Date: 1921
Source: ru:LS/v20

dialectics. This is most evident in the realm of supply. Food supplies are procured: (a) through ration cards and consumption norms established by the People’s Commissariat for Trade; (b) via theft from factories and enterprises; (c) as a result of in-kind bonuses distributed through cooperative channels; and (d) as a direct outcome of enterprises or workers themselves realizing their own in-kind entitlements. Workwear and specialized clothing are allocated by trade unions; technical and material supplies are managed by the Main Departments. Enterprises are supplied with food, workwear, and specialized clothing not according to their productive capacity, but rather according to their actual needs. In other words, the relationship between supply and productivity is not direct, but indirect—(production may increase or decrease, yet supply remains roughly constant). This system emerged as a legacy of the wartime period of our revolution, when the Republic was essentially “a military camp.” Within a besieged fortress, it is entirely understandable that consumer communism should have developed so extensively. Today, however, this system must be radically rethought and brought into alignment—above all—with the interests of production. At that time, the aim was to provide everyone with as equitable a share as possible, to feed and sustain them, while we were still unable to undertake the task of restoring production. Now the task is different: above all else, we must restore production—and thereby unleash the development of productive forces.
3. A direct consequence of this is the utter vagueness that has come to characterize our economic management. We waste vast quantities of food and other resources, achieving negligible productive output and squandering them needlessly. If we do not swiftly and decisively adapt to the new conditions, this will inevitably lead us to defeat on the economic front.
4. It is imperative that we immediately reorganize along the following principles. First, we must establish, as a fundamental principle, that in the realm of the national economy, the state gives nothing to anyone for free. Second, all worker supplies must be factored into their wages—and for the portion that remains, wages must be significantly increased, approaching the pre-revolutionary standards. Third, all worker supplies should be allocated not per worker, but per unit of output produced—except in those industries and sectors where, by the very nature of the work, such an allocation is not feasible.
LENIN COLLECTION
[We must abandon egalitarianism as a “principle of supply.”] Fourth, the provision of supplies to workers must be carried out by all supplying agencies through factory administrations and managerial bodies—which receive what they need only upon fulfilling the obligations assigned to them by higher authorities, for which they bear legal responsibility in case of non-compliance. At the core of all economic policy must lie cost accounting.
The measures outlined above are to be implemented, beginning with the largest and most vulnerable enterprises, under the guidance of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council, once the necessary preliminary organizational work has been completed.
5. Given the now evident impossibility of supplying industry—even at starvation-level quotas—from state funds, it is essential that state trusts be authorized to sell off, in large quantities—and now—much of their own domestically produced goods, both within the Republic through Centrosyuz and abroad through the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade.
6. We must break the deadlock and begin to relieve the state apparatus of its burden of managing small enterprises and factories.
We must energetically and resolutely implement the decree on leasing out enterprises.
We must put an end to the ambiguity and lack of clear agreement surrounding this issue. Otherwise, our industry will undoubtedly fail to fully harness the immense potential that lies before it. As one illustrative example, consider the following: due to poor harvests, the peasantry is beginning to flood the market with an unprecedented volume of hides. Meanwhile, more than three thousand tanneries across the Republic remain idle.
[7. The State Planning Commission, having undertaken tremendous efforts to integrate the Republic’s highly skilled technical workforce into Soviet production, is lagging behind in drafting its plan for the second half of 1921. Under the current circumstances, this is utterly unacceptable. The primary task of the moment is to clearly and soberly define the role and significance of our nation’s key economic sectors over the near term. It is imperative that we immediately instruct the State Planning Commission, based on preliminary estimates of food and fuel resources, to draw up a draft plan for the second half of 1921.
8. At the heart of this plan must lie: (a) the principle of preferential treatment (priority) for the nation’s core industries—fuel, metallurgy, and others. Priority should be realized through the use of domestically produced goods and by establishing integrated, multi-sector enterprises; (b) the maximum possible concentration of production and the intensive consolidation of enterprises.]