V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v54;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Comrade Rykov

Copy to Comrade Tsyurupa

Copy to the Council of People’s Commissars Administrative Department

I draw your attention to the exceptional importance of the work on surveying the Kursk
magnetic anomaly. Comrade Krzhizhanovsky has informed me that, according to information from engineers with whom he has spoken, it is almost proved that we have there an unprecedentedly rich
deposit of pure iron. Comrade Martens considers this already proved. In three weeks he
intends to go to the site. We must discuss whether it would be advisable to send with him another engineer from the State Planning Commission, more familiar with Russian conditions and capable of verifying whether there is any exaggeration here 375.

In my opinion, no information about this should be given to the press and
measures should be taken to ensure that it is not mentioned in the press, for it is to be feared that
otherwise interventionist plans might be strengthened. For the same reason,
it would perhaps be better not to place Martens’ report either on the agenda of the Council of People’s Commissars or the Council of Labour and Defence, but
to hear this report only by both deputies, Bogdanov and some members of the Central Committee.

If Martens’ report and that of the engineer who will go with him from the State Planning Commission confirm the seriousness of this

* See present volume, Document 44. Ed.

G. M. KRZHIZHANOVSKY. APRIL 6, 1922

matter, then it will be necessary to secure the speediest possible conduct of the work, in no case stinting on necessary gold allocations and to establish special supervision to ensure that
the receipt of the necessary equipment from abroad (diamond drilling, boring and
the like) is carried out with maximum speed. I very much fear that this matter will be
handled without sufficient energy. Yet, according to both Krzhizhanovsky and
Martens, we have here almost certainly a wealth unprecedented in the world, which is capable of revolutionising the whole metallurgical industry*.

Lenin

Dictated by telephone

April 5, 1922