LETTERS TO N. A. SEMASHKO.
X *4

[September 13, 1921]
Comrade Semashko, I am increasingly receiving indications of the most outrageous condition
of our resorts in Crimea and the Caucasus: bribery, privi-
leges for the bourgeois with outrageous treatment of workers, and
most importantly, complete disorder with treatment and, most importantly, complete
food insecurity.
I ask you to provide me with accurate information that you
have on this, immediately.
And then, in more detail, about the methods of verification: how many resorts
(out of how many) submit correct reports (amount of food per... number of patients, staff, etc.), number
of baths (mud) etc.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
XJ>
2390Т
24. X. 1921
Comrade Semashko!
Having signed today the decision of the Small Council of People's Commissars on two billion
(I think so? I don't remember the exact amount) for cleaning Moscow and having
read the "regulation" of the People's Commissariat of Health
on the week of housing improvement "(Izv[estia;" July ½), I came to the conclusion that my suspicions
(regarding the complete unsuitability of the staging of this whole
matter)
are increasing.
Billions will be taken, embezzled, and pilfered, and nothing will be done.
* Printed from a machine copy. Ed.

In Moscow, it is necessary to achieve exemplary (or at least tolerable, for
a start) cleanliness, because a greater outrage than the "Soviet" filth
in the "first" Soviet houses is impossible to imagine. What about the houses that aren't the first?
Please send me the briefest, but accurate, businesslike,
factual report on what and where came out of the housing improvement week?
Is there at least one gubernia where something has been done not senselessly?
Further. What is being done (and what has been done?) in Moscow? Who is responsible
for the work? Only "officials" with a pompous Soviet title,
who understand nothing, who do not know the business, who only sign
papers? Or are there business leaders? Who exactly?
Achieving personal responsibility is most important.
What has been done to achieve personal responsibility?
Verification through whom?
Through inspectors? How many are there? Who are they?
Through youth detachments (K. S. M.)? Are there any? How many?
Where and how did they show themselves?
What other means of real verification are there?
Are they spending money on the purchase of valuable things (carbolic acid?
cleaning tools? how much was purchased?) or on the maintenance of new "official"
idlers?
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).