Letter to Arkady Alsky, May 29, 1921

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29/V.1921.

Comrade Alsky:

I draw your attention to this report, which has been submitted to me by a comrade from the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission, who had been specially authorised by me, in agreement with Comrade Dzerzhinsky, I appointed the inquiry which has produced this report after a communication I had had from the most reliable Communists that things were not quite well at Gokhran.

Comrade Bokii’s communication fully confirms this.

I draw your most serious attention to this fact.

You, above all, and then all the members of the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Finance, and Comrade Basha especially, must devote ten times more work to Gokhran. Unless things are reorganised at Gokhran within the shortest period in such a way as absolutely to exclude the possibility of stealing, while at the same time accelerating all the work and enlarging its scale, the Deputy People’s Commissar and all the members of the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Finance will be faced not only with Party, but also with criminal charges.

Because of the delay in the Gokhran work (it is harder to work in winter and a great deal has to be done before it sets in), and because of the stealing there, the Republic is suffering vast losses, for precisely at this time, in these hard days, we must obtain the maximum of valuables quickly for commodity exchange with foreign countries.

It is necessary:

1) to organise regular and frequent conferences with Bokii for the earliest reorganisation of Gokhran;

2) to bring the protection and surveillance to perfection (special railings, wooden partitions; lockers or partitions for changing; surprise searches; systems of double and triple surprise check-ups in accordance with all the rules of the art of criminal investigation, etc., etc.);

3) to recruit, in case of necessity, dozens and hundreds of responsible and absolutely honest Communists in Moscow to participate (say, once a month or two months) in surprise, day and night, audits. The staffs and the inspectors must be given instructions in the minutest detail;

4) it shall be the duty of every member of the P.C.F. Collegium, without exception, to conduct in person, at least once a month, day and night surprise inspections of Gokhran, at the work places and wherever else stealing may occur. The Deputy People’s Commissar shall keep a personal secret register of these inspections.

In view of the secret character of this paper, I request you to return it to me at once, and to have all the members of the P.C.F. Collegium sign it in person.

29/V V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Chairman, CPC

(P.S. If Chutskayev is still here, let him read it as well: he bears a considerable part of the blame!)