ON THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE VILLAGE OF KASHINO
25408
NOTES ON A LETTER FROM KASHIN PEASANTS
November 12, 1920
To Citizen Lenin
Esteemed Comrade, The Board of the association hereby informs you that on the 14th of this November, the opening of electric lighting will take place in the village of Kashino, to which we most humbly request you to come, to share the joy that we feel at the sight of electric lighting in peasant huts, which peasants did not dare to dream of under the rule of the tsars. Your presence is highly desirable.

Order of the holiday:

1) Reception of guests from 7 a.m. at the house of the brothers Z. and K. Pashkin.
2) At 4 o'clock, a rally with an orchestra of musicians and the singing of the "Internationale."
3) At 6 o'clock in the evening, dinner.
4) At 8 o'clock in the evening, a ballet of the village youth with the participation of a string orchestra.

Chairman of the Board D. Rodionov
Members of the holiday organizing committee
S. Kurkov
O. Korobkov

*
On the invitation of the peasants, on November 14, 1920, V. I. Lenin, together with N. K. Krupskaya, attended the opening of the power station, equipped by the forces of the local agricultural association in the village of Kashino, Yaropolskaya volost, Volokolamsk uezd, Moscow gubernia. V. I. Lenin spoke at the rally and talked with the peasants. In his report at the VIII Congress of Soviets on December 22, 1920, V. I. Lenin said: "I recently had to be at a peasant festival in a remote area of the Moscow gubernia, in the Volokolamsk uezd, where the peasants have electric lighting. A rally was held in the street, and one of the peasants came out and began to make a speech in which he welcomed this new event in the life of the peasants. He said that we, the peasants, were dark, and now we have light, 'an unnatural light that will illuminate our peasant darkness.' I personally was not surprised by these words. Of course, for the non-Party peasant masses, electric light is an 'unnatural' light, but for us, it is unnatural that hundreds, thousands of years peasants and workers could live in such darkness, in poverty, in oppression by landlords and capitalists. You can't get out of this darkness quickly. But we must ensure at the present moment that every power station built by us is truly transformed into a support for education, that it engages, so to speak, in the electrical education of the masses" (Works, Volume XXVI, p. 47).

From Volokolamsk along the highway through Shchekino-Putyatino, from it to the right from the highway about 1 1/2 versts to Kashino*.

1920

43821
NOTE TO THE ELECTRICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE MOSCOW COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS
November 20, 1920
According to reports from a representative from the localities (Comrade Kurkov from the village of Kashino), a dynamo could be manufactured at the "Dynamo" factory (near the Simonov Monastery, near Moscow, behind the Spasskaya Gate) (1 verst from Moscow).

ON ELECTRIC PLOUGHS
5840
NOTE TO THE NARCOMZEM
November 15, 1920
Comrade Sereda

For three large centers of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk gubernia that do not have electrification:
— Ivanovo-Voznesensk
— Shuya
— Kineshma the workers are requesting electric plows. Please order a reference and inform me whether it is possible to fulfill this request and what conditions are required for this*.

Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Printed from a typewritten copy.

25407
TO THE SMALL COUNCIL
No later than November 23, 1920

I request that the issue of ordering electrically-powered tillage implements (NCZem) be resolved by Saturday (so that it can be in the Great Council of People's Commissars on Saturday). Urgent!**
_________
Lenin

*
The Narcomzem informed V. I. Lenin on November 18 that it would be possible to satisfy this request if the Supreme Council of National Economy urgently manufactured 50 electric plows for the Narcomzem.

**
Having considered the issue of the manufacture of electrically-powered tillage equipment on November 23, the Small Council of People's Commissars resolved: