V. I.

Lenin

546

To:   N. OSINSKY [1]

Comrade Osinsky:

I have read and reread your letter with all possible attention. I resolutely disagree, and cannot bring it up
at the Politbureau. It is, of course, your unquestionable
right to bring it up at the plenum.

You have not a shred, literally not a shred, of businesslike and organisational arguments.

You have made a mistake by insisting on Muralov’s removal, seeing an “intrigue” where there was not a bit
of it. But in order to direct such a People’s Commissariat,
as the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture, and to do
it in such dreadfully difficult conditions, one must not see
“intrigues” or “counter-weights” in those who take a different view of matters or have a different approach, but
must value independent-minded men. You must try out the trio in practice: you + a peasant (we do not yet know
who and what kind of man he will be) + Teodorovich.
There must be no haste to change it before it has come to
life. Your priority influence is assured by the law and by
many other things.

I have seen Mesyatsev at the C.L.D. and the C.P.C. , but very little. No one can prevent him from attending
(and voting) if neither you nor Teodorovich is there. This
could be formalised in a couple of minutes.

But there is no reason to change the Politbureau decision. It must be tried out; it is organisationally correct.

With communist greetings, Lenin

Written between December
14 and 18, 1921

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Notes:
[1]
A reference to N. Osinsky’s letter of December 14, 1921,
connected with the conflict in the People’s Commissariat for
Agriculture (see this volume, Document 506).