V. I.

Lenin

306

To:   M. P. TOMSKY [1]

7/VIII.

Comrade Tomsky:

Thank you very much for the letter which is very clear.

Of course, you are right that we in Moscow must have “9 million
sheep”. [2] They must be obtained at all costs!
Send us at the C.L.D. a calendar programme of their receipt at once .

The same about grain.

We are sending Comrade Joffe in an attempt to settle your differences with Comrade Safarov.

I believe the two tendencies can and must be combined:

1) the first priority is grain and meat for Moscow;

2) ( for this) a number of concessions and bonuses to the
“merchants”;

3) no question about the new economic policy (10th
Congress, Conference of May 1921, etc.);

4) Moslem poor peasants’ committees indispensable, and

5) the Moslem poor should be treated with care and
prudence, with a number of concessions.

It is possible and necessary to combine and consolidate
the line of wisdom and prudence, maintaining the interests
of our “world policy” throughout the East.

With communist greetings, Lenin

P.S. The C.C. will probably agree to your request concerning the half-year. We shall have a talk with
Rudzutak.

---
Notes:
[1]
This was written in connection with a letter from M. P. Tomsky,
Chairman of the Commission of the All-Russia C.E.C. and the
C.P.C. of the R.S.F.S.R. for Turkestan affairs, of July 23, 1921,
setting out his differences with G. I. Safarov, member of the
Turkestan Bureau of the R.C.P.(B.) Central Committee, on
implementing the New Economic Policy in Turkestan. Tomsky
insisted on introducing the tax in kind and believed it was
impossible to combine the New Economic Policy with the establishment in Turkestan of Committees of Poor Peasants and their
sharing out of the property, cattle and stock requisitioned
from the kulaks. Safarov, for his part, insisted that the tax in
kind and free exchange were not quite applicable to Turkestan
conditions, and laid emphasis on organising unions of the poor
and the class stratification of the local population.

For details on this question see also this volume, Document