V. I. Lenin

To The Presidium Of The Fifth All-Russia

Congress Of The Soviet Employees’ Union [1]

November 22, 1922

Dear Comrades, The primary, immediate task of the present day, and of the next few
years, is systematically to reduce the size and the cost of the Soviet
machinery of state by cutting down staffs, improving organisation,
eliminating red tape and bureaucracy, and by reducing unproductive
expenditure. In this field your union has a great deal of work before
it.

Wishing the Fifth All-Russia Congress of the Soviet Employees’
Union success and fruitful work, I hope that it will especially deal with
the question of the Soviet machinery of state.

V. Ulyanov (Lenin),

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars

Endnotes

[1] The
Fifth All-Russia Congress of the Soviet Employees' Union was held
in Moscow on November 16-21, 1922. Lenin was elected an honorary delegate to
the congress by the Sixth Tver Gubernia Congress of the Soviet Employees'
Union. Electing Lenin its honorary chairman, the Fifth All-Russia Congress
sent him a message of greetings.