APPARATUS OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS, STO, AND PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIATS
2 2 7 i.e., in an idiotic way and was late for many hours, and without my
intervention would have been late for days for the second time.
Such work by the chancellery is inadmissible, and if such a typical red-tape and spoiling of work is discovered even once more,
I will resort to strict penalties and personnel changes. I prescribe:
1) For each document or package that I give for
dispatch, check personally by the duty secretary (who must have a substitute in case of departure and agree
with the telephone operators on duty around the clock about the replacement);
2) Whether all inscriptions have been made (in [one's own] hands; urgent;
with receipt on the envelope, etc.);
3) Whether it was immediately handed over to the courier;
4) Be sure to check by telephone with the addressee;
5) Show me the envelope returned with a receipt;
6) Carry out the same rules in practice also by the telephone operators in
the booth, in case of assignment during the hours when the secretary is not there.
*
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
NOTES TO I.I. GORBUNOV.
10316
[September 13, 1921]
Comrade Gorbunov!
I ask you to subject the culprits to a penalty: if it is the first
time, then a reprimand; if it is the second or there are aggravating circumstances, then with a warning that they will be dismissed if they do not show
greater accuracy.
Establish a check: once out of 400 cases or 1 day out of
45, etc.
_
Lenin.
II \
™8
September 17, [1921]
Comrade Gorbunov!
It turns out that Kursky and Cherlyunchakevich1 left, without
formally handing over their business - namely, signing the minutes
of the Small Council of People's Commissars. This is the height of lawlessness. Immediately restore order:
a) draw up a protocol, b) request a response by telegraph from

* Printed from a machine copy. Ed.