The Life and Work of V.I. Lenin: 1921

V. I. Lenin

The Life and Work of V.I. Lenin

From Volume 32

1921

January, not later than 22	Lenin is on vacation and lives at Gorki near Moscow, travelling to the city to attend meetings of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.) and the Council of Labour and Defence.
January 4	Lenin presides at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.).
January 6	Lenin has a talk with a peasant delegate from the village of Modyonovo, Bogorodsk Volost, Moscow Gubernia, about a reduction of the food levies.
January 9	Lenin gives a report at a meeting of peasants in the village of Gorki, Moscow Gubernia, on the international and domestic position of the Soviet Republic.
January 11	Lenin cables instructions to gubernia executive committees, gubernia food committees and gubernia land departments concerning the establishment of local sowing committees and the conduct of the sowing campaign.
January 12	Lenin presides at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.).
January 14	Lenin takes part in drafting the decision of the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) on the role and tasks of the trade unions.
January 19	Lenin writes the article, “The Party Crisis”.
January 20	Lenin writes a letter to the factory and office workers of Proletarskaya Station on the Vladikavkaz Railway, who sent a delegation with wheat, barley and flour for the working people of Moscow. He gives them advice on how to organise their farming commune and establish correct relations with neighbouring peasants.
January 23	Lenin gives a report at a meeting of the Communist group of the Second All-Russia Congress of Miners on the role and tasks of the trade unions.
January 24	Lenin delivers the closing speech at a meeting of the Communist group of the Second All-Russia Congress of Miners about the role and tasks of the trade unions. Lenin meets Gorky to discuss ways of improving the living conditions of Academician Ivan Pavlov. Lenin signs a decision of the Council of People’s Commissars on the conditions ensuring the scientific work of Academician Pavlov and his associates.
January 25	Lenin completes the pamphlet, Once Again on the Trade Unions, the Current Situation and the Mistakes of Trotsky and Bukharin.
January 26	Lenin presides at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.), which approves a commission headed by Lenin to project the reorganisation of the People’s Commissariat for Education.
January 27	Lenin receives Gorky and a delegation of the Joint Council of Scientific Institutions and Institutions of Higher Learning of Petrograd to discuss the creation of conditions for research in the Soviet Republic.
January 29-February 2	Lenin chairs the commission to reorganise the People’s Commissariat for Education; writes the draft regulations of the Commissariat and the Central Committee’s Instructions to Communists working in the Commissariat.
January 31	Lenin issues a directive to Baku leaders concerning the organisation of fisheries on the Caspian Sea. Lenin is elected Chairman of the Grain Commission under the Council of Labour and Defence.
February 2	Lenin presides at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.), which examines the following questions: the theses for the Party’s Tenth Congress on the Chief Administration for Political Education and on propaganda and agitation work; aid to the peasantry hit by the crop failure; producers’ co-operatives, etc. Lenin writes a letter to the Marx and Engels Institute, asking what has been done about the collection of letters and all the published works of Marx and Engels.
February 4	Lenin addresses an enlarged conference of Moscow metalworkers. Lenin presides at a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence to discuss the following questions: the progress of army demobilisation; measures to speed up the manufacture of electrical ploughing implements and motors, etc.
February 5	Pravda carries the Party Central Committee’s Instructions, written by Lenin, to Communists working in the People’s Commissariat for Education in connection with its reorganisation. Lenin presides at a meeting of the Central Committee’s Political Bureau to discuss the theses on “The Party’s Immediate Tasks in the National Question” for the Party’s Tenth Congress; various aspects of the sowing campaign; the work of the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities, etc. Lenin heads a commission set up for the final editing of the theses.
February 6	Lenin speaks at the Fourth All-Russia Congress of Garment Workers on the international situation and the tasks of the trade union movement.
February 7	Lenin writes the article, “The Work of the People’s Commissariat for Education”. Lenin and other members of the commission edit the theses on the nationalities question for the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.).
February 8	Lenin writes the “Rough Draft of Theses Concerning the Peasants”. Lenin presides at a government meeting to discuss the question of the losses caused by the foreign military intervention and blockade.
February 12	Lenin sends the members of the Political Bureau a memo and material on oil concessions and the state of the oil industry. Lenin receives a Daghestan delegation and discusses the situation in the Daghestan Republic.
February 14	Lenin receives a peasant delegation from Tambov Gubernia and discusses the situation in the rural areas.
February 16	Lenin attends a meeting of the Moscow Committee with Party activists and gives a report on Party questions.
February 17	Lenin drafts a decision of the Council of Labour and Defence to set up a State Planning Commission and draws up a tentative list of its members.
February 19	Lenin presides at a discussion of questions for the forthcoming plenary session of the R.C.P.(B.) Central Committee at a session of the Central Committee’s Political Bureau.
February 21	Lenin writes the article, “Integrated Economic Plan”.
February 24-25	Lenin presides at a plenary meeting of the Party’s Centra Committee to discuss the following questions: the situation in Moscow; substitution of a tax in kind for the surplus appropriation system; oil concessions; fuel; operations of water transport; demobilisation of the army, etc.
February 25	Lenin visits the hostel of the All-Russia Art Studios and talks with students about art and literature.
February 26	Lenin addresses a Moscow Gubernia conference of working-class and peasant women. Lenin receives a Turkish delegation and discusses the conclusion of a treaty with Turkey.
February 27	Lenin’s message of greetings to the Fifth All-Ukraine Congress of Soviets is carried in the newspaper Kommunist (Kharkov).
February 28	Lenin presides at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party’s Central Committee to discuss the fuel question, the situation in Moscow and Petrograd, etc. Lenin speaks at a plenary meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies on the international and domestic position of the Soviet Republic. Lenin has a talk with peasants from Vladimir Gubernia on the situation in the countryside and the substitution of a tax in kind for the surplus appropriation system.
March 1	Lenin writes a letter to the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture on recruiting non-Party peasants with practical experience to help organise farming.
March 2	Lenin writes a letter to the Georgian Communists.
March 4	Lenin writes the article, “International Working Women’s Day”.
March 7	Lenin presides at a plenary meeting of the Party’s Central Committee to discuss the draft resolution on the substitution of a tax in kind for the surplus appropriation system. The Central Committee plenary meeting appoints Lenin chairman of a commission to draft the resolution for the Tenth Party Congress on the switch to the tax in kind.
March 8-16	Lenin presides at the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.).
March 8	Lenin delivers the opening speech at the Party’s Tenth Congress. Lenin is elected to the Congress Presidium. Lenin gives a report to the Congress on the political activity of the Party’s Central Committee.
March 9	Lenin delivers the summing-up speech on the Central Committee’s political activity.
March 12 and 13	Lenin attends closed sittings of the Congress to discuss the military question.
March 13 or 14	Lenin writes the Preliminary Draft Resolution of the Tenth Party Congress on Improving the Condition of Workers and Needy Peasants.
March 14	Lenin speaks at the Congress about the trade unions. A closed sitting of the Congress elects Lenin to the Party’s Central Committee.
March 14 or 15	Lenin writes the preliminary draft resolutions of the Congress on Party unity, and the anarchosyndicalist deviation in the Party.
March, not later than 15	Lenin writes the draft resolution of the Congress on co-operative societies.
March 15	Lenin gives a report and delivers the summing-up speech at the Congress on the introduction of the tax in kind.
March 16	Lenin gives a report and delivers the summing-up speech on Party unity and the anarcho-syndicalist deviation, and motions the draft resolutions on these questions. Lenin delivers a speech and motions a proposal on the fuel question. Lenin delivers the summing-up speech at the Tenth Party Congress.
March 17	Lenin’s directive to the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army on the establishment of contacts with the Revolutionary Committee of Georgia is published.
March, not later than 21	Lenin instructs the Petrograd Soviet to lift the state of siege in Petrograd and institute martial law.
March 22	Lenin has a talk with peasants from Ufa Uyezd and orders that they should each be issued a certificate testifying that he summoned them to Moscow to “discuss and give advice on an important matter relating to the peasant economy”.
March 24	Lenin cables all front and army district commanders, instructing them to take urgent measures to help the land agencies in the sowing campaign.
March 27	Lenin speaks at the All-Russia Congress of Transport Workers on the external and internal position of the Soviet Republic.
End of March-early April	Lenin works on the plan for his pamphlet, The Tax in Kind.
April 7	Lenin sends a telephone message congratulating the Trade Union Committee and the workers of the First State Motor Works on their production of motors.
April 9	Lenin cables G. K. Orjonikidze about the steps taken to help Armenia and gives instructions on a number of measures to revive economic activity in the Transcaucasus. Lenin has a talk with a delegate from the workers of Ivanovo-Voznesensk on the condition of the textile factories in the gubernia. Lenin gives a report on the tax in kind at a meeting of secretaries and responsible representatives of R.C.P.(B.) cells of Moscow City and Moscow Gubernia.
April 10	Lenin’s message of greetings to the conference of representatives of women’s departments of the Peoples of Soviet regions and republics in the East is published.
April 11	Lenin gives a report on concessions at a meeting of the Communist group of the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions.
April 14	Lenin writes a letter to the Communists of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Daghestan, and the Mountaineer Republic, instructing them on the consolidation and development of the Soviet power in the Caucasus. Lenin sends a message of greetings to a Petrograd city conference of non-Party workers.
April 18	Lenin gives instructions to G. K. Orjonikidze about the preservation of the Georgia State Bank, and the need to wage a most determined struggle against the counter-revolutionary activity of the Georgian Mensheviks.
April 21	Lenin completes his pamphlet, The Tax in Kind (The Significance of the New Policy and Its Conditions).
April 25	Lenin writes three speeches for recording on the tax in kind; concessions and the development of capitalism; and consumers’ and producers’ co-operative societies.
April 26	Lenin presides at a government meeting to discuss the questions of relationships between the Uzbeks and the Turkmens; the Karelian Labour Commune, etc.
End of April-early May	Lenin drafts a circular letter to the Party’s gubernia committees on their attitude to non-Party workers.
May 10	Lenin presides at a meeting of the Central Committee’s Political Bureau to discuss the question of collective supplies. Lenin presides at a government meeting to discuss the following questions: the state of workers’ inspection in the localities, and appointment of a representative of the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities to the “Narrow” Council of People’s Commissars. Lenin writes his remarks on the theses for the Third Congress of the Communist International worked out by a commission.
May 14	In a letter “To Comrade Krzhizhanovsky, the Presidium of the State Planning Commission”, Lenin outlines the principal questions for the drawing up of a nation-wide economic plan for the immediate period ahead.
May 18	On behalf of the Central Committee, Lenin speaks at a meeting of the Communist group of the Fourth All-Russia Congress of Trade Unions against the draft resolution motioned by the anarchosyndicalist group on the report of the Presidium of the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions at the Congress.
May 21	Lenin completes his draft of the Instructions from the Council of Labour and Defence to local Soviet bodies.
May 22	Lenin drafts the Political Bureau’s decision on the resolutions of the Communist group of the Fourth Congress of Trade Unions.
May 26-28	Lenin presides at the Tenth All-Russia Conference of the R.C.P.(B.).
May 26	Lenin delivers the opening speech at the Conference. Lenin is elected to the Presidium of the Conference. Lenin gives a report on the tax in kind.
May 27	Lenin delivers the summing-up speech on the tax in kind. Lenin delivers a report on the R.C.P.(B.) group of the Fourth Congress of Trade Unions.
May, not later than 28	Lenin drafts a resolution on the questions of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
May 28	Lenin speaks in support of the draft resolution on NEP. Lenin delivers the summing-up speech at the Conference.
May 30	Lenin speaks on the tasks of local economic organs at a sitting of the third session of the Eighth AllRussia Central Executive Committee.
May	Lenin writes several letters to a Deputy People’s Commissar for Education, requesting him to see what is being done to compile a dictionary of the Russian language (from Pushkin to Gorky).
June 5	Lenin instructs the Chairman of the State Commission for the Electrification of the R.S.F.S.R. to prepare material to acquaint delegates to the Third Congress of the Communist International with the electrification plan.
June 13	Lenin writes the theses of a report on the tactics of the R.C.P.(B.) to the Third Congress of the Communist International.
June 16	Lenin speaks on the New Economic Policy at the Third All-Russia Food Conference.
June 17	Lenin speaks at an enlarged meeting of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the situation within the French Communist Party.
June 22-July 12	Lenin guides the work of the Third Congress of the Communist International.
June 22	Lenin is elected Honorary Chairman of the Third Congress of the Communist International.
June 28	Lenin speaks at the Third Congress of the Communist International on the Italian question.
June-July	Lenin issues instructions to provide manpower and all the necessary materials for the construction of the Kashira Electric Power Station.
July 1	Lenin speaks at the Third Congress of the Communist International in defence of the tactics of the Communist International.
July 4	Lenin writes a letter, “Ideas About a State Economic ‘Plan’”, containing instructions to the State Planning Commission under the Council of Labour and Defence in connection with the drawing up of the state plan.
July 5	Lenin gives a report at the Third Congress of the Communist International on the tactics of the R.C.P.(B.)
July 6	Lenin cables the People’s Commissar for Food of the Ukraine, instructing him to take resolute steps to satisfy the needs of the Donets Basin.
July 11	Lenin speaks at a meeting of delegates to the Third Congress of the Communist International on revolutionary tactics.
July 13	Lenin takes a month’s holiday on the advice of his doctors and goes to Gorki.
July 16	Lenin writes a message of greetings to the Delegate Congress of Tsentrosoyuz.
July 18	Lenin writes a message of greetings to the First International Congress of Revolutionary Trade and Industrial Unions.
July 19	Lenin gives instructions to M. I. Kalinin on measures to help the starving people in the Volga area. Lenin presides at a government meeting to discuss assistance to gubernias hit by the crop failure and other questions.
July 20	Lenin writes a message of greetings to the peasants of Gorki on the occasion of the first use of electricity in their village.
August 2	Lenin writes to V. V. Adoratsky concerning the foreword to a collection of letters of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, and a book on the fundamentals of Marxism. Lenin writes an appeal to the international proletariat for help to the population of the areas in Soviet Russia hit by the crop failure. Lenin writes an appeal to the peasants of the Ukraine, asking them to help the workers and peasants of the Volga area hit by the crop failure.
August 5	Lenin writes a letter to G. Myasnikov, exposing the latter’s anti-Party and anti-working-class views.
August 1	Lenin writes a letter to the representative of the British Communist Party on the Executive Committee of the Communist International about the tasks of the British Communist Party.
August 1	Lenin writes a letter to the German Communists in connection with the forthcoming Congress of the United Communist Party of Germany, advising them to take guidance from the resolutions of the Third Congress of the Communist International.

From Volume 33

1921

August 16 and September 1	Lenin writes to the Central Statistical Board, instructing it on the organisation of current industrial and agricultural statistics.
August 20	Lenin writes the article “New Times and Old Mistakes in a New Guise”.
August 31	Lenin instructs the Commission for the Hydraulic Extraction of Peat to check up on the invention of an industrial method of dehydrating peat.
August-September	Lenin directs the preparations for the Eighth All-Russia Congress of Electrical Engineers.
August-December	Lenin instructs the Supreme Economic Council, the People’s Commissariat of Railways, the People’s Commissariat of Finance, the People’s Commissariat of Food and other People’s Commissariats to provide the Kashira and Volkhov power projects with labour and all the necessary materials.
September 1	Lenin writes a letter to Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn on the newspaper’s basic tasks in dealing with economic problems.
September 3	In a letter to the People’s Commissariat of Justice Lenin instructs it on measures to combat bureaucracy.
September 6	Lenin writes a letter to the Statistical Department of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.), instructing it how to keep an account of the distribution of leading Party cadres working in the Soviet apparatus.
September 15	Lenin submits to the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) a draft circular on the procedure of giving recommendations in connection with the Party purge.
September 19	Lenin talks with representatives of U.S. workers, who came to Russia with the purpose of rendering production and technical aid; he writes a letter to V. V. Kuibyshev, Secretary of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.), instructing him to organise a production colony for them in the Kuznetsk Basin.
September 20	Lenin writes the article “Purging the Party”.
September 27	Lenin writes the letter “Tasks of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection and How They Are to Be Understood and Fulfilled”.
September 30	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence commission on the supply of fuel to the railways. Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence, which discusses: the plan of distributing grain reserves for 1921-22; the measures to rehabilitate and develop the Donbas coal industry and the Baku and Grozny oil industries; land improvement at the state farms in Moscow Gubernia, and other questions.
October 4	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars, which discusses: measures to be taken to collect the tax in kind; the procedure and time-limit for putting the new ruble in circulation; the institution of the State Bank of the R.S.F.S.R., and other questions.
October 8	Lenin writes a greeting “To the Presidium of the Eighth All-Russia Congress of Electrical Engineers”. Lenin directs the work of the Plenary Meeting of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.), which discusses: the financial policy; commodity exchange and co-operatives; the Party purge; the registration of responsible workers and the procedure for their distribution (Lenin submits a draft proposal); the People’s Commissariat of Public Education; the Comintern; and the international situation. Lenin writes directives of the Political Bureau on giving factories in the Ukraine land for sowing sugar-beet.
October 14	Lenin writes the article “Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution”.
October 17	Lenin delivers a report on “The New Economic Policy and the Tasks of the Political Education Departments” to the Second All-Russia Congress of Political Education Departments. Lenin instructs the People’s Commissariat of Finance to prepare for a monetary reform.
October 21	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence, which discusses: Lenin’s draft “Atlas of Diagrams for the Council of Labour and Defence” with statistics on industry, agriculture, transport and so forth; a loan to the Azerbaijanian Soviet Republic for land improvement in Mugan; the Murmansk and Petrograd ports, and other questions.
October 22	Lenin witnesses the testing of an electric plough at the experiment farm of the Moscow Zootechnical Institute at Butyrsky Khutor.
October 24	Lenin sends N. A. Semashko, People’s Commissar of Public Health, directives on the procedure of holding a household sanitary week and demands exemplary cleanliness in Moscow.
October 29	Lenin reports on the New Economic Policy to the Seventh Moscow Gubernia Party Conference and delivers the closing speech.
November 3	Lenin instructs the Narrow Council of People’s Commissars urgently to examine the draft agreement with the Mongolian People’s Republic.
November 4	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence, which discusses: the work of the State Planning Commission departments on dividing Russia up into districts; the order for turbines for the Volkhov Power Station; the Kara Sea Expedition, and other questions.
November 5	Lenin writes the article “The Importance of Gold Now and After the Complete Victory of Socialism”. Lenin receives a delegation from the Mongolian People’s Republic.
November 6	Lenin speaks at a meeting of the Prokhorov Textile Mills workers held to mark the fourth anniversary of the October Revolution.
November 7	Lenin speaks at a meeting of working men and women, Red Army men an young people of Khamovniki District, Moscow, held to mark the fourth anniversary of the October Revolution. Lenin speaks at a workers’ meeting at the Elektrosila Plant No. 3 (formerly Dynamo Plant) held to mark the fourth anniversary of the October Revolution.
November 10	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars, which discusses: an improvement of the living conditions of scientists; the tariff policy, and other questions. Lenin receives Wilhelm Pieck and Fritz Heckert and discusses with them the situation in the German Communist Party.
November 16	Lenin writes the preface to the pamphlet “The Problem of the New Economic Policy”.
Not earlier than November 17	Lenin sends greetings to the Council of People’s Commissars of the Azerbaijanian Soviet Republic on the occasion of the opening of the Azerbaijanian State Bank.
November 18	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars, which discusses: the financial plan and the emission plan for 1922 (Lenin submits additions to the draft decision); the composition of the commission for the systematisation of legislation in the sphere of the New Economic Policy, and other questions. Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence, which discusses: the commissioning of the Kashira Power Station; the reserve food stocks, and other questions.
November 23	Lenin instructs the State Planning Commission to take steps to accelerate the building and commissioning of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Power Station.
November 25	Lenin presides over a meeting of the Council of Labour and Defence, which discusses: the mining, and gold and platinum industries; the switchover of the oil industry to a self-supporting basis; stepping up the work at the Urals and Siberian mines; supplies to miners in the Moscow Basin, and other questions.
November 28	Lenin writes a letter to A. D. Tsyurupa, setting forth a plan of work for the Deputy Chairmen of the Council of People’s Commissars and the Council of Labour and Defence.
November 29	Lenin speaks at the First Moscow Gubernia Agricultural Congress.
November 30	Lenin signs a decision of the Council of Labour and Defence on organising a tree seed fund to ensure the planting of forests, fixing sands and ravines and setting up snow-retention zones.
December 5	Lenin writes a letter (in English) to American comrades, requesting them to inform him of their opinion of his book New Data on the Laws Governing the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture. Part One, Capitalism and Agriculture in the United States of America and asking them to send him the official publication of the U.S. census for 1920.
December 6	Lenin writes a letter to Maxim Gorky, asking him to request Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells to take part in organising aid for the faminestricken in Russia. Lenin writes notes for the Comintern theses on a united front. Lenin is given sick leave and moves to Gorki, a suburb of Moscow.
December 11	Lenin writes the article “The Theses on the Agrarian Question Adopted by the Communist Party of France”.
December 16	Lenin instructs the People’s Commissar of Public Education to set up a commission to examine the question of organising a film industry in Russia.
December 17	Lenin begins writing a report on the work of the government to the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets, and asks the People’s Commissariats for the necessary reference materials.
December 19	Lenin writes a letter to members of the Political Bureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on purging the Party and on the conditions of admission into the Party.
December 22	Lenin suggests that the Political Bureau draw up a special resolution for the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets on the international situation.
December 23	Lenin delivers the report of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars on “The Home and Foreign Policy of the Republic” at the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets.
December 25	Lenin writes his “Instructions on Questions of Economic Activities”, which are adopted by the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets on December 28, 1921.
December 26	Lenin attends the conference of non-Party delegates to the Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets, makes notes of the speeches and replies to questions by the delegates.
December 27	Lenin writes a letter to the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on “British Labour Party Policy”.
December 28	Lenin attends a Plenary Meeting of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.).
December 30-January 4, 1922	Lenin writes a draft decision of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on “The Role and Functions of the Trade Unions Under the New Economic Policy”. The draft was endorsed by the Central Committee on January 12, 1922.
December 31	Lenin attends a meeting of the Political Bureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.). The Political Bureau passes a decision to grant Lenin six weeks’ leave as from January 1, 1922.