X II. CENTRAL STATISTICAL
ADMINISTRATION
August—October 192*

TELEPHONE MESSAGE OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL STATISTICAL ADMINISTRATION
To the Deputy Manager of the Central Statistical Administration.
August 2, 1921
I have received your message of July 29 under No. 7772. Please
send me the information available at the Central Statistical Administration for 1920
(and if there is any, then for part of 1921) in the briefest Form, and
specifically: 1) to what number of *gubernias* do the data relate and for what
time; 2) totals of product output; 3) totals of fuel consumption.
Only these three figures and only for the main branches
of industry (e.g., textile, metallurgical, main-paper, electrical engineering, salt, rubber).
If there are general totals. Separate information from the *glavki* and
information directly from the factories.
Lenin.
LETTERS ON THE WORK OF THE CENTRAL STATISTICAL
ADMINISTRATION.
1.

Make

copies and send to the manager
D. Stash. Upr.
1) Popov
2) Krzhizhanovsky
3— 5) show to members of the *STO*
6) for reserve
* Printed from a machine copy. Ed.

CENTRAL STATISTICAL ADMINISTRATION

16/VIII [1921]
Comrade Popov
Correspondence with the Central Statistical Administration, in particular the data delivered to me on 3/VIII on current industrial statistics showed me with complete conviction that my instructions (in
the letter of 4. VI. 1921)2 are not being followed at all and that the whole
work, the whole organization of the Central Statistical Administration is incorrect.
On current industrial statistics I was supplied with outdated information on 3/VIII and supplied with multa non multum — much
in volume, little in content! Just like the «bureaucratic] institutions» from which you want to separate the Central Statistical Administration in the letter of 11. VI. 1921.
«Economic Life» in the appendix to No. 152 i.e. in
July it already printed more complete information!
From the same «Economic Life» I already had information
for the 1st V* of 1921!
The Central Statistical Administration, which is lagging behind a private
group of writers, is an example of a bureaucratic institution. May be, for scientific work in a couple of years it will give
a mass of materials, but we don't need that.
Almost 21/2 months have passed since my letter of 4/VI
1921 — everything remains the same. The shortcomings are the same. The «calendar program» promised
by you, etc. (in the letter of 11. VI) is missing.
Once again I draw your attention to the incorrectness of this and
the need to speed up the work of reorganizing the conduct of affairs in
the Central Statistical Administration.
In particular:
1) the chairman or head of the Central Statistical Administration should work in closer
contact with the State Planning Commission, according to the direct instructions and assignments
of the chairman of the State Planning Commission and its presidium.
2) current statistics (both industrial] and agricultural) should give summary, most important practical information (postponing the academic development of «complete» information), no later, but necessarily earlier than our press.
We must be able to single out the practically important and urgent, postponing the academically valuable until later.
/ 3) it is necessary to compile, together with the State Planning Commission, a kind of index-
number for assessing the state of our entire national economy and necessarily develop it no less than once a month, with a mandatory comparison of the figures of the pre-war,
then 1920 and, if possible, 1917, 1918 and 1919.
If it is impossible to obtain exact figures, approximate, presumptive, preliminary figures should
be indicated (with a special caveat about each such or similar category).
For practical] work we must have figures, and the Central Statistical Administration must have them before everyone else. And the verification of the accuracy of the figures,
the determination of the %-point of error, etc. will be postponed for a certain time*.
What figures should be taken for the index-number, this
should be determined by the Central Statistical Administration and the State Planning Commission. (Approximately: the main,
basic figures: population, territory, production of the main
products, the main results of the work of transport, etc. — even
if 10—15 figures in relation to how foreign statistics have long been compiling
these «number indicators»).
/ 4) On those 8 questions that are indicated in my list of 4/VI
in the «exemplary list», it is obligatory to immediately, without the slightest
red tape (for it was completely unacceptable in 21/2 months
to do nothing) organize the receipt and summary of information
immediately both in general and in particular:
— immediately in Moscow (Moscow should be exemplary)
— then in Piter
— and in each *gubernia* (highlighting those *gubernias* where they know
how to set things up quickly, without red tape, not according to the academic old
customs).
Let 9/10 of the available forces of the Central Statistical Administration and the *gubstatbureau* be
immediately directed to the correct and rapid development of these
eight questions, and 1/10 to the academic work of studying complete
and comprehensive information. If it is impossible otherwise, then it is necessary to give 99/100 of the forces
to the development of what is practically and immediately needed
for our construction, and postpone the rest until better times, until those times when there will be an excess of forces.
5)
Monthly in the *STO*, the Central Statistical Administration should present —
and necessarily before the press — preliminary results on the main
questions of the national] economy (with a mandatory] comparison
with the previous year). These main questions, the main figures,
both those included in the «number-indicator» and those not included in it,
should be developed immediately.
Please send me a program of these questions and an answer on
other points without delay.
Chairman of the *SNK* V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

CENTRAL STATISTICAL ADMINISTRATION
1 I. I. Popov — Manager of the Central Statistical Administration.
2 Lenin's letter of June 4, 1921, with instructions on the work of the Central Statistical Administration, has not
been found.
11.
S918
To the Manager] of the Central Statistical Administration or his Deputy.
Copies:
1) to the Central Statistical Administration
2) to me
3) to the Presidium of the State Planning Commission
/add my request to give an opinion to Comrade Sereda or Comrade Strumilin.
)
1/IX 1921
The «program» of works sent to me without a date boils down to
a request for the allocation of additional quantities of material
resources.
This cannot be done now.
Therefore, the entire program must be reduced so that the necessary work can be continued (and, moreover, finished more regularly and faster) with the available, current resources.
I propose to make this reduction immediately; the question
of allocating additional resources should be postponed until approximately November.
I propose that the reduction of the program be carried out in such a way as to leave (pending the expansion of funds) only the most
necessary work. These should include:
1.
Monthly reports on the distribution of food by the state.
The Forms of obtaining information must be established together with the People's Commissariat for
Food Supply, approximately as follows:
a) the number of people receiving bread (to begin with, it is probably safer
to limit ourselves to bread if there is no strength to add information about all
other products issued, both food and non-food)
at 1/1 pound
7/8 »
3/4 »

» etc.

b) their categories by professions, occupations, etc.
c) total: total number of recipients and total amount of bread issued.
The data for Moscow and Petersburg are the most urgent; then Moscow and Petrograd gubernias, the most important industrial gubernias (Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Donbass, Baku, the Urals, etc.) and finally the remaining gubernias.
_2. Monthly summaries on enterprises being transferred to collective supply.
While there are few of them, take all of them under supervision (as proposed in your note, p. 2, § 1). Then, when there become very many of them, survey thoroughly !/8 or 1/10, on a sample basis.
In brief — all enterprises on collective supply.
You have taken the reporting of these enterprises too broadly (p. 2 at the end, § 2). It is possible and necessary to take it more briefly, only the most important. 4
3. Reduce the current industrial statistics for monthly summaries, placing in the first place, as absolutely necessary, the determination of the quantity of products produced, and the most important ones at that.
This information is absolutely necessary monthly.
The rest is not absolutely necessary and is developed less urgently, to the extent of the strength and resources of the Central Statistical Board.
4. Production, distribution, consumption of fuel. '
Absolutely necessary monthly in totals.
Develop the program together with Glavton, changing the forms now in effect as little as possible.
5. Monthly summaries on commodity exchange (Comprod and Tsentro-Soyuz) in the briefest form: for such-and-such quantity of bread, such-and-such quantity of such-and-such products issued by uezds.
6. Accounting for the work of Soviet institutions is, of course, difficult, as you indicate in appendix] No. 1, § IV. But difficulty is not impossibility. If not monthly, then once every 2-3 months, summaries are absolutely necessary, if only to begin with, on "personnel on hand" in comparison with pre-war personnel or with the personnel of other departments, other gubernias, etc., with a rational subdivision of all employees into categories (responsible leaders; purely clerical personnel; servants - an approximate list of some categories).
Comparison of the largest and smallest personnel numbers by gubernias and so on. Moscow and Petersburg first and foremost.