MAY 30, 1921

Comrades, I have very little to add to what Comrade Osinsky has said, since the initial draft of the Mandate, which you have *, and the main idea of this bill have already been presented. Precisely because this matter involves details upon whose establishment the very essence of the issue depends, it was decided not to limit its consideration to the STO [Council of Labor and Defense] and SNK [Council of People's Commissars], but to bring this matter before the Party conference, where the Mandate was approved in principle, and to the highest legislative body—the VTSIK [All-Russian Central Executive Committee] session. Local workers must carefully examine the means of implementing this law, and it may initially require the establishment of a whole series of additional rules.

It is essential that this measure, under no circumstances, become yet another source of increased bureaucratism. This is, perhaps, not entirely excluded if we were to receive an excessive number of reports, or if the method of their compilation did not provide guarantees for the possibility of verification. Here, comrades, it is necessary to consider the methods of compiling reports, and perhaps you will find it expedient to select a special commission which, guided by the remarks that will be made here, and by the instructions and directives that you give, will subject the question

* See this volume, pp. 266-291. Ed.

SPEECH ON LOCAL ECONOMIC BODIES
to final discussion. A considerable amount of material on this issue is available to date. Naturally, if reports are to be submitted, then not only economic bodies, but also people's commissariats must do so, i.e., those people's commissariats which, while not being economic, are nevertheless closely connected with economic work. One of the main purposes of printing reports is to make them accessible to the non-Party masses and the population in general. We cannot achieve this through mass production, mass printing of these reports, but only through concentration in libraries. And if so, then it is necessary to establish such a method of work that the brief essence of the reports, the essence of what interests the population most, is necessarily printed. The technical possibilities for this exist. Before speaking, I inquired with a representative of Glavbum [Main Administration of the Paper Industry]. He presented an accurate report regarding 339 district points, showing that in each of the district points there are printing possibilities, as well as a quantity of paper to print the briefest report. He calculated in such a way that the smallest of the district centers prints one printed sheet, of course, once a month. Once a month is excessively frequent. Whether you establish once every two months or four, or perhaps a longer period, will obviously be done based on indications from the localities. He assumes a number of one thousand copies and thus calculates that the required amount of paper is currently available. One thousand copies would ensure the possibility of presenting these reports to at least every district library, and, consequently, the possibility of familiarizing all those interested in them, and in particular the non-Party masses, with these reports. Of course, the matter will have to be put in the form of an experiment at first; it is, of course, impossible to guarantee that it will succeed immediately and that there will be no shortcomings.

In conclusion to my brief addition, I want to emphasize one thing. One of the most important tasks now is the broad involvement of non-Party members in the work and achieving that, in addition to Party members and, in any case, in addition to representatives of one's own department, as broad a mass of non-Party members as possible is interested in and involved in the work. It seemed to us that it is impossible to do this otherwise than by publishing reports, at least the more essential part of them. There are institutions that give extremely complete reports. Everything we have known so far on this issue proves that there are well-established local institutions. In any case, work in the localities constantly provides a lot of material for a sufficiently cheerful mood. What we really lack is the ability to widely use the best examples—we have few of them—to make them examples that are binding on everyone. In our organs of the press, there is no real promotion of truly exemplary institutions in the localities with practical experience. This printing of reports, turning them into accessible material for the broad masses of the population, and concentrating them in every, even district, library should serve to benefit from the proper gathering of non-Party conferences in order to draw broader masses into the work of economic construction. Many resolutions have been adopted on this. Something has been done here and there. On an all-Russian scale, however, it is undoubtedly far from sufficient. Meanwhile, in this way, we will tighten up the institutions and do what every more or less responsible worker in construction in the localities will have the opportunity to accurately and definitely bring his experience to the attention of the center under his signature and exhibit it as an example. This, perhaps, is what we lack most now.

As for how we will further organize the summary and study of these reports, their use at conferences, congresses, and by institutions—this will depend on further indications of experience. Now, the most important thing, based on the experience available to local workers, is to approve this decree and give the opportunity to test it in the form of an experiment, so that by the upcoming All-Russian Congress (approximately in

SPEECH ON LOCAL ECONOMIC BODIES
December of the current year), we would necessarily have some results that would show how this measure should be developed, improved, changed, and supplemented based on experience.

That is the brief addition with which I would like to limit myself for now.

Brief newspaper reports printed May 31, 1921 in "Pravda" No. 117 and "Izvestia VTSIK" No. 117

First printed in full in 1922 in the book "I-IV Sessions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the VIII Convocation. Verbatim Report." Moscow

Printed according to the text of the book