FROM A LETTER TO THE VChK AND NKPS
January 16, 1922
Secret

I was obliged recently to acquaint myself personally with the condition of the VChK motorized draisines, which are evidently under the joint administration of the VChK and NKPS. I consider it absolutely essential — for both the VChK and NKVoen — to have motorized draisines (I am told the VChK has 2) at the Moscow junction for very rapid errands, for dispatching small detachments (5–10 men) with the utmost urgency and secrecy, and so forth.

The condition in which I found the motorized draisines is worse than bad. Neglect, near-dereliction (a great deal has been stolen!), complete disorder, fuel evidently pilfered, kerosene mixed with water, engine performance unbearably poor, breakdowns at every minute on the road, movement utterly disgraceful, standing idle at stations, station chiefs entirely uninformed (apparently without the faintest notion that VChK motorized draisines are to be treated as priority special-category vehicles, to move with maximum speed — not in the sense of high running velocity, since these machines are evidently "Soviet," that is, very poor — but in the sense of minimum idle time and delay, with military punctuality) — chaos, slovenliness, unmitigated disgrace. Fortunately, traveling incognito in the draisine, I was able to hear, and did hear, candid and truthful accounts from the staff — none of the official, saccharine, mendacious variety — and from those accounts I could see that this was no isolated incident but that the entire organization is of the same unheard-of disgraceful character: total disintegration and utter incompetence.

For the first time I traveled on the railways not as a "dignitary" who sets everyone and everything in motion by the dozen with special telegrams, but as an unknown person traveling under VChK auspices, and my impression is hopelessly oppressive. If such is the state of a small special cog in the mechanism, one under the particular supervision of the VChK itself, I can well imagine what is going on in NKPS generally. The disintegration there must be beyond all belief.

I propose: that a responsible person be appointed immediately, by agreement between the VChK and NKPS (should NKVoen also be included, if it has motorized draisines?), someone closely acquainted with the actual work and not a dignitary. This person shall be held strictly accountable for negligence. A brief instruction on the VChK draisines — drafted in military fashion, covering their covert and rapid movement, maintenance in proper order, storage of fuel, movement without red tape on the Circular Railway, throughout the junction and everywhere, etc. etc. — shall be issued.

Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)