V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v23;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

INSTRUCTION
TO THE PROVISIONAL BERLIN COMMISSION FOR PLACING
ORDERS ABROAD FOR HYDROPEAT*
September 24, 1921

1. For the immediate settlement on the spot of all questions connected with placing orders abroad for items of mechanical equipment for “Hydropeat”, a provisional Commission is set up in Berlin consisting of: V. S. Stomonyakov, V. V. Starkov and R. E. Klasson, under the chairmanship of V. V. Starkov.

2. The Commission is charged with:
a) Detailed determination of the items to be ordered within the limits of the approved allocations, namely: first, one million (1,000,000) gold rubles—for items of equipment for Hydropeat production to the extent of twenty peat-suction units and, second, one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) gold rubles—for experimental mechanisms and apparatus for separating coagulated peat from liquid, in accordance with the decision of L. B. Krasin’s Commission of September 7, 1921**. These items must be determined on the basis of the proposals of the Hydropeat Administration and in conformity with the possible conditions for executing orders in Russia and abroad, proceeding from the principle that only those items for Hydropeat production which cannot be reliably manufactured in Russia by the required date, namely, by March 1, 1922, for the same price in foreign currency, are subject to order abroad.
All items ordered abroad for Hydropeat production must be manufactured and delivered to Moscow by the above-mentioned date; if it is impossible to meet this date for any part of the total requirement, that part and the associated complete items shall not be subject to order abroad***.
The said restriction does not apply to the manufacture of experimental equipment for coagulated peat; the procedure for placing orders for the said equipment, as well as the procedure for preliminary tests, etc., shall be established by the Commission mainly with a view to obtaining the proper technical results.

b) Determination of the technical and commercial conditions of orders.
c) Finding suppliers and concluding contracts.
d) Supervision over the execution of orders and their acceptance.
e) Dispatch of the ordered items to Russia and supervision of their proper transit, both abroad and in Russia.
f) Conducting necessary experiments, tests, etc., in Germany.
g) Monthly submission of reports to the Council of People’s Commissars on the state of affairs.

3. The currency allocated for placing orders, equivalent to one million (1,000,000) gold rubles for items of equipment for Hydropeat production and one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) gold rubles for experimental equipment, is to be transferred to Berlin and placed at the disposal of the Commission, with the latter being granted the right to replace one part of the order with another within the limits of each of the above sums and the right to make payments directly at its discretion.

4. All questions shall be decided by the Commission by a majority vote and shall be put into effect with the approval of the chairman, who is granted the right, on his personal responsibility, to disagree with the decision of the majority and to decide any question independently.

5. Responsibility for the rational execution of the task assigned to the Commission and for the economical expenditure of currency is placed on the whole Commission as a whole and on its chairman in particular.

Chairman, Council of Labour and Defence, V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

I request that this be carried out with special care, so that by March 1, 1922 everything is ready in Berlin and without fail by April 1, 1922 everything is in Moscow. Reports brief but accurate, monthly. Technical verification on the responsibility of the Commission. If necessary, give bonuses. Do not let things slip, as they have already been let slip more than once in this matter.

Lenin.