Dictated: Dictated by phone
Published:
First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI.
Printed from a typewritten copy.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
page 422a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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• README
Comrade Krzhizhanovsky, copy to Comrade Smolyaninov
I am sending on to you, for your information, G. B. Krasin’s opinion. This opinion confirms me in the view I wrote to you about yesterday.[1]1 fear that the convocation of a conference was a strategically incorrect measure on your part. It would have been more correct to demand an opinion in writing from the solid specialists numbering two or three, no more, for each of the three establishments (Gosplan, People’s Commissariat for Railways, and the S.E.C.’s Scientific and Technical Department). I believe the task is above all to “catch out” the scientists who have missed the foreign experience, as being idle and pedantic. I think neither Krasin’s opinion, nor this memo of mine should be shown to anyone. Unless your conference reaches an absolutely negative conclusion, then we should think about who should be assigned the immediate practical performance. Please phone me about this.[2]
27/XII-21
[1] A reference to the review by engineer G. B. Krasin of A. Belyakov’s article “New Ways of Reviving Railway Transport”, which was written at Lenin’s request (see this volume, Document 557). Krasin wrote that “the use of diesel locomotives could probably be highly fruitful” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee).
The letter addressed to G. M. Krzhizhanovsky on December 26, 1921, has not been found.
[2] On January 4, 1922, the C.L.D., having recognised that the introduction of diesel locomotives was of especial importance, instructed the Thermal Technical Institute, with the assistance of the Technical Committee of the People’s Commissariat for Railways and other establishments, to organise the outlining of projects and technical specifications for diesel locomotives and “to announce a competition for the best diesel locomotive design with the award of a prize....” By the same decision, the State Planning Commission, together with the Thermal Technical Institute and the People’s Commissariat for Railways, was instructed to work out, within ten days, “detailed terms for prizes and a competition for subsequent extensive publication of them in Russia and abroad” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C P.S.U. Central Committee).
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