Written: Written on April SO, 1921
Published:
First published in 1932 in Lenin Miscellany XX.
Printed from a typewritten copy.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
page 137a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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30/IV.
Comrade Trotsky:
I have read Shatunovsky’s pamphlet, White Coal and Revolutionary Petrograd.[1]
Very weak. Nothing but rhetoric. Not the least bit of sound matter.
The only business-like hint is on page 15:
“Outstanding hydraulics specialists believe it will take no more than eight months to see the real fruits of this great endeavour.”
Who is a specialist? We have none (I have asked Krzhizhanovsky: there are none). Shatunovsky has undertaken to write of what he knows nothing about (that’s Krzhizhanovsky’s assessment). Apart from this unsubstantiated remark, there’s nil in the whole pamphlet.
Let Shatunovsky give proof and set out business proposals. Otherwise, the idle talk remains what it is.
Yours,
Lenin
[1] Lenin sent G. M. Krzhizhanovsky Y. M. Shatunovsky’s pamphlet on April 24, 1921. On the cover Lenin wrote: “Comrade Krzhizhanovsky! Your opinion? Return with your opinion. I shall send it to Zinoviev.” On p. 14, Lenin marked off these words: “To have electric power within a few months in order to start the remaining plants”, and made this remark: “This looks like the gist. How many mouths? How much power? Is this possible in practice?” On p. 15, Lenin marked off the author’s words about the opinion of hydraulics specialists arid wrote: “Which? When and where has this been printed?” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee.) On the question of possible measures to restore the economy of Petrograd, Lenin sent an inquiry to the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, G. Y. Zinoviev, on May 3 (see this volume, Document 147).
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