V. I. Lenin

To the Petrograd City Conference of Non-Party Workers [1]

Comrades, I very much regret that I have been unable to go to
Petrograd at your invitation. I send heartfelt greetings to the
non-Party conference, and I welcome your work. The assistance of
the non-Party masses and cooperation with them is of especial
importance today, when the bourgeoisie of the world is conducting an incredible campaign of lies against Soviet Russia,
in an effort to prevent us from concluding any trade agreements
with foreign countries. The Kronstadt events have brought home
to the workers and peasants the fact that any shift of power in
Russia tends to favour the whiteguards; no wonder Milyukov and
all intelligent leaders of the bourgeoisie welcomed the
Kronstadt Soviets without the Bolsheviks" slogan.

In conveying my greetings to the non-Party conference, I should
like to wish you every success in your work, and ask you to pay
special attention to the present need-in fact a constant need-of
drawing more non-Party workers and peasants into economic
construction. A regional economic centre has been set up in
Petrograd. Let us intensify our effort. Local functionaries are
being vested with broader powers and should show more initiative. The non-Party people should set to work, and let us
have more and more men.

Greetings, Lenin

Endnotes

[1] The conference
(April 10-20, 1921) was attended by over 1,000 delegates from
Petrograd factories and plants. It discussed the following
quesitons: 1) The tasks of the working class and its participation in the economic construction of Soviet Russia; 2)
Workers’ conditions in connection with the tasks of organising production; 3) Problems of food and workers’
supply. The Mensheviks who got in as non-party workers did not
succeed in disrupting the meeting because the mass of workers
expressed a desire to work with the Communist Party.

The delegates sent their greetings to Lenin and invited him to
the meeting. Lenin’s reply was read out at the final sitting on April 20, 1921.