V. I.

Lenin

180

To:   A. O. ALSKY

29/ V.1921.

Comrade Alsky:

I draw your attention to this report, which has been submitted to me by a comrade from the All-Russia
Extraordinary Commission, who had been specially authorised by
me, in agreement with Comrade Dzerzhinsky, I appointed the
inquiry which has produced this report after a communication I had had from the most reliable Communists that
things were not quite well at
Gokhran. [1]

Comrade Bokii’s communication fully confirms this.

I draw your most serious attention to this fact.

You, above all, and then all the members of the
Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Finance, and
Comrade Basha especially, must devote ten times more work to
Gokhran. Unless things are reorganised at Gokhran within
the shortest period in such a way as absolutely to exclude
the possibility of stealing, while at the same time accelerating all the work and enlarging its scale, the Deputy
People’s Commissar and all the members of the Collegium
of the People’s Commissariat for Finance will be faced not only with Party, but also with criminal charges.

Because of the delay in the Gokhran work (it is harder to work in winter and a great deal has to be done before
it sets in), and because of the stealing there, the Republic
is suffering vast losses, for precisely at this time, in these
hard days, we must obtain the maximum of valuables quickly for commodity exchange with foreign countries.

It is necessary:

1) to organise regular and frequent conferences with
Bokii for the earliest reorganisation of Gokhran;

2) to bring the protection and surveillance to perfection
(special railings, wooden partitions; lockers or partitions
for changing; surprise searches; systems of double and triple surprise check-ups in accordance with all the rules
of the art of criminal investigation , etc., etc.);

3) to recruit, in case of necessity, dozens and hundreds
of responsible and absolutely honest Communists in Moscow to participate (say, once a month or two months) in
surprise, day and night , audits. The staffs and the inspectors
must be given instructions in the minutest detail ;

4) it shall be the duty of every member of the P.C.F.
Collegium, without exception, to conduct in person , at least
once a month, day and night surprise inspections of
Gokhran, at the work places and wherever else stealing may
occur. The Deputy People’s Commissar shall keep a personal secret register of these inspections.

In view of the secret character of this paper, I request
you to return it to me at once, and to have all the members
of the P.C.F. Collegium sign it in person.

29/ V V. Ulyanov (Lenin )

Chairman, C.P.C.

( P.S. If Chutskayev is still here, let him read it as well:
he bears a considerable part of the blame!)

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Notes:
[1]
See Notes 155 and 156.