Date: 1922
Source: ru:PSS/v44

ON THE REORGANIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS, THE STAKHANOV MOVEMENT, AND THE SMALL COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS
LETTERS TO A. D. TSYURUPA
January 24, 1922.
Comrade Tsyurupa!
In light of our telephone conversation yesterday and your promise to strictly adhere to the prescribed regimen, we must have a thorough discussion about the entire system of work—and carefully reflect upon it.
The most fundamental flaw in the Council of People’s Commissars and the State Planning Commission is the lack of effective oversight and accountability. We are bogged down in a wretched bureaucratic quagmire: drafting endless papers, endlessly talking about decrees, endlessly writing decrees—and in this sea of paperwork, the living, vital work itself is drowned out.
Clever saboteurs deliberately drag us into this paper-based morass. Most people’s commissars and other high-ranking officials “walk into the noose” without even realizing it—unconsciously.
A strict therapeutic regimen must be instituted for you, one that ensures, at all costs, that you break free from the hustle and bustle, from committees, from endless talk and paperwork—break free, reflect on the system of work, and radically overhaul it.
The central focus of your work must be precisely this reorganization of our abhorrently bureaucratic operations: the fight against bureaucratism and red tape, the rigorous verification of implementation.
The primary and paramount task before you is to verify implementation— to ensure that what actually gets done aligns with what is decreed. To achieve this, you should establish a small apparatus (consisting of four to six individuals), composed of highly experienced and thoroughly vetted assistants—such as the head of administrative affairs, their deputies, the secretary, and others.

ON THE REORGANIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS, THE STATE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND THE SMALL COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS
To this end, I believe we must:
1) Lighten the workload of the Council of People’s Commissars and the State Planning Commission by transferring all minor matters to the Small Council of People’s Commissars and to the executive sessions of the State Planning Commission.
This has already begun. But if we do not closely monitor, vigorously push forward, rigorously inspect, and apply firm discipline, our cursed, Oblomovian habits will quickly undo these efforts within just two weeks.
The head of administrative affairs must be trained—just like the secretariat of the Council of People’s Commissars and the State Planning Commission—to vigilantly ensure that minor issues never reach the Council of People’s Commissars or the State Planning Commission; moreover, all matters must first pass through a threefold screening process: (a) requests are sent to the relevant people’s commissariats; (b) those commissariats provide prompt responses; (c) the codification department, and so forth—each step meticulously reviewed and scrutinized.
Together with Gorbunov, you must draft a written regulation governing the submission and processing of cases, and you yourself must review at least once a month whether this regulation is being followed, whether it is achieving its intended purpose—namely, reducing paperwork, curtailing red tape, fostering more deliberate deliberation, enhancing the personal accountability of people’s commissars, and replacing hastily drafted decrees with careful, prolonged, and practical checks on implementation, coupled with rigorous evaluation of past experience—and establishing clear personal responsibility (for we suffer from complete de facto irresponsibility at the highest levels, in the people’s commissariats, in their subordinate departments, and saboteurs exploit this situation to perfection; the result is an Oblomovian inertia that ultimately undermines the very work we seek to accomplish).
I know this will be exceedingly difficult. But precisely because it is difficult, you must devote yourself entirely to this task.
Therefore,
2) Limit the number of meetings. The standard should be one meeting per week for the Council of People’s Commissars, plus one two-hour session for the State Planning Commission.
3) Establish a Higher Economic Commission. Quickly close all of its subcommissions, replacing them with a formal requirement that each people’s commissar designate responsible officials who draft proposals, submit them for approval to the commissar himself, then swiftly bring them to consensus with all “interested” people’s commissariats—and finally present them to the State Planning Commission or the Council of People’s Commissars.
The codification department, plus one representative from the Small Council of People’s Commissars.

The Higher Economic Commission exists solely for the purposes of coordination (codification) and the briefest possible review (with a stamp of approval)—yours and Kamenev’s. That is all. It is not meant for endless debate or protracted discussions.
4) You must not participate in any commission whatsoever—absolutely none—except the Higher Economic Commission.
5) Combat the grotesque proliferation of commissions by replacing them with a formal requirement for written feedback within the shortest possible timeframe.
6) In this way, you must free yourself from the chaos and confusion that are destroying us all, and secure for yourself the opportunity to calmly reflect on the work as a whole—

— — — and, above all, to concentrate on verifying implementation, on combating bureaucratism and red tape. I urge you to give this matter careful thought and to write to me.
With comradely greetings, Lenin.
First published in incomplete form
January 16, 1927, in Krasnaya Gazeta, No. 14
First published in full in 1928 in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume VIII

Printed from manuscript
2
February 15, 1922, Comrade Tsyurupa!
I believe you are right.
We must obtain the consent of the Politburo and begin “streamlining” the 154th;
Approximately:
1) Composition: the five individuals you have named, plus two non-departmental members (Belov + ?) = 7.
2) Budget allocations, initially earmarked in the state budget for the People’s Commissariat for Finance and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection; only in the Small Council of People’s Commissars as a matter of appeal; the remainder, as you have proposed.

ON THE REORGANIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS, THE STATE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND THE SMALL COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS
After carefully reconsidering and putting these principles of streamlining the Small Council of People’s Commissars into writing, obtain the endorsement of the Chairman of the Small Council of People’s Commissars, submit these principles to the Politburo, and then swiftly develop them into a new set of regulations.
Perhaps we should further limit the number of commissions? Strengthen the role of actual, on-the-ground verification? Subordinate all work more directly to the deputy chairmen of the State Planning Commission?
With communist greetings,
Lenin
First published in 1945
in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume XXXV

Printed from manuscript
February 20.
Comrade Tsyurupa!
Let us continue discussing how to work in a new way.
I will attempt to formulate a program along these lines:
(1) Tenfold strengthen the Council of People’s Commissars and the State Planning Commission in such a way that people’s commissars no longer dare to drag trivial matters into these bodies—but instead resolve them themselves and bear personal responsibility for their outcomes; (2) Transform the administrative apparatus of the Council of People’s Commissars—currently idle three-quarters of the time—into the body responsible for overseeing this process and ensuring its proper execution; (3) Likewise, address the Small Council of People’s Commissars, and pursue its drastic reduction;
(4) Assign certain members of the Small Council of People’s Commissars and its administrative apparatus—as well as the administrative apparatus of the Council of People’s Commissars—to your direct command for the purpose of verifying actual implementation (you assign so-and-so: “Go there, take a look, read the documents, check the facts—your failure to act promptly will be held against you.”);
(5) Devote, above all else, one hour—or, if your health permits, two hours per day—to personally reviewing the work: summon not high-ranking officials, but rather members of collegial bodies and lower-level, line-of-business employees from the People’s Commissariats X, Y, Z—and examine their work, delve into its essence, train and educate them, and hold them accountable in earnest. Study the people, seek out skilled workers. This is the core task now; all orders and resolutions are nothing more than dirty scraps of paper without this kind of engagement.

Please respond to me. Let us reflect together, consult with the members of the Central Committee, and swiftly enshrine this (or some other) program in official policy.
Your Lenin
P.S. Bryukhanov is unfit for the job. We must find another candidate. For now, let us create a sort of “triumvirate” there—perhaps a stronger one.
Written February 20, 1922.
First published in 1928
in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume VIII

Printed from manuscript
Comrade Tsyurupa! I am sending my supplementary remarks. I recommend that by Thursday you gather brief feedback from all people’s commissars and all members of the Small Council of People’s Commissars.
Your Lenin
By a special additional resolution, it should be stipulated: The primary task of the Small Council of People’s Commissars must be the strict oversight of the people’s commissariats—ensuring that they: (1) abide by the laws; (2) do not evade responsibility by needlessly shifting a host of extraneous questions to the Small Council of People’s Commissars for resolution, but instead resolve matters themselves, under their own responsibility, or through mutual agreement between two or more people’s commissariats in accordance with established procedures; (3) verify the legality, expediency, and timeliness of individual directives and actions issued by the people’s commissariats; and combat bureaucratism and red tape through such verification—and through the steady reduction of the number of officials. 155
Written February 20–21, 1922.
First published in 1928
in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume VIII

Printed from manuscript
Comrade Tsyurupa! It seems we still harbor a fundamental disagreement. 156 According to my view, the key shift lies in moving the center of gravity away from drafting decrees and issuing orders (which, frankly,

ON THE REORGANIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS, THE STATE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND THE SMALL COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS
…to the point of absurdity) and toward selecting the right people and verifying implementation. That is where the real crux lies.
Is the Small Council of People’s Commissars unsuited for this task? Perhaps. Then you and Rykov must devote nine-tenths of your time to this endeavor (it is laughable to expect much more from the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection or from the administrative apparatus than the simple execution of routine assignments). All of us have become mired in the wretched bureaucratic swamp of “departmentalism.” What is needed is great authority, sharp intellect, and decisive action in the daily struggle against this scourge. Departments are worthless; decrees are worthless. The true solution lies in finding the right people and verifying their work. If you and Rykov devote nine-tenths of your time to this task—and make the administrative apparatus (and sometimes even members of the Small Council of People’s Commissars) your trusted assistants—then, perhaps, we can still turn things around.
Please send me the draft concerning the Small Council of People’s Commissars once again.
Lenin
Written February 21, 1922.
First published in 1928
in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume VIII

Printed from manuscript
A. D. Tsyurupa
Draft Directive on the Work of the State Planning Commission, the Council of People’s Commissars, and the Small Council of People’s Commissars
The chief shortcoming of these institutions is their overburdened focus on trivial matters. As a result, they sink deeper into bureaucratism rather than fighting against it.
The root causes of this malaise are as follows: 1) the weakness of the administrative apparatus; 2) the inability of people’s commissars to rise above the mire of petty details and bureaucratic minutiae; 3) the desire of people’s commissars—and even more so, of the bureaucrats in the departments who push them—to shift responsibility onto the Council of People’s Commissars; 4) and last but not least—the lack of awareness among those in charge that the pressing issue of the day has now become the fight against the sea of paperwork, the growing distrust of paper-based processes and of perpetual “reorganizations”—that the priority of the moment is not decrees, not reorganizations, but the selection of capable individuals; the establishment of individual accountability for the work undertaken;

the verification of actual performance. Otherwise, we will never escape the suffocating grip of bureaucratism and red tape.
The Small Council of People’s Commissars, the State Planning Commission, and the Council of People’s Commissars must strive with all their might to free themselves from the trivialities, training the people’s commissariats to resolve minor matters on their own and to assume greater responsibility for their outcomes.
The administrative apparatus of the Council of People’s Commissars must make the actual implementation of this goal its primary mission: reduce the number of cases handled by the Small Council of People’s Commissars, the State Planning Commission, and the Council of People’s Commissars; ensure that people’s commissars—individually and collectively—take greater responsibility for resolving matters themselves and for bearing the consequences of their decisions; shift the center of gravity toward the verification of actual implementation.
To this end, the deputy chairmen of the Council of People’s Commissars—Messrs. Rykov and Tsyurupa—must do everything in their power to free themselves from petty tasks and from unnecessary commissions; to resist the temptation to involve themselves in matters that ought to be resolved by the people’s commissariats themselves; to devote at least two to three hours a day to personally getting to know the responsible staff—not the high-ranking officials—of the most important (and later, of all) people’s commissariats, in order to verify and select the right personnel; to utilize the administrative apparatus of the Council of People’s Commissars, a portion of the members of the Small Council of People’s Commissars, as well as the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, to verify actual performance and assess its success; in short, to become practical instructors in state administration—precisely the kind of leaders we sorely lack.
Distrust of decrees, of institutions, of “reorganizations,” and of high-ranking officials—especially those who are communists; the fight against the mire of bureaucratism and red tape through the verification of individuals and the assessment of actual performance; the relentless expulsion of superfluous officials, the reduction of staffing levels, the removal of communists who fail to take the business of governance seriously—all of this must be the guiding principle for the people’s commissars and for the Council of People’s Commissars, its chairman, and its deputies.
Lenin
February 27.
Written February 27, 1922.
First published in 1928
in Lenin’s Collected Works, Volume VIII

Printed from manuscript