A letter from I. Stalin to V. Lenin. 1921

R.S.F.S.R.

People’s Commissar of the Workers’ and Peasant’ Inspection. 26/XI day 1921

#237/l.

Moscow, Povarskaya, 11.

tel. 3-01-71

C. Lenin!

We have a problem either with misunderstanding or thoughtlessness.

1) It is incorrect that “the Party has founded, in the name of the agitotdel, an organ of 185 people.” Going by the staff I have checked and the confirmation of the Orgburo, there are not 185, but 106 members (of those, 58 members are natsmen).

2) It is incorrect that by deducting the natsmen, 87 members are left who “will destroy” and so on. With

the same staff, there are not 87 left, but 48 people to work on agitation, propaganda and printing.

Comrade Krupskaya read a draft of C. Solovev, that I had not looked at and the Orgburo had not approved, and so decided that “a new commissariat is being formed.” C. Krupskaya went too fast.

3) Of the 48 people, 6 serve the central apparatus of the agitprom (the director and technical director),

6 people in the propaganda sub-department (with the same kind of relationship between the technical and managing workers), 11 people in the sub-department of agitation and 25 people in the provincial print depart- ment, plus editing Vestnik Agit, Izvestia TsK, a library dedicated to special literature for the gubkom. The other 58 people will work in 8 natsmen sections, serving no less than 30 thousand communists ([one illegible word—N.V.Z.] Finns, Jews, Tatars and so on), outside of the republic (speaking either little or no Russian). So, this is the “new commissariat” which got Lunacharsky so scared that he had “seen it all” (I must say I cut the number of natsmen in half, meaning that the number of workers in the agitprom did not increase, but decreased, compared with the earlier numbers).

4) As far as the “position” of the agitprom, I have reviewed in it in the last few days and given it to the Orgburo for approval, the agitprom a) will direct the agitation work of all Party organizations, collecting and sharing their experiences, b) control the agit-work of soviet and trade union institutions. Screams about the “destruction” of Glavpolitprosvet are completely unfounded. The point is that—the work of the agitprom is not limited to sending a member of the TsK to the Glavpolitprosvet. It is inadmissibly harmful to ignore the generalizing of experience of local party organizations and leadership of their agit work.

The roots of misunderstanding are in that c. Krupskaya (and Lunacharsky) read a “proposal” (draft), sent for the first time to the Orgburo, not yet looked over by me nor approved by the Orgburo (it will be approved Monday). She again rushed.

5) Your note addressed to me (at the Politburo), I understood that you posed a question about my leaving the agitprom. You must understand that the agitprom job was pushed on me (I did not push for it). Because of that, I should not resist leaving. But, if you raise the issue, especially now, in connection to the head- long misunderstanding, you will put yourself and me in an uncomfortable situation (Trotsky and others will think that you are doing this “because of Krupskaya,” that you demand a “sacrifice” and that I agree to be that “sacrifice” and so on), which is not desirable.

I think that if the Orgburo includes c. Krupskaya and myself (and maybe Lunacharsky) in its commission, then in that commission we can work out any misunderstandings and clear them up or come up with some sort of agreement. Without trying this, it is not worth posing it to the Orgburo.

I. Stalin

[Reserve 558, list 1, case 5195, sheet 2. The original was written by the hand of

I. Stalin.]

-----------------------------

Agitotdel—the Department of Agitation and Propaganda within the structure of the Communist Party. Orgburo—the organizational bureau of the TsK of the Bol- shevik party, the executive branch of the Party, founded in January of 1919. In 1952, was reorganized into the Secretariat of the TsK.

Natsmen—a shortened version of the Russian for “representatives of national minorities.” 

Solovev, Vladimir (1890–1939)—member of the RSDRP from 1913. Before the Revolu- tion was a copy editor for Pravda. In 1920, was a member of a commission to reorganize the narkompros, from 1921, was head of the Main Board of Political Education (Glavpolitprosvet); then a member of the college of the Agitpromot- del of the TsK of the party, entrusted in the dealings of the USSR and Afghanistan; head of the print department of the TsK of the party; adviser to the Chinese ambassador; director of the State Book Repository. Member of the RTsIK. Executed.

Krupskaya, Nadezhda (1869–1939)— wife of Lenin, member of the RSDRP. From 1898, lived in exile; worked as the secretary for the editorial staff of Iskra, Vpered, and Proletary. After the February Revolution, returned to Russia with Lenin and worked in the secretariat of the TsK. After October 1917, was a member of the narkompros college; from 1921, was the director of Glavpolitprosvet; from 1924, was a deputy of the narkom of education. Member of the TsK and TsKK of the party, member of the VTsIK and TsIK of the USSR, and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR’s first congress. 

Vestnik Agit.—Vestnik Agitat- sii i Propagandi, the journal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from September 1920 to 1922. The editor-in-chief was Nikolai Bukharin. Izvestiya TsK—a journal of the TsK of the party, published from 1919 to 1929. Was reorganized as the journal Party Structure. In the years of perestroika, its old title returned. Politburo—the Political Bureau of the TsK, founded in October 1917. It was made up of fifteen members and nine candidates. It was the highest ruling organ of the Communist Party, making it the de facto highest body in the USSR.