Telegram to L.M. Kaganovich, August 19, 1931

Source: Tom 17

Moscow. CC VKP.

Kaganovich, for members of the Politburo.

Please distribute to the Politburo members my first telegram about grain warehouses for tea growers and tobacco growers, Mikoyan's reply, and the present telegram of mine, which constitutes a response to Mikoyan's telegram.

First. Point one of Mikoyan's telegram is calculated to mislead the CC. The three existing grain warehouses in Batumi, Sukhumi, and Poti are intended not for tobacco and tea growers but for urban consumers. Mikoyan could have cited, with equally dubious justification, the existence of grain warehouses in Tiflis or Baku. The CC adopted a special decision at the beginning of July to establish new grain warehouses for tea and tobacco growers precisely because the old warehouses are intended for other purposes. Mikoyan kept silent about all of this.

Second. The second point of Mikoyan's telegram is calculated to brush off the CC bureaucratically, hiding behind Rozit's "directive" and Mukhtarov's "official report" on the construction of new warehouses. But Mukhtarov is not a builder. And we know well from experience what "official reports" from such "builders," which have not even been verified by competent agencies, are worth. It is clear to me that a new violation of the CC decision is being prepared, for as is evident even from Mikoyan's smoothed-over telegram, not only will the construction and commissioning of the new warehouses not be completed by the end of the year, but even the selection of sites and the delivery of building materials will not be finished. This is what we call deception of the CC, covered up by references to "official" papers.

Third. From the third point of Mikoyan's telegram, it is evident that the bureaucratic self-importance of the People's Commissariat of Supply knows no bounds. We had an experience when the People's Commissariat of Supply spent four months counting its own grain reserves and still could not count them properly. After such a sorry experience, one ought to be more modest. But the People's Commissariat of Supply does not suffer from modesty, apparently counting on the CC's patience being limitless.

Fourth. I propose that the entire matter of constructing new grain warehouses for tea and tobacco growers in western Georgia be placed under the oversight of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, that people be sent to the localities, that the Transcaucasian Regional Committee be drawn into the work -- in particular Beria -- and that it be ensured that all new warehouses are built and commissioned no later than the beginning of November.

Stalin

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Source: Stalin and Kaganovich: Correspondence, 1931-1936, pp. 51-52.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 11. D. 76. L. 14-18.

Note: This concerns Mikoyan's telegram sent August 18, 1931, to Stalin and Kaganovich (in response to Stalin's letter of August 14): "Regarding grain warehouses in Western Georgia, I report: First -- in 1930, Soyuzkhleb built three warehouses with a total capacity of 760,000 poods, of which in Sukhumi 250,000 poods, commissioned October 10; in Batumi 210,000 poods, October 1; in Poti 300,000 poods, December 1, 1930. Second -- the CC resolution on the construction of warehouses in 1931 was adopted on July 10. On July 12, Soyuzkhleb, signed by deputy chairman Comrade Rozit, issued a directive to its Transcaucasian representative Mukhtarov on the construction of 10 warehouses for supplying tea and tobacco growers with a total capacity of 950,000 poods... Thus, first, it is untrue that no warehouses were built last year. Second, it is untrue that no warehouses are being built now. I am unable to establish who is deceiving the CC and why, but I can see the complete injustice and groundlessness of the attacks on the People's Commissariat of Supply."