LENIN’S COLLECTION OF PARTY DOCUMENTS
On matters of principle, they abandoned all disputes. All of this is mere empty rhetoric—scholastic quibbling that must be cast aside. Our entire focus must be directed toward the practical conditions underlying concession negotiations, from which we can, if we are not foolish, extract substantial benefits for ourselves. Professional experts and party leaders must demonstrate their ingenuity and their practical understanding of these conditions—matters about which we cannot and will not speak in the press, since capitalist interests closely monitor the Russian press, just as we did not disclose, during the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the specific assignments entrusted to Comrade Ioffe. In practice, we should concentrate on those concrete methods and techniques from which we can derive tangible advantages for improving the lot of workers and peasants. Any such improvement holds immense significance for the proletariat. This is precisely what professional activists ought to bear in mind. We must ensure that no friction arises, no pretexts for conflict are allowed to take root. The task is a difficult one; at present, no one yet wishes to enter into concession agreements with us. Everyone is waiting for us to present demands that are impossible to fulfill.
Therefore, from our side, we must unconditionally devote every possible effort to securing several such agreements. Of course, we have made a number of mistakes—this is a new undertaking, and up to now, not a single socialist republic has ever entered into concession agreements with capitalists. Yet it is imperative that our professional comrades lend us their support. Here lies vast scope for interpretation and for exerting pressure—right up to the point of strikes, which remain firmly within our grasp.
1 See note 2 on p. 199.
• Lenin had in mind the “Plan for the Electrification of the RSFSR: Introduction to the Report Presented to the Eighth Congress of the State Commission on the Electrification of Russia,” published by Gostekhizdat in Moscow in 1920.
3 D. Ryazanov and A. Shlyapnikov conducted demagogic agitation against concession agreements among professional circles. Lenin’s speech before the Fraction put an end to the wavering of certain trade union officials on this issue.
Shlyapnikov and Ryazanov, foreseeing that their demagogic activities would be exposed at this very meeting—as indeed they were—immediately after Lenin’s speech declared that they simply did not understand the reasons that had prompted Lenin to address the VTSUPS Fraction, since, according to them, there were supposedly no fundamental disagreements within the Fraction regarding concession agreements.
4 Lenin’s remarks were based on excerpts from reports prepared by specialists of the NFTLPIKON (see p. 142 of this collection).
f t Marchais spoke of improved supplies
£/s for workers at concession enterprises, compared to those at other establishments
3/ 3.
0 See p. 150 of this collection.
7 By “our comrade,” Lenin meant M. Tomsky and A. Goltzman.