Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

124

To: G. L. PYATAKOV

Written: Written on April 14, 1921
Published: First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, page 121^a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
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14/IV.

Comrade Pyatakov:

I am sending you (secretlyand not for the press, by any means) material on the concessions. This is an answer to your questions.

You will see how we are conducting the concessions policy.

Concerning the Donbas we are awaitingthe results of your work. I took the plus 10 per cent to mean over and above 600million, as a programme,^[1] and not “over and above”... the earlier figure!

“If I had the grain, I would....” Aren’t you ashamed to repeat these cliches? Of course, if someone gaveit to you....

No, sir, you will have to hustle and get everything yourself: the salt, and grain for the salt, etc.

We need initiative, drive, local commerce, and not begging: if someone gave it to me.... Shame!

Salut! Lenin

Notes

[1] The Eighth Congress of Soviets, held front December 22 to 29, 1920, approved a 600 million pood plan for the extraction of coal in Donbas in 1921.