Letter to An Unidentified Addressee, After March 16, 1920

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There is something we failed to do as regards locomotive repairs.

What about a commission of Central Committee men to hustle things and check up?

Or reports once a week?

Or something else?

Who is keeping an eye on this? Who is pushing things? No one.

Who has selected the best repair-shops? What results are there from the 200-pood bonus per locomotive?

What about putting Rozengolts personally in charge of this, perhaps plus someone else?

We’ve passed a decree and gone to sleep....[1]

  1. Lenin urged the need for intensified and uninterrupted work on locomotive repairs in view of the catastrophic state of railway transport, and this problem was repeatedly discussed by the Council of People’s Commissars and the Council of Defence. Thus, on February 5, 1920, the CPC heard a report by Krasin on special privileges for workers engaged in locomotive repairs and the production of spare parts for transport. On February 27, the Council of Defence discussed non-fulfilment by the People’s Commissariat for Food of the decree granting bonuses to workers who repaired trains in their spare time. On March 16, following a report by G. N. Melnichansky (Chairman of the Moscow Gubernia Council of Trade Unions), the CPC adopted a decision to organise locomotive repair in the best workshops, where work would be carried on in three shifts round the clock. At the same meeting the Council discussed a number of other measures for improving the state of the railway transport.