Letter to L.M. Kaganovich, August 25, 1931

Source: Tom 17

August 25

Greetings, Comrade Kaganovich!

I received your last letter yesterday. I gave my answer on the various questions in coded telegrams.

1) I think that the question of American orders is more acute than some comrades believe. It is not merely a matter of foreign currency shortages. The point is, above all, that if we do not abandon new orders for America on those draconian credit terms that America practices, we may lose the preferential terms we have secured in Germany, Italy, and England (and will secure in France). The comrades at the Supreme Council of the National Economy do not understand this. Of course, there may be exceptions, say, for Chelyabstroi or the military industry. But that is a separate question, subject to a Politburo decision in each individual case.

I have written about this to Comrade Ordzhonikidze.

2) I am not sure that the resolution on cooperatives needs to be published in the name of the Council of People's Commissars and the CC. Why could it not be issued in the name of the Commission of Execution? Furthermore, it would not be bad if you deferred the question until the end of the month, when I will already be in Sochi and will have the opportunity to speak with Molotov about the final text of the resolution.

Well, I shake your hand.

I. Stalin

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Source: Stalin and Kaganovich: Correspondence, 1931-1936, p. 65.

RGASPI. F. 81. Op. 3. D. 99. L. 4-6.