Date: 1922-02-02
Source: ru:PSS/v54; en:CW/CW45

Source: PSS, Volume 54

TO THE POLITBURO OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RCP(b)

To Comrade Molotov, for the Politburo

Since Zinoviev insists that I carry out the mandate of the Executive Committee of the Comintern and deliver a

* See Collected Works, 5th ed., Volume 44, pp. 364–366. Ed.

report on the New Economic Policy at the expanded session of the Executive Committee of the Comintern on February 12—and since, as I have repeatedly stated to Zinoviev, I am categorically unable to fulfill this task due to illness*—I request that the Politburo adopt the following resolution:

1) Take note of Lenin’s statement that, owing to his ill health, he is in no position to carry out the Executive Committee’s mandate.

2) Instruct the Russian members of the Executive Committee to rescind the decision to assign Lenin the report.

3) Direct the same members of the Executive Committee to appoint Comrade Pyatakov as the rapporteur on this topic.

4) Require Pyatakov, no later than the coming Sunday, to prepare, first, detailed outlines of his forthcoming report, and second, a concise summary of the report, along with a compilation of the principal statistical data that will be presented therein—Pyatakov is to align his work with the theses that Lenin submitted to the Third Congress of the Comintern and that were, at the time, endorsed by the Party Central Committee**.

5) Charge Comrades Zinoviev, Bukharin, and Lenin with the final revision and editing of both Pyatakov’s theses and the draft outline of his report.

6) Assign Pyatakov to estimate the length of his report at approximately one hour, with a maximum of one and a half hours.

7) Task Comrade Pyatakov with presenting the most succinct yet essential figures that illustrate the successful development of industry and trade under the New Economic Policy and the profound significance of this development for the restoration of the Republic’s national economy.

8) Take note of Lenin’s declaration that, should his health permit, he will attend Pyatakov’s report and, following Pyatakov’s presentation, will take the floor to offer a brief supplementary remark or piece of information—not in the form of a formal report—258.

Lenin

Dictated over the telephone

February 2, 1922

First published,

from a typewritten copy

* See the present volume, Documents 232 and 245. Ed.

** See Collected Works, 5th ed., Volume 44, pp. 3–12. Ed.