V. I.

Lenin

7

[1]

TO THE INVENTIONS SECTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE SUPREME ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Please answer the following questions:

1. How many claims to inventions have been examined
since the section has been set up, and how many are outstanding at present?

2. How many 1) have been recognised as useful, 2)
applied in practice (list the major ones)?

3. What is the order and time allotted to the
examination of every invention and the further dispatch of the
claim?

4. Is it possible for any institution to put through an
invention without the conclusion of the Inventions Section
of the Scientific and Technical Department?

5. Does the Inventions Section of the Scientific and
Technical Department know about

a) the invention of a sole leather substitute made by
Baryshnikov; if yes, what has been done about it,

b) the
invention [2]

Who is at the head of the Inventions
Section? [3]

Lenin

Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

13/ XI-20

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Notes:
[1]
Here and elsewhere such an asterisk denotes headings given
in the original.— Ed.

[2]
An apparent omission in the typewritten copy.— Ed.

[3]
Lenin received a detailed official reply to all his questions from
the Inventions Committee of the Scientific and Technical
Department of the Supreme Economic Council on November 20, 1920.
Appended were: 1) a record of the inventions examined by the
Committee’s sections, 2) the major inventions recognised as
useful and partially applied, 3) a list of inventions deserving
government attention, 4) preliminary opinion of expert F. Blistanov on
the leather substitute invented by engineer A. A. Baryshnikov,
5) the Committee’s report as of November 1, 1920, 6) information
about V. A. Petrov, military engineer and technologist,
chairman of the Technical Department.

At the same time, Lenin received an additional report from
A. K. Kaufman, member of the Committee Collegium, who dealt
with the shortcomings in the Committee’s work and their causes.