ON A LETTER FROM A. V. LUNACHARSKY

To the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Comrade V. I. Lenin

You forwarded me a telegram from Kazan with a complaint about the absence of monetary signs. I have received similar telegrams from Vyatka and Vologda provinces. In all these places, teachers, owing to the lack of money, have not received their salaries for three months.

Thus it turns out that in provinces that are absolutely starving—teachers go hungry due to the absence of products, while in productive ones, such as Kazan, Vologda, and Vyatka provinces, where teachers could in fact support themselves—they go hungry due to the absence of money.

I earnestly beseech you, Vladimir Ilyich, to issue some directive or to bring this before the Council of People's Commissars, so that the monetary signs allocated for the needs of the provinces are distributed proportionally, that is: in the event of a shortfall of 10-20%, such shortfall should be distributed among all departments.

Otherwise, what is actually happening is that absolutely everyone, except education workers, receives their salaries...

To the Small Soviet: I request that this be carried through. More than that: preference must be given to teachers.

17/IV. Lenin

Written 17 April 1920

First published in 1945 in Lenin Miscellany XXXV

Printed from the manuscript