V. I. Lenin

Letter to Molotov for the Plenary Meeting The C.C., R.C.P.(B.) With

The Plan Of The Political Report For The Eleventh Party Congress [1]

March 23, 1922

March 23, 1922

Comrade Molotov, Please will you convey to the Plenary Meeting of the Central
Committee:

1. My request to be excused from attending the Plenary Meeting
on account of ill health (I shall not be able to manage both
the sittings of the Plenary Meeting and the report at the
Congress).

2. If my presence at the Plenary Meeting is necessary to explain
the following plan of the report, I shall certainly come, and
could arrive within two or three hours of being summoned.

3. Plan of the Political Report of the Central Committee that I
propose to deliver at the Congress:

In the main repeat and in several points enlarge on what I said
in my speech at the Metalworkers’ Congress on March 6,
1922. Very briefly about Genoa. At somewhat greater length about
NEP and the concept of “state capitalism”.

Checking the (economic) retreat and the task of regrouping our
forces. The warning given us by the bourgeoisie as expressed by
the Smena Vekh writer Ustryalov, who said that
NEP was not the “tactics” but the “evolution” of Bolshevism.

What we lack most is culture, administrative ability. Illustrate this by a few examples. Economically and
politically NEP makes it fully possible for us to lay the
foundations of socialist economy. It is “only” a matter
of the cultural forces of the proletariat and of its vanguard.

What our revolution has won irrevocably and what still remains
undone.

The possibility of intervention. The danger of a financial
crisis. Take advantage of the “respite": concentrate on
choosing men and on executive control.

The gulf between the magnitude of the tasks already undertaken
and our material and cultural poverty.

Supplementary to the report, deal with the functions of the two
Deputy Chairmen of the Council of People’s Commissars and
of the Council of Labour and Defence; refer to my correspondence
on this subject with A. D. Tsyurupa beginning from the end of
January 1922; to the regulations we three (plus Rykov) are now
drafting on the reorganisation of this work and the need for the
maximum verification of fulfilment.

Relieve the Council of People’s Commissars of minor matters; demarcate its functions more precisely from those of
the Council of Labour and Defence and of the Narrow Council of
People’s Commissars. [2] Enhance the prestige of the Council of People’s Commissars by enlisting the
co-operation of leading comrades, the People’s Commissars,
and not only the Deputy Commissars.

In this connection and in conformity with Comrade
Kalinin’s repeated verbal statements and Comrade
Yenukidze’s written communication enclosed herewith, the
Central Committee should recommend that the Congress approve the
plan outlined above and the convocation of the All-Russia
Central Executive Committee for longer sessions than usual for
the purpose of discussing the main questions of legislation and
for a systematic review of the work of the People’s
Commissariats and of the Council of People’s
Commissars.

Lastly, it is necessary to delimit much more precisely the
functions of the Party (and of its Central Committee) from those
of the Soviet government; to increase the responsibility and
independence of Soviet officials and of Soviet government
institutions, leaving to the Party the general guidance of the
activities of all state bodies, without the present, too
frequent, irregular and often petty interference.

Draw up an appropriate resolution for endorsement by the Party
Congress.

4. I request that the Central Committee Plenary Meeting appoint
a supplementary rapporteur on behalf of the C.C., for my
report will be too general. Moreover, I am not quite certain
that I shall be able to deliver it. But the main thing is
that I am months behind the current work of the Political
Bureau.

With communist greetings, Lenin

Endnotes

[1]
This letter was discussed on March 25, 1922 at a Plenary Meeting
of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.), which endorsed the plan of the report
proposed by Lenin.

[2] The Narrow Council of People’s Commissars was organised in
December 1917. It had the rights of a commission of the Council
of People’s Commissals and its task was to relieve the
Council of People’s Commissars of minor affairs. Its decisions had to be endorsed by the Chairman of the Council of
People’s Commissars.