Telegram to L.M. Kaganovich, August 21, 1931

Source: Tom 17

For Kaganovich.

I received your last undated letter on the twentieth.

First. The cotton procurement plan could be set at 34 million poods of fiber, of which Central Asia without Kazakhstan should account for no less than 28 million.

Second. Your target for the second five-year plan regarding pig iron is incorrect. The figure should have been not 25-30 million poods of pig iron, but 25 million. Ultra-left posturing, it seems, has not yet been overcome among our dear comrades.

Third. I sent my remarks on public catering. I will send remarks on cooperation once I have read the resolution.

Fourth. It seems to me that you have given the Supreme Council of the National Economy too much foreign currency on the American payments line. If you continue to act this way, there will be no end to the Supreme Council's grabbing. It is necessary right now and at all costs to cut to the maximum the payments and orders of all commissariats for America, paying no attention to the howling and hysteria. You will see that the commissariats will then find ways and means to satisfy their needs through European orders and our own domestic production.

Fifth. Send a CC brigade to Turkestan immediately, headed, say, by Unshlikht, to accelerate cotton procurement.

Sixth. Pravda is being run very poorly. The boastful articles about the "decisive" victory of the Chinese Red Army over Chiang Kai-shek's troops and about the "victories" of the revolutionary movement in India represent nothing but self-deception. Popov's interminable feuilletons could have been placed in Bolshevik, freeing the corresponding pages of Pravda for more valuable material. Call Popov to order.

Seventh. Communicate the Politburo's decision on grain warehouses in western Georgia.

Stalin

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Source: Stalin and Kaganovich: Correspondence, 1931-1936, p. 57.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 11. D. 76. L. 21-23.