V. I.

Lenin

Speeches at a Meeting of Non-Party Delegates to the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets [1]

December 26, 1921

I

Comrades, having decided to continue our talk—I think we have no doubts on this score—I just want to say that it is now
about half past eight and we can sit on till half past nine or even
later. We must pick a question which we are most interested in. If, as one comrade said here, it is the agrarian
question, then I say—let us distribute our time on those questions
which are most important for you. My business here, as I understand it, is
mainly to listen and make notes. What I wanted to tell you I have already
told you at the congress. I am trying to take down notes as to what
gubernia, what uyezd the complaints come from and what most of them are
about. I think the time should be distributed in such a way that after the
question of compulsory carting tax has been dealt with, we should figure
out what questions seem most important so that delegates from different
gubernias can have time to have their say on them. My business here is to
make as detailed notes as possible in order to know what the non-Party
delegates have spoken about. In any case, it will be very difficult for me
to answer some of the questions that will be put here, as I have no
information at hand and cannot give an immediate reply. That is why I
suggest choosing questions which are considered the most important and on
which delegates will speak from the floor, the way the carting tax question
has been raised, and I shall write down every statement made by local
people.

2

Comrades, it is very difficult for me to say even a few words on this
question, because all the questions that have been put here I am writing
down with a note of what gubernia they come from, but without exact
information from the institution concerned I am unable straight off to
answer the questions that have been put here. The comrade from the
Commissariat for Labour who has just spoken, found it much easier because
he has before his eyes a published law and an explanation of what
mitigations the enforcement of that law will yield. Without information
from the commissariats concerned I can give no definite answers to some of
the questions that have been put here.

A number of notes have been sent up. One of them is from a Ukrainian
comrade from Kiev, who asks why I have never visited the Ukraine. It is a
long journey to the Ukraine, and a difficult one to undertake.

One comrade asks, who is going to pay for the horses killed in the
carting service. I have made a note of that question. The comrade has
already answered in a general way.

Two notes have been handed up on the question of the tax in kind and
about it being impossible for the needy peasant to buy textile
goods. Naturally, the peasants in all gubernias these days have many
difficulties like these to bear. Without information from the institution
concerned I am unable to answer this sort of question just now.

Can we help and to what extent can we help? I repeat, that at the
moment I can give no reply. It seems to me that the most important thing
that has been said here on the question of carting service is—as far
as I can gather from a glance at my notes (and I have written down briefly
what each of the comrades has said here)—the most important thing, to
my mind, are the instances of abuse and irregularities on the part of the

Zheleskoms. [2] Most of the complaints have been about the stints
assigned by the Zheleskoms being heavy, about the hard time peasants are
having, about there being far too many irregularities in the distribution
and assignment of jobs, especially at a time when they are simply harmful
to the peasants’ farm work. I have made notes of all these remarks, and a
note that when the last three-week campaign was held, all comrades from the
centre were sent out to the local areas. I asked for exact information on
all irregularities connected with fuel work, and on all abuses, as well as
a number of reports to be collected. I have already begun to receive
letters about this, but recently, owing to ill-health, which made me
confine myself only to a general report at the congress, I have not been
able to deal with these letters myself. This will be entrusted to another
comrade, who is temporarily taking my place, but we shall definitely
collect all the information that has come in during the last three-week
campaign. The complaints about the irregularities and abuses of the
Zheleskoms I consider, on the whole, undoubtedly correct. One of the
principal reasons why it was decided to introduce the carting tax which the
comrade from the Labour Commissariat has spoken about here is that, unless
the amount of work to be done is properly determined (this attempt is being made by the fixing of a six-day period of work in the law), unless this is
properly determined in the law, abuses by the gubernia logging committees
and the Zheleskoms are bound to take place and will be very difficult to
combat. But when the law definitely declares, as it now does, how many work
days are required and there will be a known set task fixing how much work
is to be done in the given number of days, the abuses will be much easier
to combat. Naturally, the fight against abuses by these bodies in the
gubernias and uyezds is no easy job, especially when, as a comrade here
pointed out, many of the old employees, the former land owners and former
timber contractors have wormed their way into these bodies. A stricter eye
must be kept on this in the local areas and we must have more comrades from
among the non-Party peasants in the Central Executive Committee, who could
be applied to in the event of a complaint failing to reach its destination,
and who would raise the question at a sitting of the C.E.C. and demand an
investigation into the abuses. These measures will be put through at this
congress in any case. The number of C.E.C. members from among the non-Party
peasants, as comrades taking part in the congress have told me, will
definitely be increased. By this means it will be possible to keep an eye
on abuses by the Zheleskoms and easier to combat them when there will be
more non-Party peasant members in the C.E.C. I repeat, I am making a note
of all the remarks that are made here and shall write to the
appropriate commissariat or economic council about each of them in order to
have proper measures taken. I cannot of course give a reply offhand to each
particular question without getting the information from the commissariat
concerned.

3

I have asked Comrade Kalinin for two minutes to clear up any
misunderstanding that his words may have caused. [3] I am sure he did not intend to impute to me the idea that I
ever suggested burning prayer-books. Needless to say, I never suggested
such a thing and never could. You know that according to our Constitution,
the fundamental law of our Republic, freedom of conscience in respect of religion is fully
guaranteed to every person.

Another word to the comrade who spoke about the very difficult
situation in some of the uyezds of Vyatka Gubernia. These uyezds are in the
famine-stricken area. Our main hope now will be in the agreement which the
American Government has offered us. We shall conclude it within the next
few days. Under this agreement the American Government offers twenty
million dollars. We shall give ten million, making thirty million dollars
altogether—that is, sixty million gold rubles. This is a sizable
sum. Most of the spring crop area, if not all of it, will be sown. In
addition we are sending men to Canada. I think we shall be able to spend an
extra sum from the gold fund to buy a little more seed. The main problem
now, of course, is the famine, the dearth of fodder. The sowing of spring
crops must be done as fully as possible. Every effort in this direction
will be made. ( Applause .)

---
Notes:
[1]
The Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets sat in Moscow on
December 23-28, 1921. It was attended by 1,993 delegates, of whom 1,631
were voting delegates and 362 had a consultative voice. 1,850 delegates
were Communists, 139 non-Party people, and one delegate each with a
consultative voice from the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the
Anarcho-Universalists, the Jewish Social-Democratic Labour Party Poale Zion
and the Molokan communities.

The congress discussed the reports and passed the following decisions:

1) Resolution on the report of the All-Russia C.E.C. and the C.P.C. on the
Republic’s home and foreign policies;

2) Declaration on the international position of the R.S.F.S.R.;

3) Resolution on the building up of the Red Army and Navy;

4) Resolution on relief to the famine-stricken areas;

5) Appeal for collection of the tax in kind;

6) Instructions on questions of economic activities;

7) Resolution on the preliminary results of the New Economic Policy and on
the Republic’s industry;

8) Resolution on measures for strengthening and developing agriculture;

9) Resolution on agricultural co-operation;

10) Resolution on finances and the budget;

11) Resolution of the C.P.C. on electrification endorsed by the Ninth
Congress of Soviets;

12) Resolution on Soviet administrative activities; 13) Resolution on the
Vecheka.

Lenin put in a great deal of work in preparing for the congress and
directing its proceedings (see present edition, Vol. 33, pp. 141-81).

The Meeting of Non-Party Delegates held on the evening of
December 26, 1921, discussed two questions: that of the compulsory carting
tax (reporter Lemberg, representative of the Commissariat for Labour), and
the agrarian question. The meeting was chaired by M. I. Kalinin.

The first two speeches were delivered by Lenin during the discussion of
the carting tax question, the second speech following a request by one of
the congress delegates asking Lenin to say a few words “about the
servicing of Soviet institutions”.

Lenin’s third speech was delivered during the discussion of the
agrarian question following a speech by Kalinin. Lenin made brief notes of
the speeches at the meeting (see Lenin Miscellany XXIII ,
pp. 292-94, 297-98).

[2]
Zheleskoms —Russian abbreviated name for Railway Logging
Committees supervising felling operations and the carting of wood to the
railway stations for the needs of industry and transport.

[3]
Pointing out that twenty instead of five non-Party peasants would now
be elected to the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, Kalinin said:
“Some comrades say that we elect men by their beards. Excuse me, Comrades,
but a beard means a lot to a peasant. It stands for his way of life, his
thinking, and the best example is the peasant Petrushkin sitting here next
to me. If Comrade Lenin says, ’I’ll go and burn all the prayer-books’, I’d
like to know the opinion of a non-Party man, and I’ll ask Petrushkin what
the peasants will think of my wanting to burn the prayer- books. He 11 say,
’Who cares, let them burn’. He’s a young man, but if I ask a bearded man
he’ll say we ought to wait a bit. This means a lot to us”
( Istorichesky Arkhiv [Historical Archives], No. 2, 1962, p. 76).