Date: 1921-07-21
Source: ru:PSS/v53

Comrades Kalinin, Enukidze, and Smolyaninov

I request that you pay attention to the switchboard on the lower floor of the Kremlin. It is functioning in a completely unsatisfactory manner. In all likelihood, besides any deficiencies in the organization and administration of this institution, there is also the fact that the circle of institutions using it directly has expanded disproportionately.

Would it not be correct to reorganize the matter so that, first and foremost, the switchboard is used only by: 1) members of the Central Committee, 2) members of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and 3) People's Commissars. In my opinion, all other institutions should either be completely excluded or separated out, so that the central governmental apparatus can have a telephone connection that functions absolutely impeccably.

I ask you to inform me of your opinion on this matter. I strongly insist on the necessity of an unconditionally decisive and swift reform60.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Dictated over the telephone on July 21, 1921

First published in 1945 in the Lenin Collection XXXV

Printed from a typescript copy

54 V. I. LENIN