Continuation of Notes.

December 29, 1922 (To the Department on Increasing the Number of Members of the Central Committee)
In increasing the number of members of the Central Committee, I believe we must also—and perhaps above all—turn our attention to scrutinizing and improving our apparatus, which is utterly unfit for purpose. To this end, we must enlist the services of highly qualified specialists, and the task of securing these specialists should be entrusted to the RCP(b).
The question of how to integrate these knowledgeable, specialized inspectors with the newly elected members of the Central Committee must be resolved in a practical, concrete manner.
It seems to me that, as the RCP(b) has evolved—and as we have come to grapple with the uncertainties surrounding its development—it has ultimately given rise to what we are now witnessing: a transitional phase in which the role of the special People’s Commissariat is being superseded by the distinct function of Central Committee members; from an institution tasked with auditing everything and everyone, to a body composed of a relatively small number of first-rate auditors, who must be adequately compensated—this is especially crucial in our age of paid service, particularly under conditions where auditors are directly employed by those institutions that can best remunerate them.
If the number of Central Committee members is properly increased, and if they undergo, year after year, a course in state administration conducted by such highly skilled specialists and by Workers’ and Peasants’ Commissars who enjoy high prestige across all fields— (To the Department on Increasing the Number of Members of the Central Committee)
and if, moreover, they are assisted by no more than 400–500 aides who, acting under their direction, carry out inspections—then, I believe, we shall successfully resolve this task, which has eluded us for so long.
Thus, in the end, we should aim for no more than 100 members of the Central Committee, supplemented by no more than 400–500 assistants who, at their behest, conduct audits—members of the RCP(b).
Lenin
December 29, 1922

Recorded by M. V.
First published in 1956 in the journal “Communist,” No. 9

Printed from a secretary’s record (manuscript copy)