To Members of the Politburo and

Comrades Rykov

Stalin

Bukharin

Kamenev

Krestinsky

Rykov

Responses have been received to the Politburo's inquiry regarding oil concessions from both Krasin (and Bogdatev) and from the chairman of the Chief Oil Committee Dosser and his 4 specialists.

These responses, in connection with the report on "The Condition of the Oil Industry at the End of 1920" (Baku, 1920), I am directing to comrade Stalin and request all members of the Politburo to contact him in order to obtain these materials from him in time and read them. (In the printed report it is sufficient even to merely examine the passages I have marked in blue pencil on the pages listed on the cover, i.e., on the page before the text.)

These materials must be read with urgency, since at the Politburo (Monday, February 14 at 8 p.m.) it is desirable to reach a decision.

These materials prove conclusively that:

(a) a catastrophe threatens and is imminent; (b) that concessions must be granted with all our might (i.e., we must find concessionaires) in Baku; (c) that the Chief of the Chief Oil Committee is extraordinarily stupid. The stupidity of such a high-ranking person is dangerous.

Briefly on all three of these points:

(a) A catastrophe is approaching. This has been proven with particular clarity by the specialists of the Chief Oil Committee. The fool Dosser in his "memorandum" attempts to minimize the danger. This is especially stupid. One must read the assessments of all the specialists of the Chief Oil Committee and compare them with Dosser's weakened conclusion.

(b) "The utility of attracting a concessionaire is problematic," thus Dosser formulates his conclusion. Apparently he frightened his own specialists, as a true well-intentioned fool would, saying that it is "proper" for a "Soviet" person to be only against concessions!! A truly bear's service!!

In reality, from the reports of the Chief Oil Committee's specialists (business-like reports and strictly confirmed by the printed report "to the end of 1920"), it is clearer than clear what conditions we must set for the concessionaire.

Whether a concessionaire will be found under these conditions is, of course, "problematic." But no politician who has not lost his mind would ask this of either Dosser or the specialists.

Our task is to apply all efforts so that such concessionaires are found.

If they are not found, so much the worse for us.

If we are unable to apply all efforts to find a concessionaire, then we will prove to be bankrupts.

The work of drafting conditions must be accelerated.

One must immediately begin the struggle against the most harmful prejudice, which can easily captivate part of the workers and which must be overcome at all costs. This prejudice consists of the "idea": "we do not want to work for capitalists" or a variant: "we do not want to work for capitalists if nearby workers are working not for capitalists."

The harm of this prejudice (refuted both by our RCP program and by Marxism in general) is clear from such an approximate calculation that provides a visual summary of the specialists' reports.

We extract 100a of oil.

Extraction is falling.

Water encroachment threatens catastrophe.

If we attract a concessionaire who will help extract 100a + 100b of oil, and if we pay him 98b for this, then our extraction, although slowly (100a + 2b), will increase instead of falling.

The question arises: are the workers, who give 98b out of 100b to the concessionaire, working "for capitalists" or for Soviet power?

The answer is not difficult.

I strongly request that you examine as quickly as possible the attached materials and reports so that a decision can be reached as soon as possible. Delay is extremely dangerous.

12. II. 1921.

First published in 1945 in Lenin Miscellany XXXV

Printed from the manuscript