13. IX. 1921

Yesterday I discovered that an urgent document I gave to Fotieva for L. B. Kamenev went through the "usual," that is to say, idiotic, channel and was delayed for many hours, and without my intervention would have been delayed for days a second time.

Such work by the office is inadmissible, and if even once more such typical stalling and spoiling of work is discovered, I shall resort to strict penalties and a change of personnel. I prescribe:

1) for each document or packet that I give for dispatch, to verify personally with the duty secretary (who must have a substitute in case of absence and coordinate with the telephone operators on duty around the clock regarding replacement);

2) whether all inscriptions have been made (in person; urgent; with receipt on the envelope, etc.);

3) whether it was delivered immediately to the courier;

4) invariably to verify by telephone with the addressee;

5) to show me the envelope returned with receipt;

6) the same rules to be carried out in fact by the telephone operators in the booth in case of assignment in hours when the secretaries are absent.

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

First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXIII

Printed from the manuscript