V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v53;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

4/VIII.

Comrade Frumkin!

The whole thing now, apparently, is the speedy collection of the tax in kind.

Should we not, in addition to what has been done, take some further steps of this kind:

1) strengthen the military units (in Moscow Gubernia use half the military cadets for this)*, i.e., send them off on food work?

2) the same, especially in Moscow Gubernia and the gubernias adjacent to it?

3) Feed these units (and the food detachments, now called, I think, something else: “militia assisting the collection of the tax in kind” or something of the sort?) at the expense of the local peasants—2 lbs. a day? 3 lbs. a day?

You don’t want this, comrade peasants? Hand over the grain tax more quickly. As soon as you have handed over 50-75%, we shall begin to withdraw them!

4) resolve (or, perhaps, instead of a “resolution”, carry it out as an experiment and as an example in Moscow Gubernia): immediately, by way of example and with the utmost severity, punish 10 of the richest peasants in each volost for delay, even the slightest, in paying the tax in kind, or for sluggish delivery of the tax in kind;
— — — also, by way of example, punish 1 volost in each uyezd, or 2-3 in each gubernia, for sluggish delivery of the tax in kind?

5) give a bonus for collecting 100% of the tax (grain) within 2-3 weeks. A bonus in what? In gold and silver articles. Take them from the State Depository.

6) mobilise another 2-3 hundred of the most responsible Party members in Moscow Gubernia for collecting the tax in kind, if only for raids (check-ups, pressure) two days a week?

With communist greetings, Lenin

P.S. I am writing to you, and not to Bryukhanov, in the hope that he has already gone on leave. If not, show it to him, of course.