V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v54; en:CW/CW45;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Comrade Trotsky, copies to Frumkin and Stomonyakov

Comrade Trotsky,

I have received your comments on Krestinsky’s letter and on the plans of Avanesov.\(^{532}\) It seems to me that we are in maximum agreement, and I think that the question of the State Planning Commission in this formulation excludes (or postpones) the dispute as to whether the State Planning Commission needs administrative powers.\(^{533}\)

At all events, I would very much ask you to undertake at the forthcoming plenum the defence of our common point of view on the absolute necessity of preserving and strengthening the monopoly of foreign trade. Since the previous plenum adopted a decision on this matter which is entirely contrary to the monopoly of foreign trade, and since no concessions can be made on this question, I think, as I say in my letter to Frumkin and Stomonyakov,* that in the event of our being defeated on this question we shall have to bring the matter before the Party Congress. For this purpose a brief exposition of our differences will be needed before the Party group of the forthcoming Congress of Soviets.\(^{534}\) If I have time, I shall write one, and I should be very glad if you would do the same. Vacillation on this question does us incalculable harm, and the arguments against it are entirely reduced to accusations of the imperfection of the apparatus. But our apparatus is imperfect everywhere and anywhere, and to abandon the monopoly because of the imperfection of the apparatus would mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Lenin

December 13, 1922

Copies

* The letter has not been found. *Ed.*