| Category | Template | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Text | Text |
| Author | Author | Author |
| Collection | Collection | Collection |
| Keywords | Keywords | Keywords |
| Subpage | Subpage | Subpage |
| Template | Form |
|---|---|
| BrowseTexts | BrowseTexts |
| BrowseAuthors | BrowseAuthors |
| BrowseLetters | BrowseLetters |
Letter to Leon Trotsky, December 13, 1922
| Author(s) | Lenin |
|---|---|
| Written | 13 December 1922 |
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, pages 601b-602a
Comrade Trotsky
Copy to Frumkin and Stomonyakov
I have received your comments on Krestinskyâs letter and Avanesovâs plans.[1] I think that you and I are in maximum agreement, and I believe that the State Planning Commission question, as presented in this case, rules out (or postpones) any discussion on whether the State Planning Commission needs to have any administrative rights.[2]
At any rate, it is my request that at the forthcoming plenum you should undertake the defence of our common standpoint on the unquestionable need to maintain and consolidate the foreign trade monopoly. Since the preceding plenum passed a decision in this respect which runs entirely counter to the foreign trade monopoly, and since there can be no concessions on this matter, I believe, as I say in my letter to Frumkin and Stomonyakov,[3] that in the event of our defeat on this question we must refer the question to a Party Congress. This will require a brief exposition of our differences before the Party group of the forthcoming Congress of Soviets.[4] If I have time, I shall write this, and I would be very glad if you did the same. Hesitation on this question is doing us unprecedented harm, and the negative arguments boil down entirely to accusations of shortcomings in the apparatus. But our apparatus is everywhere imperfect, and to abandon the monopoly because of an imperfect apparatus would be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Lenin
13/XIIâ22
- â A reference to L. D. Trotskyâs letter of December 12, 1922.
By âAvanesovâs plansâ Lenin means the âProposals of the CPC Commission of Inquiry into the Work of RSFSR Missions Abroad on the Question of the Slate Monopoly of Foreign Tradeâ.
Its main conclusion was that the foreign trade monopoly must not be abolished for both economic and political reasons, âeither fully or even in partâ (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU Central Committee). - â In his letter, L. D. Trotsky wrote that there was need for a flexible regulation of foreign trade, adapted to overall economic requirements, and said he believed it was the State Planning Commissionâs job to do this.
- â The letter has not been found.âEd.
- â A reference to the Tenth All-Russia Congress of Soviets.