V. I.   Lenin

7

^[1] TO THE INVENTIONS SECTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE SUPREME ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Published: First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 52. Printed from a typewritten copy.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, pages 50^b-51^a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. • README

Please answer the following questions:

1. How many claims to inventions have been examined since the section has been set up, and how many are outstanding at present?

2. How many 1) have been recognised as useful, 2) applied in practice (list the major ones)?

3. What is the order and time allotted to the examination of every invention and the further dispatch of the claim?

4. Is it possible for any institution to put through an invention without the conclusion of the Inventions Section of the Scientific and Technical Department?

5. Does the Inventions Section of the Scientific and Technical Department know about 

a) the invention of a sole leather substitute made by Baryshnikov; if yes, what has been done about it, 

b) the invention^[2]

Who is at the head of the Inventions Section?^[3]

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

13/XI-20

Notes

[1] Here and elsewhere such an asterisk denotes headings given in the original.—Ed.

[2] An apparent omission in the typewritten copy.—Ed.

[3] Lenin received a detailed official reply to all his questions from the Inventions Committee of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Economic Council on November 20, 1920. Appended were: 1) a record of the inventions examined by the Committee’s sections, 2) the major inventions recognised as useful and partially applied, 3) a list of inventions deserving government attention, 4) preliminary opinion of expert F. Blistanov on the leather substitute invented by engineer A. A. Baryshnikov, 5) the Committee’s report as of November 1, 1920, 6) information about V. A. Petrov, military engineer and technologist, chairman of the Technical Department.

At the same time, Lenin received an additional report from A. K. Kaufman, member of the Committee Collegium, who dealt with the shortcomings in the Committee’s work and their causes.