regions, teachers, lacking funds, have not received their salaries for three months.
Thus it turns out that in the governorates that are utterly destitute—teachers are starving for lack of food—and in the producing regions, such as

1920
Kazan, Vologda, and Vyatka, where teachers could in fact earn a livelihood—still they starve due to the absence of money.
I earnestly request you, Vladimir Ilyich, to issue some directive, or to place this matter before the Sovnarkom, so that the currency allocated for the needs of the governorates is distributed proportionally—that is: when there is a shortfall of 10–20%, such a shortfall should be apportioned among all departments. Otherwise, in practice, what actually occurs is that virtually everyone except education officials receives their salaries…