16107, 16108
NOTES TO M. P. TOMSKY 1
[November 8, 1920]

To Tomsky
I advise you to ask for a report and recount (partly read) all the important points from the theses.

If you disagree, then give me all of your accursed theses.
1 M. P. Tomsky – in the party since 1904. After the October Socialist Revolution held a number of responsible posts, was chairman of the presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. Repeatedly opposed the Leninist policy of the party, was one of the leaders of the right-opportunist deviation in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Lenin's correspondence with M. P. Tomsky took place on November 8, 1920, at a meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which considered the question of the V All-Russian Conference of Trade Unions, which took place on November 2–6, 1920, discussing the task of restructuring the work of trade unions in connection with the transition to peaceful socialist construction. New methods of approaching the masses required a wider deployment of democracy. L. D. Trotsky opposed this, demanding further "tightening of the screws" and "statization of trade unions." Lenin criticized Trotsky's theses, outlined his own theses, which formed the basis of his draft resolution "The Tasks of Trade Unions and Methods of Their Implementation" (see Complete Works, vol. 42, pp. 9–10, 235–236).
The Plenum rejected Trotsky's theses and adopted Lenin's theses as a basis, elected Lenin to the commission for drafting the resolution, and authorized him to present a report at the communist faction of the conference.
24196
ORDER TO THE SECRETARY
[1920, November 9]
It is absolutely necessary tonight (through the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic) to inform Stalin that the Plenum ends tomorrow *.
1 The order is written on I. V. Stalin's telegram from Baku on November 2, 1920, to the Central Committee of the RCP(b) objecting to the appointment of G. K. Sha<migulov, chairman of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of Bashkiria, to the board of the People's Commissariat for Nationalities.