V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v53; en:CW/CW42;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL
STATISTICAL BOARD

Have six copies made and sent to:

1) Popov
2) Krzhizhanovsky
3-5) Show to members of the Council of Labour and Defence
6) Spare copy

August 16

Comrade Popov,

Correspondence with the C.S.B., in particular the data on current industrial statistics which it sent me on August 3, has convinced me most thoroughly that my instructions (in my letter of June 4, 1921)* are not being carried out at all, and that the entire work and organisation of the C.S.B. are wrong.

On August 3 I was sent obsolete data on current industrial statistics, and multa non multum—much in volume, but little in content! Just like the “bureaucratic institutions” from which, in your letter of June 11, 1921, you want to dissociate the C.S.B.

_Economic Life_, in a supplement to No. 152, i.e., in July, had already published fuller data!

From the same _Economic Life_ I had already received data for the first quarter of 1921!

The C.S.B., which lags behind a private group of writers, is a model of a bureaucratic institution. Perhaps in two years’ time it will produce a mass of material for scientific work, but that is not what we need.

Nearly two and a half months have passed since my letter of June 4, 1921, and everything remains as before. The same defects. The “calendar programme”, etc., which you promised (in your letter of June 11) is not forthcoming.

I once again draw your attention to the wrongness of this and to the necessity of speeding up the work of reorganising the conduct of affairs in the Central Statistical Board.

In particular:

1) The chairman or director of the C.S.B. must work in closer contact with the State Planning Commission, under the direct instructions and assignments of the chairman of the State Planning Commission and its presidium;

2) Current statistics (both industrial and agricultural) must supply final, practically most important data (postponing the academic elaboration of “complete” data) not later than, but necessarily before, our press.

It is necessary to be able to single out what is practically important and urgent, postponing what is academically valuable to a later date;

3) Together with the State Planning Commission, you must draw up a kind of index-number for assessing the state

* The letter has not been traced. _Ed._

of our entire national economy, and it must be worked out at least once a month, with the obligatory comparison of figures for the pre-war period, then for 1920, and, if possible, for 1917, 1918 and 1919.

If it is impossible to obtain exact figures, approximate, tentative, preliminary figures must be given (with a special note on each such or similar category).

For practical work we must have figures, and the C.S.B. must have them before anyone else. The checking of the accuracy of the figures, the determination of the percentage of error, etc., can be postponed for a certain time.

What figures should be taken for the index-number is to be determined by the C.S.B. and the State Planning Commission. (For example: the main, basic figures: population, territory, output of the most important products, main results of transport work, etc.—at least 10-15 figures, on the lines of the “index-numbers” long compiled by foreign statistics.)

4) With regard to the eight questions indicated in my “sample list” of June 4, you must immediately, without the slightest delay (for it is absolutely inadmissible that nothing should have been done in two and a half months), organise the collection and compilation of data forthwith, both in general and in particular:
—forthwith for Moscow (Moscow must be a model)
—then for Petrograd
—and for each gubernia (singling out those gubernias which are able to organise the work quickly, without red tape, and not according to old academic habits).

Let nine-tenths of the available forces of the C.S.B. and the gubernia statistical bureaus be immediately directed to the correct and rapid elaboration of these eight questions, and one-tenth to academic work on the study of complete and comprehensive data. If it cannot be done otherwise, then 99/100 of the forces must be assigned to the elaboration of what is practically and immediately needed for our construction, and the rest postponed to better times, to times when there will be a surplus of forces.

5) Every month the C.S.B. must submit to the Council of Labour and Defence—and necessarily before the press—preliminary results on the main questions of the national economy (with the obligatory comparison with the previous year). These main questions, main figures, both those included in the “index-number” and those not included, must be worked out immediately.

I request you to send me the programme of these questions and a reply on the other points without delay.

Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars,
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)