Published:
First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
pages 574b-575.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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Comrade Pyatakov:
Yesterday you spoke out, like myself, against the Urquhart concession. That is why I think you are able and will agree to check once again the matter of this concession (especially since our decision of yesterday in essence puts off the question once again).
It is my opinion that the check-up should deal mainly with the question of monopoly; that is the central point of the matter. Then there is the question of the financial benefits from the concession.
1) A map of the concession should be obtained at the Mining Council—I. K. Mikhailov (chairman of the commission which went to the place) says that he gave them the map.
2) There is need to compile a table: a list of the main, products; percentage of their production at our other plants (copper, zinc, and other products); where else they are produced, whether very far from the centre or nearer, etc.
3) Conclusion: in what branch, for what product Urquhart is to get a monopoly, its significance.
4) The chief of all the questions—Ekibastuz and its importance for the Urals.
I was very surprised at Bogdanov’s slip: “Kuzbas is nearer” (it is much farther), while Comrade Krzhizhanovsky said that I was adhering to Mendeleyev’s obsolete and rejected views. What is there to argue about when Ekibastuz has a branch-line running to the Irtysh, and provides much shorter and cheaper water transport to the Urals? What is the essence here?
If Kuzbas is much more expensive and distant (no
water transport), we have no right to let Urquhart have the
whole of Ekibastuz; he is welcome to take one-half.
Please show this letter only to Krzhizhanovsky; do not assign this check-up to anyone else; do it yourself (of course, any official will let you have all the statistical figures about the volume and place of extraction of zinc, copper, etc., without knowing what they are for); write me whether you undertake to do this, and how soon you expect to finish it.
With communist greetings,
Lenin
6.X.1922.
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