21.

*LETTER TO I. K. YEZHOV ON WAREHOUSE AFFAIRS.
To Comrade Yezhov1), Head of the Administration of the Central Directorate of Supply in the Supreme Council of National Economy.
[September 28, 1921]
Comrade Yezhov!
I received and reviewed the papers on the warehouse*).
The transfer to the Supreme Council of National Economy has now been decided.
I will await from you brief but precise reports on whether any improvement in warehouse management is being achieved in practice, how the fight against theft is going, regarding the warehouse in question and other warehouses.
I can also blame you for the red tape: "we have been shouting for three years," "I brought it almost 10 times, it seemed, to the end," you write. But that is the point, that you have never brought the matter to the end without "it seemed."
You know the Constitution of the RSFSR and the Statute of the RCP. To the end means: to the session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (since there is no Congress of Soviets). In the Party, to the Plenum of the Central Committee.
You have never brought it to the end.
1) A brief, "telegraphic," but clear and precise statement to the members of the Central Committee — the members of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee;
2) An article in the press;
3) The initiative of a local or neighboring cell of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, its response, its inquiry to the Moscow Soviet
— these are three measures that are obligatory in the fight against red tape.
This struggle is difficult, no question about it.
But difficult is not impossible.

You gave up, but – did not fight, did not exhaust all the means of struggle.
Warehouse management requires a much more persistent fight against red tape – verification
"from below" and "by those below," – publicity in the press, – more and more verifications, etc.
I would like to hope that, having now a difficult and sad, but useful experience, you will take up this fight against red tape so that you actually bring it "to the end."
From time to time, one needs to know the results of this struggle.
With communistic] greetings, Lenin.
Could you send somehow, along with brief, very brief information on the progress of the struggle (against red tape), brief information about your apparatus (number of people, of whom communists, qualifications: responsible, purely executive, clerical, etc.) and a brief plan of your work.
Write briefly, in telegraphic style, highlighting special attachments, if necessary. I will not read anything long at all, probably.
If there are practical] proposals, highlight them in a separate sheet, ultra-brief, like a telegram, with a copy to the secretary.
Lenin.
*) I. K. Yezhov (born 1885) – was the head of the administration of state warehouses of the Supreme Council of National Economy. He currently works in Tekstil'stroi.
2)
In a letter dated September 15, 1921 to A. S. Kiselev, P. A. Bogdanov, and others (see above, p. 41), Lenin drew attention to V. Mikhels' note "Impoverished Billionaires" in "Izvestia" of September 13. In response to this letter, Bogdanov presented Lenin with Yezhov's note of September 17, 1921, in which the latter rejected the accusations of the "Izvestia" article of concealing 2½ million of metal from accounting and storing tools in the open air, complained about the lack of warehouse space, the multi-authority and the struggle for warehouse space of individual departments among themselves, "about the sea of paper that had to be written" on this matter. The letter ended with the words: "I am afraid that if V. I. Lenin himself does not intervene in this outrageous red tape, the matter will not end: you see, I have almost ten times brought the matter, it seemed, to the end, and it still seems endless."