**LETTER TO THE SECRETARY**  
March 7, 1922  
Comrade Glasser! The work of drafting the speech this time is much better than the previous ones, but it is still poor. Compare the initial text and the one I corrected more carefully.*  
*  
The reference is to the transcript of the report "On the International and Internal Situation of the Soviet Republic," delivered by V. I. Lenin at the Communist faction of the All-Russian Congress of Metalworkers on March 6, 1922 (Works, Volume XXVII, pp. 168–179).  
Lenin Collection XXXV  

The speechwriter must not leave nonsensical or glaringly inappropriate gaps. The speechwriter should be able to fill them with 2–3 words so that the connection is always maintained. Do not hesitate to sometimes switch from the first person to the third person (("the speaker, having touched on this or repeated that, then said": (back to the first person))). Experienced and skilled speechwriters always use stenographic records as material, not hesitating to present some parts in the first person and others in the third, without chasing the ridiculous pretension (everything in the first person, everything complete), which is both laughable and harmful.  
Lenin