Published:
First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
pages 153b-154a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
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• README
24.V.1921
Comrade Bokii:
I have received your telephone message. Absolutely dissatisfied.[2]
That’s not right.
You must investigate the affair in detail and let me have precise information, and not just “a look and something”; you say “exaggerated” ... “it is impossible to stop the stealing altogether” (??!!)
It’s not a report, it’s an outrage.
1) Give me the names of all the persons responsible;
2) describe how the business is organised;
3) list the cases of stealing
all of them, precisely;
the time; the amount.
4) How many staffs altogether?
(their rough composition? working records? etc.)
5) What measures are being specifically taken there to
stop the stealing?
State measures precisely.
6) Give date of trial and state punishment imposed there (IV. 1920?)? List all cases of major trials. How many have been punished?
Inform me of your receipt of this and the date of fulfilment.[3]
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
Chairman, C.P.C.
[1] On the letter Lenin wrote: “To Fotieva: this is confidential, keep a copy.”—Ed.
[2] On May 16, 1921, a worker of Gokhran (State Depository of Valuables of the R.S.F.S.R.), Y. M. Yurovsky, told Lenin about cases of theft of valuables at Gokhran. Making a note of this, Lenin, the same day, instructed a member of the All-Russia Cheka Collegium, G. I. Bokii, to carry out a strict inquiry.
In a telephone message on May 23 (in reply to which, the present letter was written), Bokii alleged that Yurovsky’s information was highly exaggerated and that measures were being taken together with the All-Russia Cheka to bring the stealing at Gokhran down to a minimum. Lenin’s remark on the telephone message says: “Give me a reminder.”
Lenin subsequently returned to the matter repeatedly (see this volume, Documents 180, 205, 216 and 221, and Lenin Miscellany XXXVI, pp. 288, 298, 370, 403–05).
[3] On May 28, 1921, G. I. Bokii submitted to Lenin a detailed report about the state of affairs at Gokhran—the personnel, structure, cases of stealing and a list of court cases at Gokhran. The report proposed some measures to improve the work and prevent stealing. On May 29, Lenin sent this report, together with his covering letter, to Deputy People’s Commissar for Finance, A. O. Alsky (see this volume, Document 180).
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